# Past Tunes Blog

> Timeless Music, Unforgettable Stories


## Posts

- [The Untold Story of Rod Stewart: The Raspy-Voiced Survivor Who Reinvented Himself Again and Again](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-rod-stewart-the-raspy-voiced-survivor-who-reinvented-himself-again-and-again/): Few careers in rock and roll have been as long, as winding, and as flat-out fun as Rod Stewart's.
- [The Untold Story of Linda Ronstadt: The Voice That Could Sing Anything](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-linda-ronstadt-the-voice-that-could-sing-anything/): Ask almost anyone who loves the music of the seventies to name the greatest female voice of the era, and one name comes back again and again: Linda Ronstadt.
- [The Untold Story of Jackson Browne: The Reluctant Poet Who Sang the Seventies Back to Itself](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-jackson-browne-the-reluctant-poet-who-sang-the-seventies-back-to-itself/): There are voices that seem to belong to the California hills themselves, and for more than five decades, Jackson Browne's has been one of them.
- [The Untold Story of Bob Seger: Rock and Roll's Hardest-Working Underdog](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bob-seger-rock-and-rolls-hardest-working-underdog/): Nobody paid more dues than Bob Seger. For more than a decade, he was the most famous rock star in Michigan — and practically unknown everywhere else.
- [The Untold Story of Roberta Flack: The Quiet Storm That Became a Hurricane](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-roberta-flack-the-quiet-storm-that-became-a-hurricane/): Roberta Flack never had to shout.
- [The Untold Story of Carole King: The Hitmaker Who Finally Sang Her Own Songs](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-carole-king-the-hitmaker-who-finally-sang-her-own-songs/): Before Carole King ever sat at a piano on a stage with her name on the marquee, she was already one of the most important people in American pop music.
- [The Untold Story of Chaka Khan: The Woman of Fire Who Became the Queen of Funk](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-chaka-khan-the-woman-of-fire-who-became-the-queen-of-funk/): Before she was the Queen of Funk, she was Yvette Marie Stevens — a kid from Chicago's South Side with a powerhouse voice and a name that hadn't found her yet.
- [The Untold Story of James Brown: The Hardest-Working Man Who Invented Funk](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-james-brown-the-hardest-working-man-who-invented-funk/): They called him the Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, Soul Brother No.
- [The Untold Story of Barry White: The Walrus of Love Who Turned Romance Into an Orchestra](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-barry-white-the-walrus-of-love-who-turned-romance-into-an-orchestra/): He was the voice you turned down the lights to.
- [The Untold Story of Al Green: The Reverend of Soul](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-al-green-the-reverend-of-soul/): They call him the Reverend, and it is not a nickname. Al Green really is an ordained minister who preaches every Sunday at his own church in Memphis.
- [The Untold Story of Eurythmics: The Broken-Up Couple Who Invented the Eighties](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-eurythmics-the-broken-up-couple-who-invented-the-eighties/): Some of the greatest pop partnerships in history were couples. Some of the most combustible were ex-couples. Eurythmics were both, in that order.
- [The Untold Story of Genesis: The Band That Was Really Two Bands](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-genesis-the-band-that-was-really-two-bands/): There is a running joke among Genesis fans that the band's career is really two careers stapled together under one name. And the joke exists because it is true.
- [The Untold Story of Bon Jovi: How a Bunch of Jersey Kids Conquered the World's Arenas](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bon-jovi-how-a-bunch-of-jersey-kids-conquered-the-worlds-arenas/): They were just kids from the Jersey Shore with big hair, bigger choruses, and an even bigger dream.
- [The Untold Story of Janet Jackson: How She Took Control and Changed Pop Forever](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-janet-jackson-how-she-took-control-and-changed-pop-forever/): It is hard to imagine a tougher act to follow than the Jackson family.
- [The Untold Story of Gloria Gaynor: The B-Side Nobody Wanted That Became the World's Anthem](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-gloria-gaynor-the-b-side-nobody-wanted-that-became-the-worlds-anthem/): Some songs sell millions of records. A rare few outlive their era, their genre, and even the singers who made them famous.
- [The Untold Story of Waylon Jennings: The Outlaw Who Stole Country Music Back](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-waylon-jennings-the-outlaw-who-stole-country-music-back/): If country music in the 1970s had a rebel flag, it would have been flying from Waylon Jennings' guitar.
- [The Untold Story of Johnny Cash: The Man in Black Who Sang for the Forgotten](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-johnny-cash-the-man-in-black-who-sang-for-the-forgotten/): Johnny Cash was never just a singer.
- [The Untold Story of Van Morrison: The Belfast Poet Who Refused to Be a Pop Star](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-van-morrison-the-belfast-poet-who-refused-to-be-a-pop-star/): Some artists chase fame. Van Morrison never did — he ran from it, in fact, and somehow became one of the most beloved singers of the last sixty years anyway.
