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    Life of a Song

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    • Monday, 23 January, 2023
      Music
      The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo — music hall hit was inspired by a shady character

      Fred Gilbert’s 1891 song told the story of a gambler and conman who hit a lucky streak

    • Monday, 16 January, 2023
      Music
      Cum On Feel the Noize — Slade’s hit blasted the door open for ‘hair metal’

      A cover version of their 1973 track paved the way for a new wave of bands

    • Monday, 9 January, 2023
      Music
      It Ain’t Necessarily So — the Gershwins at the top of their game

      With its brilliantly playful rhymes, Sportin’ Life’s sceptical song from Porgy and Bess has been covered and reinterpreted over the years

    • Monday, 2 January, 2023
      Music
      Life on Mars? — David Bowie’s song had its roots in another epic hit

      The 1971 track, which channelled Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, became a tribute to Bowie following his death seven years ago

    • Monday, 26 December, 2022
      Music
      A New Year Carol — how Benjamin Britten popularised a mysterious song

      The composer took the piece back to its roots in Wales

    • Monday, 19 December, 2022
      Music
      How Walking in the Air took The Snowman to great heights

      Animated film of Raymond Briggs’s picture book featured a young singer who went uncredited for years

    • Monday, 12 December, 2022
      Music
      Johnny B. Goode — Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit celebrated his own rise to fame

      Admired and covered by bands such as The Beatles, the track found new audiences thanks to ‘Back to the Future’

    • Monday, 5 December, 2022
      Music
      Only Love Can Break Your Heart — how Neil Young’s 1970 track launched a band’s career

      The singer’s plaintive ballad has been widely covered, and became the first song released by Saint Etienne

    • Monday, 28 November, 2022
      Music
      Loving Arms — in a career cut short, Tom Jans wrote one great song

      The singer’s 1973 track has been covered by greats such as Elvis Presley and Millie Jackson

    • Monday, 21 November, 2022
      Music
      Popcorn — Gershon Kingsley’s 1969 tune was a Moog breakthrough

      The songwriter used the new synthesiser as a showcase for a track that still resonates today

    • Monday, 14 November, 2022
      Music
      Girls Just Want to Have Fun — Cyndi Lauper’s breakthrough hit had unlikely origins

      The singer’s 1983 anthem to female solidarity started life in a very different milieu

    • Monday, 7 November, 2022
      Music
      Prisencolinensinainciusol — Adriano Celentano’s gibberish song lives on

      Fifty years since the Italian singer wrote it, his deliberately nonsensical track has found new life on social media

    • Monday, 31 October, 2022
      Music
      Got to Get You Into My Life — how Paul McCartney channelled US R&B

      The Beatles’ 1966 track was an outright homage to the band’s African-American heroes

    • Monday, 24 October, 2022
      Music
      The Passenger — Iggy Pop’s ode to the city had bucolic beginnings

      Co-written with David Bowie, the singer’s 1977 track emerged from a riff created by guitarist Ricky Gardiner

    • Monday, 17 October, 2022
      Music
      Back in Black — how AC/DC created the definitive hard rock song

      The track has also proved malleable enough to be covered in genres such as jazz and funk

    • Monday, 10 October, 2022
      Black History Month 2022 — celebrating creativity across the arts
      London Is the Place for Me — Lord Kitchener’s song was written on board the Windrush

      In Black History Month, the Trinidadian’s calypso tells a story of migration and apparent optimism

    • Monday, 3 October, 2022
      Music
      (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone — from kiddy pop to punk anthem

      The Monkees’ 1966 hit was malleable enough to be covered in a panoply of genres

    • Monday, 26 September, 2022
      Music
      Gentle on My Mind — John Hartford’s 1966 song was an unlikely hit

      Hartford said it ‘violated the principles of songwriting’ — but it went on to earn him a fortune

    • Monday, 19 September, 2022
      Music
      When You Wish Upon a Star — the Disney song taps into a need for escapism

      The track from Pinocchio, now remade as a live-action film, has a yearning quality that has brought dozens of artists to cover it

    • Monday, 12 September, 2022
      Music
      September — a cosmic-disco celebration of love and happiness

      As darker days and longer nights return, Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1979 track brings light and life

    • Monday, 5 September, 2022
      Music
      Russians — Sting’s 1985 hit is a reminder of more hopeful times

      The track was released in the Gorbachev-Reagan era that eventually led to the end of the cold war

    • Monday, 29 August, 2022
      Music
      Freight Train — how Elizabeth Cotten’s song was revived by the skiffle boom

      The track was covered by dozens of acts including The Quarrymen, and became the subject of a legal dispute

    • Monday, 22 August, 2022
      Music
      Vogue — Madonna’s 1990 hit helped catapult a subculture into the mainstream

      The track celebrated the Latinx LGBT+ drag scene, though there was resentment too

    • Monday, 15 August, 2022
      Music
      Stay — how Maurice Williams’s doo-wop classic was given a new lease of life

      The 1960 song was picked up and adapted for a new audience in the following decade

    • Monday, 8 August, 2022
      Music
      I Am Woman — Helen Reddy’s 1971 song became an anthem for feminism

      The Australian-born singer’s record company was initially unimpressed by her paean to empowerment

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