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How REO Speedwagon Made ‘Take It on the Run’: The Late-Night Rumor That Became a Top Five Hit
It opens with the most famous chain of whispers in rock: a man repeating, secondhand and thirdhand, the worst news of his life. Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another you’ve been messin’ around. “Take It on the Run” does not begin with a declaration or…
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The Day Johnny Cash Walked Into Folsom Prison — The Concert That Saved His Life
The Day Johnny Cash Walked Into Folsom Prison: The Concert That Saved His Life On the morning of January 13, 1968, a thin, hollow-eyed man in a black suit walked through the granite gates of Folsom State Prison in California with a guitar in his hand and very nearly nothing left to lose. He had…
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The Night James Brown Saved Boston
The Night James Brown Saved Boston On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Within hours, America was on fire. In Washington, D.C., flames would consume whole blocks. In Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, and more than a hundred…
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How Bobby Darin Made ‘Mack the Knife’: The Swinging Gamble That Made Him a Star
Some songs are gambles. “Mack the Knife” was one of the biggest gambles in pop history: a dark, German cabaret song about a murderer, recorded by a twenty-three-year-old teen idol who had just had a hit with a novelty song about splashing in a bathtub. It should not have worked. Instead, it became Bobby Darin’s…
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Bobby Darin: The Heart Behind the Hits
Behind Bobby Darin’s confident smile and his swinging, effortless performances was a young man who knew he might not live long, who loved fiercely, who worked relentlessly, and who hid a family secret that shaped his identity. His hits sound carefree, but they were made by a man who understood urgency, loss, and the need…
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The Untold Story of Bobby Darin: The Restless Star Who Refused to Stand Still
Some stars are content to find one sound and stay with it. Bobby Darin was not one of them. In a career cut tragically short, he moved from teenage rock-and-roll idol to swinging jazz crooner, from folk protest singer to country storyteller, and he did it all with a restless energy, a sharp intelligence, and…
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How Connie Francis Made ‘Where the Boys Are’: The Song That Became a Summer Anthem
Some songs are tied to a season so closely that hearing the first notes is like feeling sunshine on your face. “Where the Boys Are” is such a song. For Connie Francis, it was more than a hit; it was the title song of a film, an anthem for a generation of young people on…
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Connie Francis: The Heart Behind the Hits
Behind Connie Francis’s bright, confident voice was a woman who knew both great joy and great pain, and who sang about both with a honesty that made listeners feel less alone. Her hits sound effortless, but they were shaped by a close, sometimes complicated family, by early fame, by love and loss, and by a…
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The Untold Story of Connie Francis: The Voice That Carried a Generation’s Heart
There are singers who sing a song, and there are singers who become the song, who make you feel as if the words were written for your own heart. Connie Francis was the second kind. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was the most popular female singer in America, a voice that could…
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How Brenda Lee Made ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’: A Christmas Classic Recorded by a Teenager
Every December, without fail, a bright, swinging voice bursts from radios, shops, and car stereos, inviting everyone to rock around the Christmas tree. It is Brenda Lee, and she was thirteen years old when she recorded it. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is now one of the most beloved Christmas songs in the world, a…