- [The Untold Story of Neil Young: The Restless Spirit Who Ran From Success and Found Immortality](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-neil-young-the-restless-spirit-who-ran-from-success-and-found-immortality/): Most rock stars spend their careers chasing a hit. Neil Young spent his running away from one.
- [The Untold Story of Eric Clapton: From "Clapton Is God" to the Gentlest Giant in Rock](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-eric-clapton-from-clapton-is-god-to-the-gentlest-giant-in-rock/): There is a moment in every guitar legend's life when the world decides who they are.
- [The Untold Story of Black Sabbath: How Four Working-Class Boys from Birmingham Invented Heavy Metal](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-black-sabbath-how-four-working-class-boys-from-birmingham-invented-heavy-metal/): Nobody sat down in 1968 and decided to invent heavy metal. That is exactly what makes the Black Sabbath story so wonderful.
- [The Untold Story of Deep Purple: From Montreux's Flames to Rock Immortality](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-deep-purple-from-montreuxs-flames-to-rock-immortality/): Ask a thousand guitarists to name the first riff they ever learned, and most of them will give you the same answer.
- [The Untold Story of Lynyrd Skynyrd: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Sound of the South](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-lynyrd-skynyrd-triumph-tragedy-and-the-sound-of-the-south/): Some bands write history.
- [The Untold Story of ZZ Top: The Little Ol' Band That Outlasted Everybody](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-zz-top-the-little-ol-band-that-outlasted-everybody/): They called themselves that little ol' band from Texas, and for more than half a century they lived up to the name in the most improbable way: the same three men, playing the same gritty blues-boogie, without a single lineup change until fate finally stepped in.
- [The Untold Story of Pat Benatar: The Opera Singer Who Set Rock on Fire](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-pat-benatar-the-opera-singer-who-set-rock-on-fire/): She was supposed to sing opera.
- [The Untold Story of Heart: The Wilson Sisters Who Rocked Harder Than the Boys](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-heart-the-wilson-sisters-who-rocked-harder-than-the-boys/): In the mid-1970s, hard rock was a boys' club.
- [The Untold Story of The Beach Boys: From a Hawthorne Garage to the Heights of Pop Genius](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-beach-boys-from-a-hawthorne-garage-to-the-heights-of-pop-genius/): If you close your eyes and think of the 1960s, chances are you'll hear them: those impossibly sunny harmonies, the engines of hot rods, the crash of Pacific waves.
- [The Untold Story of The Temptations: Motown's Kings of Harmony, Style, and Heartbreak](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-temptations-motowns-kings-of-harmony-style-and-heartbreak/): No group embodied the magic of Motown quite like The Temptations.
- [The Untold Story of U2: How Four Dublin Schoolboys Became the Biggest Band on Earth](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-u2-how-four-dublin-schoolboys-became-the-biggest-band-on-earth/): In the entire history of rock and roll, almost no band has kept the same four members from school days to superstardom. The Beatles didn't. The Stones didn't.
- [The Untold Story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: The Florida Band That Refused to Play by the Rules](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-the-florida-band-that-refused-to-play-by-the-rules/): Some bands burn bright and flame out. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did something rarer: they stayed true, stayed together, and stayed great for four decades.
- [The Untold Story of How Queen Created "Bohemian Rhapsody," the Six-Minute Single Nobody Wanted to Release](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-how-queen-created-bohemian-rhapsody-the-six-minute-single-nobody-wanted-to-release/): In the autumn of 1975, the British music business ran on a simple rule. A single had to be short, catchy, and easy to slot between the adverts.
- [The Untold Story of Willie Nelson: The $50 Song, the Burning House, and the Outlaw Who Outlasted Everyone](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-willie-nelson-the-50-song-the-burning-house-and-the-outlaw-who-outlasted-everyone/): Willie Nelson has been famous for so long that it's easy to forget how strange his journey was.
- [The Untold Story of the Commodores: The Dictionary, the Ballads, and the Funkiest Band in Tuskegee](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-commodores-the-dictionary-the-ballads-and-the-funkiest-band-in-tuskegee/): They were the funkiest band to ever wear tuxedos — and the smoothest band to ever play funk.
- [The Untold Story of Steely Dan: The Perfectionists Who Named Their Band After a Sex Toy](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-steely-dan-the-perfectionists-who-named-their-band-after-a-sex-toy/): They were the unlikeliest rock stars of the 1970s: two sardonic, chain-smoking studio rats who hated touring, fired their own band, and treated hit records like math problems.
- [The Untold Story of The Clash: The Chaos, the Genius, and the Band That Refused to Play It Safe](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-clash-the-chaos-the-genius-and-the-band-that-refused-to-play-it-safe/): They were billed as "The Only Band That Matters," and for a furious, brilliant stretch of the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was hard to argue.
- [The Untold Story of AC/DC: Thunder From Down Under, Forged in Loss](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-ac-dc-thunder-from-down-under-forged-in-loss/): For fifty years, AC/DC has done essentially one thing — played thunderous, three-chord rock and roll at maximum voltage — and done it better than anyone on earth.
