Posts by Alby

The lead track on "Wild Honey," the Beach Boys' back-to-our-roots album following the "Smile" disaster, this soul-flavored confection was a throwback even in 1967. The Beach Boys were considered has-beens…

Elvis' last No. 1 hit -- and that only in Cashbox, not Billboard -- in its first live performance, about two weeks after he recorded it in late March 1972.…

This SNL skit dates to 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president. Would he have been elected if the "African monkeys" tape had been released to the public? Given what we…

Technological progress has rendered some old songs obsolete -- "Please Mr. Postman" and "The Letter," for example, are set in an era when people still used snail mail to communicate…

This was written in the wake of the first Arab oil embargo, but it's remarkable how little the geopolitics of the Middle East have changed in decades since. The only…

The lead-off track to "Never a Dull Moment," the 1972 follow-up album to Stewart's mega-hit "Every Picture Tells a Story," finds Rod the Mod struggling with his new-found success. Like…

Though it's a quintessential summer song, the single, recorded for an album but rushed into release shortly after the band's triumphant set at Woodstock, didn't reach its No. 2 chart…

Jane Goodall met Prince Harry yesterday and they enacted a "chimpanzee greeting." As you can see at the link, it's not much different from a human greeting, because we are…

I once heard The National described as "REM for the 21st century," and the comparison makes some sense. Both groups are guitar-driven alternative bands that feature inward-looking, literate, cryptic lyrics…

A message for people who know who they are. Dave Mason is one of those rockers who, like Mick Ronson, was famous as a sideman but never became a front-rank…

It's been 50 years since we got there and there's still nobody living on the moon. Heck, we don't even visit any more. But that's not really what this Sesame…