Latest articles by Neil Crossley
“It's Christmaaaas!”: How Slade created a festive classic - with a little help from John Lennon
Still making half a million quid a year, it’s the Christmas gift that keeps on giving!
“I’m not a great lyricist or songwriter or producer. It's when you put all these things together — that makes me”: The 5 George Harrison post-Beatles songs you need to hear
Freed from the creative confines of The Beatles, George Harrison set out to realise his true creative potential. Here are five of his finest works…
“Karen manages to get across both sadness and silliness”: The Carpenters’ hit that wowed two Beatles
Macca’s verdict: “The best female voice in the world”
“I have never heard a better ‘rock’ piano”: The famous Trident Studios piano used by The Beatles, Bowie, Queen and more
It’s what Macca played on Hey Jude
"They convinced him to turn it into a grand, crashing, theatrical monster-ballad, complete with orchestra”: The story of Nilsson's Without You
How the singer transformed an album track into one of the most abiding love songs of all time
"He kissed me and said, 'Oh, finally, now I don't have to be the only songwriter in the band!'”: Dave Grohl's evolution as a songwriter
“I was in a band with one of the greatest songwriters of our generation, so I didn’t really want to rock the boat”
"When Elvis heard the second one, he brightened. ‘Let me hear that again. Something I like about that one’... "
Otis Blackwell wrote over 1,000 R&B and rock ‘n’ roll hits, including some of Elvis's most iconic tracks, but "never wanted to meet him… We had something I felt that was going pretty good"
The story of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary
Almost 40 years since its release, The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary stands the test of time as a soaring and majestic pop-rock anthem – including some happy accidents
Love Will Tear Us Apart: The story of Joy Division's swan song
"He was obsessed. Martin sensed it was a song that was going to last forever and wanted to make it really special"
The great Oasis Be Here Now album debate
"Be Here Now was reframed first as a disappointment and then as a disaster” – but is it really that straightforward?
The story behind Summer Of ‘69, a soaring, carefree pop-rock anthem with killer hooks
With Summer Of '69, Adams created an evergreen hit that defined the era and became a rite of passage for generations of guitarists
The 5 essential Elliott Smith songs to start with
A musical legacy that continues to inspire
The creation of The Cars’ song Drive and how it soundtracked a humanitarian catastrophe
“The lyrics don't have to mean anything in an intellectual sense. They're endlessly interpretive. They just have to make an emotional sense”
How Joni Mitchell embraced the formidable personality and talent of bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius
“He pointed to his rental amp and said, ‘I'm not playing through that piece of shit’. So he took mine”
How Mick Taylor joined the Rolling Stones and brought a level of virtuosity to the band not seen before or since
"We used to fight and argue all the time"
Did George Harrison contribute to more Beatles songs than he is given credit for?
"I think in the balance I would have had more things to be niggled with him about than he would have with me"
How Lindsey Buckingham took Fleetwood Mac on a creative left-turn on Tusk
“A noisy, bouncing fuzz-monster that makes no kind of sense in the universe of mainstream 70s radio pop” – but is Fleetwood Mac's flop a misunderstood masterpiece?
The Bob Dylan album that helped change country music
On his last studio album of the '60s, Bob Dylan embraced country music and unveiled a surprising new vocal style
The Carpenters' Goodbye To Love and the magic of Tony Peluso's guitar solo
"Ninety-nine percent of that solo was done on the first take"
“By far, the most stressful day of my entire life": The unexpected story of This Guy's in Love With You, the Bacharach and David classic that reduced Noel Gallagher to a nervous wreck
How a sublimely dreamy, easy-listening love song captured the collective minds of middle America during one of the nation’s most turbulent years
“One of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it”
How Brian Wilson hooked up with an LA advertising executive to pen one of the most majestic and moving pop songs ever created
The story of Wichita Lineman. the song Bob Dylan called the greatest ever written
“When I heard it I cried”
When Buddy Guy rewrote the blues rulebook with a Strat and blew the collective minds of Clapton, Beck and Page
The inspirational playing of the last living American blues legend: "I was bringing it up to Eric and Jimmy – ‘Have you heard this stuff!?'"
"Songwriting for me, at the time of Rubber Soul, was a bit frightening because John and Paul had been writing since they were three years old": How The Beatles raised their game in 1965 to create a masterpiece that "broke everything open"
The Beatles' sixth album Rubber Soul was a colossal creative leap and marked the point at which albums began to be viewed as works of real artistic merit
“Every time I opened a music paper it said, ‘Johnny Marr – jingle jangle’. I'd just had enough”: How The Smiths defied expectations on their final album, Strangeways, Here We Come
Johnny Marr and Morrissey’s relationship may have crumbled during its creation, but The Smiths’ final album is regarded by many as their best