- [The Untold Story of Talking Heads: Art School, Big Suits, and an Ugly Goodbye](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-talking-heads-art-school-big-suits-and-an-ugly-goodbye/): No band ever looked less like rock stars and changed rock more.
- [The Untold Story of Dire Straits: The Reluctant Superstars Who Walked Away](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-dire-straits-the-reluctant-superstars-who-walked-away/): Dire Straits never wanted to be the biggest band in the world.
- [The Untold Story of The Police: Three Alphas, One Legendary Implosion](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-police-three-alphas-one-legendary-implosion/): They were the biggest band on the planet for about five minutes in 1983, and they spent those five minutes barely able to stand being in the same room.
- [The Untold Story of Bob Marley & The Wailers: From Trenchtown to Immortality](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bob-marley-the-wailers-from-trenchtown-to-immortality/): By the summer of 1980, Bob Marley was the most famous Jamaican who had ever lived, and arguably the most beloved musical prophet of the twentieth century.
- [The Untold Story of the Bee Gees: The Brothers Who Survived Everything (Except Disco)](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-bee-gees-the-brothers-who-survived-everything-except-disco/): They were supposed to be a footnote.
- [The Untold Story of Paul Simon: The Perfectionist Who Rewrote the Rules](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-paul-simon-the-perfectionist-who-rewrote-the-rules/): Paul Simon is the rare songwriter whose throwaway lines became other people's tattoos.
- [The Untold Story of Anita Baker: The Voice That Refused to Be Tamed](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-anita-baker-the-voice-that-refused-to-be-tamed/): Anita Baker sang like she had all the time in the world — and then, at the height of her fame, she took it.
- [The Untold Story of Luther Vandross: From Sesame Street to the Velvet Voice of a Generation](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-luther-vandross-from-sesame-street-to-the-velvet-voice-of-a-generation/): Before he was the velvet voice of romance, before the eight Grammys and the eleven straight platinum albums, Luther Vandross was a teenager from the Alfred E.
- [The Untold Story of Kenny Loggins: The Soundtrack King Who Almost Said No to the Danger Zone](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kenny-loggins-the-soundtrack-king-who-almost-said-no-to-the-danger-zone/): He is the voice that taught a generation to cut loose on the dance floor, to feel all right on the golf course, and to fly straight into the danger zone.
- [The Untold Story of the Doobie Brothers: The Joke Name That Sold 40 Million Records](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-doobie-brothers-the-joke-name-that-sold-40-million-records/): No band in rock history has done more with a worse name. The Doobie Brothers weren't brothers, and nobody in the original lineup was named Doobie.
- [The Untold Story of Toto: The Session Wizards Who Accidentally Became Rock Stars](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-toto-the-session-wizards-who-accidentally-became-rock-stars/): Toto is the great paradox of rock history: a band of studio musicians so talented that half the records you love from the 1970s already had their fingerprints on them — who then became superstars almost by accident, won six Grammys in a single night, lost their drummer in one of the strangest deaths in rock, and watched their biggest song become a billion-view internet meme forty years later.
- [The Untold Story of Foreigner: Six Strangers, a Midnight Sax Solo, and the Ballad That Wouldn't Die](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-foreigner-six-strangers-a-midnight-sax-solo-and-the-ballad-that-wouldnt-die/): Foreigner sold more than 80 million records with a formula that should not have worked: three Brits and three Americans who could barely agree on anything except the hooks.
- [The Untold Story of Dionne Warwick: The Typo, the Astrologer, and the Voice That Outlasted Them All](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-dionne-warwick-the-typo-the-astrologer-and-the-voice-that-outlasted-them-all/): Dionne Warwick has lived about nine lives in show business, and nearly every one of them turned on something absurd: a printer's typo that became her name, an astrologer's advice that nearly sank her career, a B-side that became a signature, and a lipstick container that got her arrested.
- [The Untold Story of Bette Midler: From a Steamy Bathhouse Basement to the Kennedy Center Honors](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bette-midler-from-a-steamy-bathhouse-basement-to-the-kennedy-center-honors/): Before she was the Divine Miss M — before the Grammys, the Golden Globes, the Tony Awards, and the Kennedy Center Honors — Bette Midler was a girl from Honolulu singing her heart out in a basement full of steam, chlorine, and men in towels.
- [The Untold Story of Cher: The Goddess of Pop Who Reinvented Everything — Twice](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-cher-the-goddess-of-pop-who-reinvented-everything-twice/): She has been famous for six consecutive decades. She has topped the charts as a folk-pop duo singer, a solo '70s hitmaker, and a '90s dance diva.
- [The Untold Story of Journey: The Band That Refused to Stop Believin'](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-journey-the-band-that-refused-to-stop-believin/): They are the definitive arena rock band of America, the group behind the most downloaded song of the 20th century — a song that wasn't even a number-one hit when it came out.
