Latest articles by Neil Crossley
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs that it had to be a whistle!”: How Tori Amos created the classic Cornflake Girl
Its memorable infectious hooks belie a dark lyrical core
“We’d never heard of ‘disco music’ at the time”: How the Bee Gees created the greatest dancefloor-filler of all time
Ah, ah, ah, ah...
“Mick came in with a song, but it was very Dylan-esque”: How The Rolling Stones created Sympathy For The Devil
The Stones were hitting a whole new creative peak
“He said, ‘It’s just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on!’”: How Bowie and Lennon bonded to create a funky No.1 hit
“We spent hours and hours discussing fame," Bowie said
“George Harrison didn’t get it at all”: When Led Zeppelin's first LP confused a Beatle — and was ignored by Mick Jagger
The album was made for a bargain price of £1,782
“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
“I immediately heard the melody in my head”: How Madonna created a dancefloor classic — with the sample from heaven
An intoxicating mash-up of ’70s disco, ’80s electropop and 2000s club music
“He’s given me the riff of the century!”: The classic song Stevie Wonder wrote for Jeff Beck — but saved for himself
The clavinet was a fresh and distinctive sound — and its most iconic recorded moment was on Superstition
“I didn’t even want it on the album”: How Alanis Morissette created her biggest hit
“I see words as paint, so I play with them," she said
“I sit at my piano and watch skies moving and trees blowing”: The strange story of the Kate Bush classic Cloudbusting
“The stimulus of the countryside is fantastic,” she said
“They joined the two bits together to make one song”: The story of the greatest thing The Beatles ever recorded
How Sgt. Pepper's epic finale was created
“The sound was going from all to nothing in milliseconds”: The classic hit that defined the sound of the ’80s
How Phil Collins created In The Air Tonight
"There had to be some sort of telepathy going on”: The genius of Eric Clapton's controversial masterpiece, Layla
“I said, ‘Are we sure we can write a song about death?’”: The story of Mike + The Mechanics' The Living Years
"If we’d got it wrong, it would’ve been very schmaltzy"
“It was originally called Everybody Wants To Go To War”: How Tears For Fears made an ’80s mega-hit
It all started with two simple, chimey chords...
“If anyone wants to try and copy this video, good luck to them!”: The innovation behind Peter Gabriel’s biggest hit
Gabriel had to lie under glass for a total of 16 hours
"The greatest pop record ever made”: How The Beatles created Strawberry Fields Forever - John Lennon's masterpiece
Lennon called it “psychoanalysis set to music”
“We should use the tools of today’s society to create music”: How Kraftwerk’s The Model shaped modern pop
The No.1 hit from the band that liked to say: “Our drummers don’t sweat!”
“Even a baby can sing, ‘Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene’”: How Dolly Parton created a country classic
“I was playing guitar pretty seriously back then,” Dolly said
“We were human samplers”: How Talking Heads created the classic Once In A Lifetime
“We very nearly abandoned the song," said David Byrne
“It was a mind-bender. Your brain tells you this isn’t supposed to work”: The genius of David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes
"It’s childlike and melancholic in that children’s story way,” Bowie said
“We were always going to try to break boundaries”: It was the first No.1 pop single to feature rapping - and it came from Blondie
“Some people loved it, and some people hated it,” recalled drummer Clem Burke
“Every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon”: How Kate Bush created the classic Wuthering Heights
“Those shrieks and warbles are beauty beyond belief,” said John Lydon
