Every New Zealand #1 single… 5 Love Yourself by Justin Bieber Topped the NZ chart: from 7 December 2015 for 10 weeks. Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber was discovered via YouTube. His mother had uploaded videos of Bieber singing onto…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 End of the Road by BOYZ II MEN Topped the NZ chart: from 18 October 1992 for 7 weeks. Philadelphia vocal harmony quartet Boyz II Men were successful on the New Zealand single charts…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 1 Axel F by Crazy Frog Topped the NZ chart: from 18 July 2005 for 11 weeks. 2005 just might be the worst year for #1 singles in the history of the NZ chart. There…
Every New Zealand #1 single… Lovesick Blues by Frank Ifield Topped the NZ chart: 10 January 1963 for 1 week. 3 The early 1960s are notable for a power vacuum in rock and roll. Many stars of the 1950s saw…
It’s challenging to write about Canadian sisters Kate & Anna McGarrigle without discussing their family connections. The nature of this B-side makes it impossible. Kate McGarrigle was married to singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright III, known for songs like ‘Dead Skunk’. The…
Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965-1968 and was…
New York’s Talking Heads are one of my favourite bands of the new wave era. David Byrne was the nervy frontman, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were a funky rhythm section, while Jerry Harrison filled out their sound on keyboards…
Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, surfing and modelling for mail order catalogues. They both studied film in college, but gravitated to music, recording their first record as Halfnelson in 1971, with Todd Rundgren producing. The…
The four members of 10cc were all veterans of the 1960s music scene. Graham Gouldman was a successful songwriter, penning The Hollies’ ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘For You Love’ for The Yardbirds. Eric Stewart played with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.…
Van Morrison’s enjoyed a long and prolific career. Like Neil Young, he’s continued to released a new studio album almost every year, even long past retirement age. Such is the breadth of Morrison’s discography, the two albums he made with…
The Boo Radleys emerged in the shoegaze scene of the late 1980s. They came from Wallasey, a town just across the Mersey from Liverpool. They shifted closer to pop/rock in the 1990s, and achieved critical acclaim, particularly for their 1993…
The classic lineup of Nirvana – Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl – first recorded together on the first day of 1991. They ran through seven tracks, all captured in just one take. Cobain later added vocals to two…
My favourite Jackson Browne song is the title track to his third album, 1974’s Late for the Sky. I’ve never fully understood its meaning. There are dark themes throughout the album – the closing track ‘Before the Deluge’ is apocalyptic.…
They’re barely known outside New Zealand, but The Dance Exponents were reliable hitmakers in the 1980s. They kept enjoying success through the 1990s after they shortened their name to The Exponents. They weren’t edgy or pretentious, a pop/rock guitar band…
Irish rock band U2 peaked with their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. Their fifth record, it combined Bono’s fervour with a sweeping sound from The Edge’s effect-laden guitar and atmospheric production from Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It’s also the…
Moody Glasgow pop band The Blue Nile have such a slim discography that everything they’ve recorded is to be treasured. Starting with 1984’s A Walk Across The Rooftops, they’ve only recorded three further albums, along with a solo record from…
Ringo Starr had the most to lose from The Beatles‘ breakup. John Lennon had already launched a solo career with ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Cold Turkey’. George Harrison had a stockpile of songs that would form the basis of…
Aimee Mann scored her only hit single with her first attempt. She fronted Boston new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, whose debut single ‘Voices Carry’ reached #8 on the Billboard charts. Despite the immediate success of ‘Voices Carry’, it took a…
The streaming era has scattered previously held views on the hierarchy of popular music. Despite a critical pasting, Queen have emerged as the dominant classic rock band. The number one spot on the Billboard 100 in early 2022 has largely…
Famously, The Monkees started as a band created for a TV show – they were sometimes referred to as the Prefab Four. But as their career progressed, they asserted more influence over their career. On their third album, Headquarters, The…
Nebraskan singer-songwriter Josh Rouse is undervalued – his thoughtful and tuneful songs could have been hits in another era. He released some great records in the early 21st century – the concept album of Under Cold Blue Stars, about a…
Lots of dedicated music fans are sniffy about mainstream pop music from the 21st century. And if there’s anything worse, it’s 21st-century mainstream pop that was pre-fabricated for a TV show. Girls Aloud originated from the reality show Popstars: The…
The Beach Boys spent the first half of the 1960s becoming more sophisticated. Under the leadership of Brian Wilson, they grew from emulating Chuck Berry on ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ to creating masterpieces like Pet Sounds. When Brian Wilson’s mental health suffered…
One of the most misleading album titles in popular music is Ween’s 12 Golden Country Greats. The country part isn’t misleading; Dean and Gene Ween actually recorded an entire album in Nashville with notable musos like Charlie McCoy and Bud…