- [The Untold Story of Earth, Wind & Fire: The Cosmic Funk Army That Defied Gravity](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-earth-wind-fire-the-cosmic-funk-army-that-defied-gravity/): No band ever looked — or sounded — like Earth, Wind & Fire.
- [The Untold Story of Duran Duran: The Fab Five Who Nearly Died — and Lived to Tell It](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-duran-duran-the-fab-five-who-nearly-died-and-lived-to-tell-it/): They were the prettiest band in the world, and for a while, the biggest.
- [The Untold Story of Sade: The Reclusive Queen Who Made the Music Industry Wait](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-sade-the-reclusive-queen-who-made-the-music-industry-wait/): There is no one in pop music quite like Sade.
- [The Untold Story of Blondie: Catcalls, a Burned-Down Apartment, and the Rap Song That Beat Everyone to the Airwaves](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-blondie-catcalls-a-burned-down-apartment-and-the-rap-song-that-beat-everyone-to-the-airwaves/): They were the prettiest band to crawl out of New York's grimiest rock club — and the most restless, curious, and fearless.
- [The Untold Story of Queen: The Fireplace Guitar, the Sun City Storm, and the Goodbye That Took 24 Hours](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-queen-the-fireplace-guitar-the-sun-city-storm-and-the-goodbye-that-took-24-hours/): Everyone knows the anthems.
- [The Untold Story of ABBA: Sequins, Tax Codes, and the Billion Dollars They Left on the Table](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-abba-sequins-tax-codes-and-the-billion-dollars-they-left-on-the-table/): They sold hundreds of millions of records, won Eurovision in platform boots, and then walked away at the absolute peak — refusing, decades later, a reported billion dollars to reunite.
- [The Untold Story of the Pointer Sisters: Four Sisters, Three Grammys, and a Lifetime of Reinvention](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-pointer-sisters-four-sisters-three-grammys-and-a-lifetime-of-reinvention/): They sang bebop, country, disco, and synth-pop with equal conviction.
- [The Untold Story of Kool & the Gang: From Jersey City Jazz Kids to the Soundtrack of Every Party on Earth](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kool-the-gang-from-jersey-city-jazz-kids-to-the-soundtrack-of-every-party-on-earth/): They are the band behind the two songs that get played at nearly every wedding, graduation, and championship celebration on the planet.
- [The Untold Story of Phil Collins: The Drummer Who Fell Into History](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-phil-collins-the-drummer-who-fell-into-history/): In the 1980s, no human being on earth had more hit records than Phil Collins. Not Michael Jackson. Not Madonna. Not Prince.
- [The Untold Story of Gladys Knight & the Pips: The Family Band That Outshone a Dynasty](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-gladys-knight-the-pips-the-family-band-that-outshone-a-dynasty/): They called her the Empress of Soul, and the title was earned the hard way — in church pews, on talent-show stages, in the shadow of the biggest girl group on earth, and finally on a midnight train to Georgia.
- [The Untold Story of Smokey Robinson: Motown's Quiet Poet and the Five-Dollar-a-Week Miracle](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-smokey-robinson-motowns-quiet-poet-and-the-five-dollar-a-week-miracle/): Bob Dylan once called him America's greatest living poet. John Lennon called him one of his favorite singers.
- [The Untold Story of Patti LaBelle: The Godmother of Soul Who Sang Through the Fire](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-patti-labelle-the-godmother-of-soul-who-sang-through-the-fire/): They call her the Godmother of Soul, but the title hardly captures it.
- [The Untold Story of Anne Murray: The Gym Teacher Who Became Canada's First Lady of Song](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-anne-murray-the-gym-teacher-who-became-canadas-first-lady-of-song/): Before Celine Dion, before Shania Twain, before a single Canadian woman had ever topped the American charts, there was a physical-education teacher from a Nova Scotia coal town who taught gym class by day and sang folk songs on television by night.
- [The Untold Story of Helen Reddy: The Single Mother Who Roared for a Generation](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-helen-reddy-the-single-mother-who-roared-for-a-generation/): "I am woman, hear me roar."
- [The Untold Story of Olivia Newton-John: The Spy's Daughter Who Conquered Pop, Country, and the Silver Screen](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-olivia-newton-john-the-spys-daughter-who-conquered-pop-country-and-the-silver-screen/): She was Sandy's sweet smile and "Physical"'s headband, the girl next door who became the biggest female pop star on the planet.
- [The Untold Story of Don McLean: The Paperboy Who Wrote the Longest Number One in History](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-don-mclean-the-paperboy-who-wrote-the-longest-number-one-in-history/): Eight minutes and forty-two seconds.
- [The Untold Story of Glen Campbell: The Invisible Guitar Genius Who Said No to the Beach Boys](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-glen-campbell-the-invisible-guitar-genius-who-said-no-to-the-beach-boys/): Before the rhinestone suits, before the television variety show, before "Rhinestone Cowboy" made him a household name, Glen Campbell was the most famous musician nobody had ever heard of.
