All the Good Songs

R.E.M.’s 1994 single signaled a new direction for the band at the height of their popularity, and revived a mystery about one of the strangest crimes of the 1980’s.

Loud, messy and unquestionably brilliant, Hound Dog Taylor created a wild engine of noise that’s half Chicago Blues, half proto-punk, and would become the centerpiece of the largest independent blues label in the U.S.

A one-off novelty song that became the National Anthem of Halloween, Bobby Pickett’s 1962 delight secured his everlasting fame, even if he worked most of his life to be remembered for more.

Years before the term “going viral” entered the lexicon, M.I.A.’s thumping, hypnotic debut single become one of the first examples of music sharing on a global scale and the Internet’s staggering power to launch careers.

In 1949, the Cincinnati label King Records released two versions of this tune: a twangy country version, and a screaming jump blues number by saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson. In the process, they produced one of the skeleton keys to rock and roll.

In 1963, with his star on the rise, Sam Cooke went to a nightclub in Miami to record a live album in front of his fans. The result was one of the great concert recordings in history, and one that almost didn’t see the light of day. (Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A little song that started an earthquake, this 1960 gem carried the seeds of reggae and ska music, and gave wider audience to a fledgling religious movement called Rastafarianism.

Leaning hard into a mash up of 60’s psychadelia, surf rock and dance, the B-52’s burst onto the scene with this utterly bizarre beach party fantasy. (Image: George Dubose)

Performing at the height of her powers in 1970, Aretha Franklin turned Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” into a gospel number of extraordinary power. (image: Robert Altman/Getty Archives)

Godfathers of the Alternative scene, creators of Lollapalooza, and over and done with (for a time) far too soon, Jane’s Addiction broke through massively on this joyous ode to petty theft.