Peter Aspden
© The Financial Times Ltd 2016 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
The Life of a Song: ‘The Holly and the Ivy’
From a slightly bawdy folk song emerged one of the purest Nativity carols
The Life of a Song: ‘To Love Somebody’
The inspiration behind the Bee Gees’ versatile track was unknown for more than 30 years
The Life of a Song: ‘Johnny Remember Me’
John Leyton’s ‘teenage tragedy song’ was born out of a séance held by Joe Meek and Geoff Goddard
The Life of a Song: ‘Walk on the Wild Side’
The Lou Reed tune slipped past the censors and became a hit
The Life of a Song: ‘Like a Rolling Stone’
Bob Dylan’s tumbling, cascading 1965 hit was originally written as a vengeful stream of ‘vomit’
The Life of a Song: ‘Rocket 88’
The 1951 hit is considered by many to be the first rock ‘n’ roll record
The Life of a Song: ‘Nessun Dorma’
The song associated with Pavarotti promoted football, not vice versa
The Life of a Song: ‘Beat It’
Michael Jackson’s first rock track broke through barriers of genre and race
The Life of a Song: ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’
Marvin Gaye’s version became Motown’s biggest-selling hit
The Life of a Song: ‘Going Back to My Roots’
Odyssey’s makeover of Lamont Dozier’s song is the most widely known
The Life of a Song: ‘Goodnight, Irene’
Of the versions of the tune that Huddie Ledbetter had adapted, Bryan Ferry’s is chillingly bleak
The Life of a Song: ‘Night on Disco Mountain’
David Shire’s version of Mussorgsky’s piece was a triumph
The Life of a Song: ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’
The Flying Lizards’ rendition of the tune became a hit in 1979
The Life of a Song: ‘Toxic’
The Britney Spears hit has been reread and stripped down to its essentials
The Life of a Song: ‘Starman’
The David Bowie tune has shifted the times in pop culture and in art
The Life of a Song: ‘Night Train’
How jazz musician Jimmy Forrest’s 1952 R&B hit spawned a series of cover versions
The Life of a Song — ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’
Tune was recorded by US jazz saxophonist James Moody in 1949
The Life of a Song: ‘Nature Boy’
The song mixes autobiography with spiritual convictions
The Life of a Song: ‘Georgia on My Mind’
The languid, almost sensuous lyrics of this tune could as easily be about a lover as the southern US state
More stories
Theatre & Dance
- The Bard in 2016
- Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity), Schaubühne, Berlin — ‘Deceptively simple’
- The Nutcracker on Ice, Royal Albert Hall, London — ‘A relentless display of smiling skill’
- James Joyce’s The Dead, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London — ‘Versatility’
- Déesses et Démones, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris — ‘A bad case of feminine mystique’
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