$50 for your first 3 months Get the print edition and steer from crisis to recovery
Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox
The brutal-sounding instrumental track was hugely influential
The song first recorded by Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland in 1974 became a Whitesnake staple
The track has shown remarkable agility in hopping across genres and styles
The Swedish band left the song off their first two albums because it was too ‘unusual’
The ultimate anthem to desensitisation is a festive song, of sorts
Jeff Buckley sang what is probably the best-known rendition of a carol whose meaning is still debated
From soft porn to satire, this wordless song has a long and surprising history
The British-Sri Lankan rapper’s song is musically and thematically wide-ranging
The group’s 1966 hit established a distinctive sound and attitude
Lyricist Bernie Taupin was inspired by a science fiction story
Punk bands were beguiled by Lou Reed’s song based on a torrid 1870 novella
The reverberations from this seismic 1982 track are still being felt today
A song that speaks of Ireland and absence has a fascinating heritage
The hard-hitting 1975 ballad tells the story of a black boxer framed and jailed for murder
The eight-minute track’s complex structure proved highly influential
The singer’s 1965 hit brought a new kind of music to the charts
Kubrick and Copland are among those who have felt the force of Richard Strauss’s piece
Paul Robeson sang the definitive version of this beautiful, rousing tune
The story of a devilish figure has been widely covered and had a rich afterlife on TV soundtracks
The ‘cowboy’s lament’ is one of the most widely discussed and dissected songs in the folk canon
A track first recorded by Jerry Butler in 1964 has shed light on the tides of 20th-century history
A mash-up of global cultures and styles, the song has a surprisingly long history
The song was one of a number of 1970s paeans to the iconic bird
While Martin Carthy and Paul Simon were not speaking, many other singers gave voice to this mysterious melody
Since it was a hit in 1968, many singers — including the big beasts of the larynx — have tackled this daunting song
International Edition
