Poppy Burton

Dolly Parton selected her ten favourite love songs, led by “From Here to the Moon and Back” and followed by “I Will Always Love You.” The list spans devotion, heartbreak, jealousy and resilience across her career, while the article highlights Parton’s country-pop versatility and the enduring impact of covers by Whitney Houston, Linda Ronstadt and others.

Yard Act discuss their forthcoming album, You're Gonna Need A Little Music, which was recorded between Leeds and Los Angeles. Frontman James Smith and bassist Ryan Needham say the record balances California's optimism with the groundedness of West Yorkshire and reflects the band's refusal to relocate to London or the United States. They argue that regional music communities and grassroots infrastructure remain essential, while social-media virality and an oversaturated industry are eroding older DIY pathways. The band also explain their decision not to let audience expectations dictate their sound, describing the new album as more focused on evoking moods and subconscious feelings than making explicit social or personal statements.

Ritchie Blackmore highlights five Jimi Hendrix riffs he considers the most exceptional, praising Hendrix’s originality, tone, phrasing and stage presence. He singles out Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Manic Depression and Stone Free, emphasising Hendrix’s ability to turn imperfections into creative strengths. Despite only meeting Hendrix once, Blackmore describes him as a uniquely influential musician whose work continues to resonate.

Spotify's algorithm for measuring musical sadness, based largely on valence, tempo and danceability, identified several chart-topping songs as unusually sad. Data journalist Miriam Quick's 2018 analysis found that the results often confused low energy or romantic yearning with genuine sadness, selecting songs such as Roberta Flack's “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” the Commodores' “Three Times a Lady,” and Larry Verne's comic novelty song “Mr. Custer.” The experiment ultimately suggests that sadness is too personal and context-dependent for any algorithm to measure objectively.

Paul Simon identified “The Cool, Cool River,” from his 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints, as one of the most shocking moments of his songwriting career. The song’s unusual 9/8 time signature and African and Brazilian musical influences represented a major departure from Simon & Garfunkel’s folk-rock sound. The piece also illustrates Simon’s belief that disciplined songwriting habits can produce ideas that remain surprising even to the songwriter himself.

Motörhead's 1980 hit “Ace of Spades” became the band's defining anthem, spending 13 weeks in the singles chart and gaining renewed attention after Lemmy Kilmister's death. Despite recognizing that fans expected to hear it, Lemmy grew tired of performing the song and sometimes altered its lyrics, singing “Eight of Spades” without the rest of the band or audience noticing. A 2015 Glastonbury performance, in which he repeated the song instead of moving on to “Overkill,” also prompted concern about his declining health. Lemmy believed Motörhead did its best work after Eddie Clarke left in 1982, but “Ace of Spades” remained inseparable from the band's legacy.

Elvis Presley’s reported last meal on August 16, 1977, consisted of four scoops of ice cream and six chocolate chip cookies. The account places this simple meal within the context of Presley’s longstanding emotional dependence on food, substantial weight gain and declining health during his final years. It also discusses the media’s ridicule of his diet and the sensational exploitation surrounding his death, including the National Enquirer’s bribery of a cousin to photograph his open casket.

Billy Joel’s 1980 song “You May Be Right,” from the album Glass Houses, became his favourite track to perform live. Its energetic, guitar-driven sound marked a deliberate move away from the softer ballad image associated with songs such as “Just the Way You Are” and “Honesty.” Inspired partly by the jangly rock style of the Rolling Stones and Joel’s bar-band roots, the song allowed him to move beyond the piano, engage more directly with audiences and occasionally play lead guitar. Joel described the album as one of his most enjoyable recordings and said he wanted its songs to be louder, faster and more direct.

Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” became a major success, reaching number 11 on the Billboard chart, despite Donald Fagen and Walter Becker considering it simplistic and ineffective artistically. The 1972 song’s memorable guitar solo was recorded in one take by session musician Elliott Randall, invited into the studio by Skunk Baxter. Randall’s contribution was later praised by Jimmy Page, while the recording marked Steely Dan’s shift toward a controlled, studio-centric approach built around precision and session musicians.

Chicago’s 1974 song “Wishing You Were Here,” from Chicago VII, featured Beach Boys members Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson on vocals. Arranged through the bands’ shared manager Jim Guercio, the collaboration combined Chicago’s horn-driven soft rock with the Beach Boys’ layered harmonies. Its success led to the co-headlined Beachago tours, helping restore the Beach Boys’ concert prominence and introduce them to younger audiences. The bands later reunited in 1989, performing the song with Carl Wilson and Mike Love handling lead vocals after Terry Kath’s death and Peter Cetera’s departure from Chicago.

Ozzy Osbourne identified John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine as a major personal influence, saying he had played it thousands of times and praising songs including “Imagine,” “Jealous Guy” and “Gimme Some Truth.” The album’s direct songwriting and emotional honesty resonated with Osbourne despite its stylistic distance from Black Sabbath’s heavy metal. Lennon and The Beatles also influenced Osbourne’s songwriting, including his 2001 song “Dreamer,” while Osbourne connected their themes of peace, social concern and human vulnerability to his own work.

Ronnie James Dio nearly destroyed the master tapes of “Rainbow in the Dark” because he felt its upbeat keyboard sound and accessible character were too pop-oriented for Holy Diver. Despite his reservations, the song became a signature hit and is now regarded as a heavy metal classic. Vivian Campbell’s riff, Vinny Appice’s keyboard motif and the band’s rapid studio collaboration shaped the track, which later received covers from Corey Taylor and Jorn. Its success demonstrated that melodic accessibility could broaden Dio’s dark, theatrical metal style without undermining it.

In 1955, Salvador Dalí arrived at Paris’s Sorbonne University to deliver a lecture while driving a borrowed white Rolls-Royce Phantom packed with roughly 500 kilograms of cauliflower. The spectacle, followed by deliberately nonsensical remarks about rhinoceros horns, Vermeer and cauliflower, reinforced Dalí’s reputation for calculated eccentricity and generated coverage in Time magazine. The episode exemplified his aggressive self-promotion, which attracted public attention but also risked eclipsing the seriousness of his artistic work and frustrating fellow art-world figures.