- [The Untold Story of the Carpenters: The Drummer, the Voice, and the Heartbreak Behind the Perfect Harmony](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-carpenters-the-drummer-the-voice-and-the-heartbreak-behind-the-perfect-harmony/): They were the cleanest-cut act in pop music — a brother and sister from Downey, California, with harmonies so smooth they could make a dentist's waiting room feel like heaven.
- [The Untold Story of Kenny Rogers: The Gambler Who Played Every Hand — Jazz, Psychedelia, and Country](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kenny-rogers-the-gambler-who-played-every-hand-jazz-psychedelia-and-country/): Kenny Rogers didn't just cross musical boundaries — he barely seemed to notice they existed.
- [The Untold Story of Hall & Oates: The Duo Born in a Riot That Ended in a Courtroom](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-hall-oates-the-duo-born-in-a-riot-that-ended-in-a-courtroom/): They met while fleeing gunfire. They became the most successful duo in rock history. And they ended up suing each other.
- [The Untold Story of Chicago: The Horn Band That Lost Its Soul — and Found a Second Life](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-chicago-the-horn-band-that-lost-its-soul-and-found-a-second-life/): They started as a scrappy jazz-rock experiment with an unwieldy name and a sound nobody could categorize.
- [The Untold Story of Fleetwood Mac: Breakups, Betrayals, and the Album That Turned Heartbreak Into Gold](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-fleetwood-mac-breakups-betrayals-and-the-album-that-turned-heartbreak-into-gold/): No band in rock history has survived as much chaos as Fleetwood Mac — and no band has turned that chaos into art quite so profitably.
- [The Untold Story of Carly Simon: The Vain Mystery, the Stage Fright, and the Voice That Outlasted Them All](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-carly-simon-the-vain-mystery-the-stage-fright-and-the-voice-that-outlasted-them-all/): She was born into publishing royalty, raised on classical music and civil rights marches, and she grew up to write one of the most dissected songs in pop history.
- [The Untold Story of James Taylor: The Gentle Voice That Survived the Fire](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-james-taylor-the-gentle-voice-that-survived-the-fire/): He sings like a man who has never raised his voice in his life — warm, unhurried, each note landing like sunlight through leaves.
- [The Untold Story of Barbra Streisand: The Girl Who Wouldn't Change a Thing](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-barbra-streisand-the-girl-who-wouldnt-change-a-thing/): She is the only artist in history to have number one albums in six consecutive decades.
- [The Untold Story of John Denver: The Sunshine Boy with Shadows](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-john-denver-the-sunshine-boy-with-shadows/): He was the clean-cut troubadour of the 1970s, the blond grinning kid with the wire-rimmed glasses singing about mountains and country roads.
- [The Untold Story of Neil Diamond: The Brooklyn Kid Who Gave Away a Fortune in Hits](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-neil-diamond-the-brooklyn-kid-who-gave-away-a-fortune-in-hits/): Before Neil Diamond was the sequined showman of the Greek Theatre, before "Sweet Caroline" became the most joyful singalong in sports stadiums around the world, he was a pre-med student at NYU who could barely afford to eat.
- [The Untold Story of Barry Manilow: The Jingle King Who Conquered the World](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-barry-manilow-the-jingle-king-who-conquered-the-world/): Long before the sequined jackets and the sold-out arenas, before the Las Vegas marquees and the millions of devoted "Fanilows," Barry Manilow was a starving kid from Brooklyn with a piano, a stack of other people's lyrics, and fifteen seconds to make America remember a melody forever.
- [The Untold Story of Elton John: The Pub Pianist Who Became a Rocket Man](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-elton-john-the-pub-pianist-who-became-a-rocket-man/): Before the feathers and the sequins, before the stadium tours and the knighthood, he was Reggie — a shy teenager playing standards in a pub four nights a week, wearing glasses he didn't need to imitate a dead rock and roller.
- [The Untold Story of Whitney Houston: The Voice That Carried Too Much](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-whitney-houston-the-voice-that-carried-too-much/): They called her "The Voice," and for once the nickname wasn't hype — it was a simple statement of fact.
- [The Untold Story of Tina Turner: 36 Cents and a Dream](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-tina-turner-36-cents-and-a-dream/): She is the only artist in history to have hit the Top 40 in six consecutive decades.
- [The Untold Story of Stevie Wonder: The Boy Who Turned Darkness Into Light](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-stevie-wonder-the-boy-who-turned-darkness-into-light/): He has been called a genius so often that the word has gone a little numb — but in Stevie Wonder's case, it was never hype. It was a job description.
- [The Untold Story of Prince: The Genius Who Refused to Be Owned](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-prince-the-genius-who-refused-to-be-owned/): He arrived in the late 1970s as a shy teenager from Minneapolis with an afro, a falsetto that could shatter glass, and a demand no record label had ever heard from an unknown kid: let me do everything myself.
