How the Song Came to Be
The Inspiration For Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’
Every rock fan knows the classic riff but what exactly is Deep Purple’s best known song about? We take you behind the scenes in 1971.
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The Mamas & the Papas’ ‘Creeque Alley’: Behind the Song
The lyrics are stocked with names and places, some of which may have been (and still are) unfamiliar to fans of the group. We break it down
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The Kinks’ ‘Celluloid Heroes’: Everybody’s a Star…
“Everybody’s a dreamer, and everybody’s a star,” Ray Davies sang. But it was never quite that simple. Watch a stellar performance of this Kinks Klassik.
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Elvis Presley’s Inspiring ‘If I Can Dream’: Behind the Song
There are many goosebump-inducing scenes in Elvis, the sensational 2022 biopic. One such chapter is his 1968 comeback TV special, and its culminating moment
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Carly Simon’s Breakthrough to Superstardom: ‘You’re So Vain’
Watch the singer-songwriter perform a previously unheard verse of her huge 1972 hit from a ‘Carly Simon No Secrets’ classic albums special
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Pilot’s ‘Magic’ Trick: Never Believe It’s Not So
The Scottish band’s one great hit was the type that you might not hear for years, but when you do, it’s instantly familiar.
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Donovan on ‘Season of the Witch’: ‘The Spookiness Was Real’
“The darkness was coming down. The darkness was the freedoms that I spoke of, that opened the doors. That spookiness in the record was real.”
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A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’ MTV Unplugged Transforms the Song
A song you’ve heard countless times; its 1985 video has an astonishing number of views on YouTube. A touching acoustic version transforms the song
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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s Incendiary ‘Fire’
He took the title of his one hit seriously, even putting flaming items on his head while he performed. But he never made the charts again after his 1968 smash.
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Barry McGuire vs. Barry Sadler: When the News Hit #1
One chart-topper listed complaints about the inequities and horrors of the day, while the other was a patriotic paean to the Army’s elite special forces.
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