David Bowie – China Girl
China Girl: Iggy Pop's The Idiot, 1977, then Bowie and Nile Rodgers on Let's Dance, 1983, UK No. 2 / US No. 10.
Supertramp – Keys, Strings, and Saxophones
Supertramp, from 1969 London to Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America: Davies and Hodgson's dual writing, Helliwell's sax, and arena-scale melodic rock.
Interview of Elton John (1976)
On Parkinson in 1976, Elton John shares the sofa with Michael Caine and ends up at a pub piano under studio lights.
ABBA – Glitter with a fracture
ABBA went from Eurovision's Waterloo to worldwide singles before the divorce years shut the studio door, then returned with Voyage and the avatar shows.
Texas – Glasgow cool with a Motown backbone
Texas formed in Glasgow in 1986 around Johnny McElhone and Sharleen Spiteri. They used American soul patterns with a Scottish delivery. White on Blonde, in the late nineties, was the big UK pop album of the run.
Simple Minds – Alive And Kicking
Simple Minds’ 1985 Virgin single Alive And Kicking from Once Upon a Time: Iovine/Clearmountain, Billboard Hot 100 No. 3.
Dayglow – Then It All Goes Away
Dayglow’s Then It All Goes Away (People in Motion, 2022): Sloan Struble wrote the bassline over coffee and finished the song the same Texas day.
Auto-Tune and vocal correction: legitimate tool or artistic cheat?
Pitch tools reshaped pop: craft upgrade or honesty problem?
Pulp – Common People
Pulp’s 1995 Island single Common People, from Different Class, takes a London art-school boast to UK No. 2.
Interview of Whitney Houston (1991)
In the Raw and Uncut interview from the I'm Your Baby Tonight era (1991), Whitney Houston answers without a talk-show script. She talks voice, image, and the pressure of carrying pop and R&B hits.