- [The Untold Story of Michael Jackson: The Boy Who Invented the Future of Pop — and Paid for It](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-michael-jackson-the-boy-who-invented-the-future-of-pop-and-paid-for-it/): No one in the history of popular music bent the culture further, faster, than Michael Jackson.
- [The Untold Story of Marvin Gaye: The Prince Who Defied Motown, Exiled Himself to Belgium, and Died at His Father's Hand](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-marvin-gaye-the-prince-who-defied-motown-exiled-himself-to-belgium-and-died-at-his-fathers-hand/): Marvin Gaye had the smoothest voice in soul music and the stormiest life behind it.
- [The Untold Story of Madonna: The Girl With $35 Who Declared War on Boredom](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-madonna-the-girl-with-35-who-declared-war-on-boredom/): No one in pop history has been underestimated more often, or proven the doubters wrong more spectacularly, than Madonna Louise Ciccone.
- [The Untold Story of Lionel Richie: The Gentleman Who Wrote the Soundtrack of a Generation](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-lionel-richie-the-gentleman-who-wrote-the-soundtrack-of-a-generation/): Before he was the smiling judge on television, before the world knew him as the man who could make any room grin, Lionel Richie was a saxophone-playing economics student from Tuskegee, Alabama, who stumbled into pop history almost by accident.
- [The Untold Story of George Michael: The Genius Who Set Fire to His Own Fame](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-george-michael-the-genius-who-set-fire-to-his-own-fame/): He was the boy with the golden voice who conquered the world twice — first as half of the sunniest pop duo of the eighties, then as a brooding solo artist who sold more than a hundred million records.
- [The Untold Story of the Eagles: The Backing Band That Became the Biggest Sellers in American History](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-eagles-the-backing-band-that-became-the-biggest-sellers-in-american-history/): No band in American history has sold more albums in the United States than the Eagles.
- [The Untold Story of Donna Summer: The Church Girl Who Invented the Future of Dance Music](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-donna-summer-the-church-girl-who-invented-the-future-of-dance-music/): They called her the Queen of Disco, and she hated the cage of it.
- [The Untold Story of Dolly Parton: The Mountain Girl Who Outsmarted Elvis and Gave Away 200 Million Books](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-dolly-parton-the-mountain-girl-who-outsmarted-elvis-and-gave-away-200-million-books/): On August 25, 2026, the world lost Dolly Parton.
- [The Untold Story of Diana Ross: The Diva Who Remixed Her Own Masterpiece and Sang Through a Lightning Storm](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-diana-ross-the-diva-who-remixed-her-own-masterpiece-and-sang-through-a-lightning-storm/): She has been called the Queen of Motown, the most successful female artist in music history, and the boss of bosses.
- [The Untold Story of Cyndi Lauper: The Broke Runaway Who Turned Bankruptcy Into Pop Immortality](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-cyndi-lauper-the-broke-runaway-who-turned-bankruptcy-into-pop-immortality/): In the winter of 1981, the most famous voice in pop music two years later was a bankrupt ex-bandleader with a busted throat, waiting tables and singing for tips in a New York bar.
- [The Untold Story of Bruce Springsteen: The Night a Storm Blew the Door Off and Rock History Walked In](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bruce-springsteen-the-night-a-storm-blew-the-door-off-and-rock-history-walked-in/): Bruce Springsteen has spent fifty years singing about escape — cars, highways, rivers, the promised land just over the horizon.
- [The Untold Story of Bonnie Tyler: The Scream That Gave Rock Its Most Unforgettable Voice](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bonnie-tyler-the-scream-that-gave-rock-its-most-unforgettable-voice/): When Bonnie Tyler died in July 2026, the tributes poured in from every corner of the music world — and every single one of them mentioned the voice.
- [The Untold Story of Billy Ocean: The Tailor from Trinidad Who Stitched Together the Sound of the '80s](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-billy-ocean-the-tailor-from-trinidad-who-stitched-together-the-sound-of-the-80s/): In the mid-1980s, there was no smoother voice on the radio.
- [The Untold Story of Billy Joel: The Boxer Who Became the Piano Man](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-billy-joel-the-boxer-who-became-the-piano-man/): Before he was the Piano Man, Billy Joel was a kid from Long Island who could knock you out.
- [The Untold Story of Aretha Franklin: The Queen Who Turned Pain into Glory](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-aretha-franklin-the-queen-who-turned-pain-into-glory/): On a winter morning in January 1967, a 24-year-old singer walked into a ramshackle studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and sat down at a piano.
- [The Untold Story of Van Halen: The $130 Guitar, the No-Brown-M&Ms Contract, and the Solo Nobody Was Supposed to Know About](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-van-halen-the-130-guitar-the-no-brown-mms-contract-and-the-solo-nobody-was-supposed-to-know-about/): Van Halen didn't just play rock and roll — they detonated it.
- [The Untold Story of KISS: Fifty-Dollar Paychecks, a Hair Fire, and the Night They Went Disco](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kiss-fifty-dollar-paychecks-a-hair-fire-and-the-night-they-went-disco/): They are the most merchandised band in rock history — lunchboxes, pinball machines, coffins — but before the empire, KISS was four broke New Yorkers playing to empty rooms in face paint.
- [The Untold Story of Aerosmith: Pay-to-Play, the Toxic Twins, and the Rap Record That Saved Them](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-aerosmith-pay-to-play-the-toxic-twins-and-the-rap-record-that-saved-them/): They have been called America's greatest rock and roll band, and they nearly threw it all away twice.
- [The Untold Story of Elvis Presley: The Four-Dollar Record, the White House, and the Comeback Nobody Expected](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-elvis-presley-the-four-dollar-record-the-white-house-and-the-comeback-nobody-expected/): Every legend has an origin story, but few are as gloriously unlikely as Elvis Presley's. He did not arrive by thunderbolt.
- [The Untold Story of Bob Dylan: The Nights He Walked Away — and the Prize He Ghosted](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-bob-dylan-the-nights-he-walked-away-and-the-prize-he-ghosted/): Few careers in popular music have been as defiantly strange as that of Bob Dylan.
- [The Untold Story of The Who: Smashed Guitars, a Stampede, and the Loudest Band on Earth](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-who-smashed-guitars-a-stampede-and-the-loudest-band-on-earth/): They called themselves the loudest band in the world, and for once the hype was certified: the Guinness Book of Records once listed The Who as the loudest rock concert in history.
- [The Untold Story of David Bowie: The Man Who Sold His Future and Invented It Anyway](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-david-bowie-the-man-who-sold-his-future-and-invented-it-anyway/): David Bowie died twice. Once on a stage in London in 1973, when he murdered his own alter ego in front of three thousand stunned fans.
- [The Untold Story of Pink Floyd: A Pig Over London, a Ghost in the Studio, and the Most Expensive Cough in Music](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-pink-floyd-a-pig-over-london-a-ghost-in-the-studio-and-the-most-expensive-cough-in-music/): Pink Floyd made the best-selling rock album of all time about money, madness, time, and death, and then spent the next five decades proving that the madness part was not just a theme.
- [The Untold Story of Led Zeppelin: The Band That Sold 300 Million Records Without Releasing Singles](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-led-zeppelin-the-band-that-sold-300-million-records-without-releasing-singles/): They were the biggest band of the seventies, and they did it by breaking nearly every rule of the music business. They refused to release singles in Britain.
- [The Untold Story of the Rolling Stones: Sleep-Written Riffs, a Riot at Altamont, and Sixty Years of Survival](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-rolling-stones-sleep-written-riffs-a-riot-at-altamont-and-sixty-years-of-survival/): No band was supposed to last this long.
- [The Untold Story of Supertramp: The Dutch Millionaire, the Breakfast-Table Manhattan, and the Handshake That Broke](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-supertramp-the-dutch-millionaire-the-breakfast-table-manhattan-and-the-handshake-that-broke/): They were the unlikeliest hitmakers of the seventies: a band with two singers, two songwriters, and two completely different personalities, making progressive rock you could hum.
- [The Untold Story of George Harrison: The Hit He Copied Without Knowing, the House He Mortgaged for a Laugh, and the Night His Wife Saved His Life](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-george-harrison-the-hit-he-copied-without-knowing-the-house-he-mortgaged-for-a-laugh-and-the-night-his-wife-saved-his-life/): They called him the quiet Beatle, and for years that was a convenient way to overlook him.
- [The Untold Story of Jim Croce: The Letter That Arrived Too Late, the Dear John Letters, and Thirty Years That Counted](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-jim-croce-the-letter-that-arrived-too-late-the-dear-john-letters-and-thirty-years-that-counted/): He had eighteen months of fame.
- [The Untold Story of Gordon Lightfoot: The Jealous Night That Became "Sundown," the Shipwreck He Sang Into Legend, and Six Weeks in a Coma](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-gordon-lightfoot-the-jealous-night-that-became-sundown-the-shipwreck-he-sang-into-legend-and-six-weeks-in-a-coma/): He was Canada's bard, the plainspoken troubadour Bob Dylan once called a mentor, the man who turned a Great Lakes shipwreck into one of the most haunting hit singles ever released.
- [The Untold Story of Dan Fogelberg: The Christmas Eve Encounter, the Bandleader Father, and the Song That Wrote Itself in a Hammock](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-dan-fogelberg-the-christmas-eve-encounter-the-bandleader-father-and-the-song-that-wrote-itself-in-a-hammock/): He was the soft-rock poet of the seventies and eighties, the voice behind "Longer," "Leader of the Band," and "Same Old Lang Syne."
- [The Untold Story of Kansas: The 15-Minute Song That Took a Lifetime to Write](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kansas-the-15-minute-song-that-took-a-lifetime-to-write/): They were a progressive rock band from a state with, in their own words, "absolutely no musical tradition" — six guys from Topeka who played biker bars and rodeos and somehow became one of the biggest American rock bands of the seventies.
- [The Untold Story of Styx: How a Robot Destroyed Rock's Biggest Theatrical Band](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-styx-how-a-robot-destroyed-rocks-biggest-theatrical-band/): They were the first band in history to score four consecutive multi-platinum albums.
- [The Untold Story of REO Speedwagon: Fistfights, Firings, and the Ballad Nobody Wanted](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-reo-speedwagon-fistfights-firings-and-the-ballad-nobody-wanted/): They named themselves after a fire truck. Their first singer quit by climbing out of a moving car and vanishing into the night.
- [The Untold Story of America: The Band Named After a Country They Barely Knew](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-america-the-band-named-after-a-country-they-barely-knew/): They were three teenagers living in England, children of American airmen, so homesick for a country most of them barely remembered that they named their band after it.
- [The Untold Story of Christopher Cross: The Grammy King Who Conquered the World, Then Vanished](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-christopher-cross-the-grammy-king-who-conquered-the-world-then-vanished/): In February 1981, a soft-spoken Texan with the look of a high school chemistry teacher walked onto the Grammy stage and did something no artist in history had ever done.
- [The Untold Story of Leo Sayer: The Clown Prince of Pop Who Danced His Way Back to Number One](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-leo-sayer-the-clown-prince-of-pop-who-danced-his-way-back-to-number-one/): Picture this: it is 1973, and a young singer steps onto the stage of Britain's most-watched music show dressed as a sad Pierrot clown — white face paint, baggy white costume, ruffles at the neck.
- [The Untold Story of Paul McCartney: The Beatle Who Had to Prove It All Over Again](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-paul-mccartney-the-beatle-who-had-to-prove-it-all-over-again/): Imagine being Paul McCartney in the spring of 1970. You have co-written the most beloved songbook in history.
- [The Untold Story of Electric Light Orchestra: Spaceships, Secret Messages, and the Genius Who Never Stopped](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-electric-light-orchestra-spaceships-secret-messages-and-the-genius-who-never-stopped/): They arrived from Birmingham with cellos and a flying saucer, determined to do what no rock band had dared: pick up where the Beatles left off and bolt a full orchestra onto pop music.
- [The Untold Story of Air Supply: The Duo Who Tied the Beatles and Outlasted Everyone](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-air-supply-the-duo-who-tied-the-beatles-and-outlasted-everyone/): For a few shimmering years in the early eighties, no sound on American radio was more inescapable — or more romantic — than the soaring harmonies of Air Supply.
- [The Untold Story of Cat Stevens: The Pop Star Who Walked Away From Everything](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-cat-stevens-the-pop-star-who-walked-away-from-everything/): He was one of the biggest singer-songwriters on the planet, the gentle voice behind "Wild World," "Peace Train," and "Father and Son."
- [The Untold Story of Boston: The MIT Engineer Who Outsmarted Rock 'n' Roll](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-boston-the-mit-engineer-who-outsmarted-rock-n-roll/): Every rock band has an origin story. Boston's doesn't sound like one. There's no Sunset Strip, no CBGB, no garage in the suburbs.
- [The Untold Story of the Cars: Cold Machines, Warm Hearts, and the Deadpan Voice of the Eighties](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-cars-cold-machines-warm-hearts-and-the-deadpan-voice-of-the-eighties/): They looked like robots and sounded like the future.
- [The Untold Story of Kim Carnes: The Raspiest Voice in Pop and the Ten-Year Overnight Hit](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-kim-carnes-the-raspiest-voice-in-pop-and-the-ten-year-overnight-hit/): In the spring of 1981, a strange, smoky voice started pouring out of every radio in America, riding a pulsing synthesizer riff and singing about a long-dead Hollywood star's eyes.
- [The Untold Story of Boz Scaggs: Ten Years an Overnight Sensation](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-boz-scaggs-ten-years-an-overnight-sensation/): When "Silk Degrees" exploded in 1976 — five million copies, four hit singles, a Grammy — America met what looked like a brand-new star: a silky-voiced Texan in a white suit, crooning about the lowdown and the lido shuffle.
- [The Untold Story of Chic: How a Slammed Door at Studio 54 Rewrote Pop History](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-chic-how-a-slammed-door-at-studio-54-rewrote-pop-history/): There is a moment in every legend's life when rejection turns into immortality.
- [The Untold Story of the Isley Brothers: The Family That Reinvented Soul Music — Again and Again](https://blog.pasttunes.com/the-untold-story-of-the-isley-brothers-the-family-that-reinvented-soul-music-again-and-again/): No group in American music has reinvented itself as many times as the Isley Brothers.


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