Erik Beith

In 1977 Donna Summer released a single that changed the sound of dance music forever. 

The Sons of the Pioneers' 1934 song “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” was written by a Canadian by birth who fell in love with the American West when his family moved to Tucson.  

The New Orleans piano player Henry Roeland Byrd made a name for himself as Professor Longhair, a former street hustler turned self-taught musician who started recording in his early...

Trout Mask Replica (1969) is part free jazz, part blues, part beat poetry. Frank Zappa (who gave singer-songwriter Don van Vliet the name Captain Beefheart) produced the album. “It ...

Did you know there are audio recordings that predate Thomas Edison's phonograph by almost 20 years? The phonautogram was invented by a Frenchman named Eduoard Leon-Scott and patente...

Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon, was the first album of all-electronic music. Released in 1967, it found favor with electronics geeks, as well as legions of stoners who ...

This hit country song was written in 1970 by Loretta Lynn. With her plaintive, but proud voice, Lynn tells the story of growing up poor in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Lyn...

"Radio Free Europe" was R.E.M.'s first single. It represents a breakthrough moment, when indie rock was splitting away from punk music to become its own sound. Engineer Mitch Easte...

The first song in our series is Howlin’ Wolf’s "Smokestack Lightning," a cornerstone of Chicago Blues. Howlin' Wolf's daughter and his longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin talk about the ...

Our series begins with John Lee Hooker's breakthrough song "Boogie Chillen". Blues veteran Charlie Musselwhite and writer Peter Guralnick explain how Hooker's 1948 song left its mark ...

This 1961 comedy routine by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner is about a man so old, he once knew Jesus — personally — and dated Joan of Arc. Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner explain why "2000 Y...

One of this year's selections is a song so sad that George Jones was initially reluctant to record it. Yet it became one of the most popular songs in country music. 

This guitar instrumental altered the course of rock music. The story of Link Wray and "Rumble," from 1958, is told by guitarist Steven Van Zandt, bassist James Hutchinson, and writer ...

This samba was recorded by the Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda in 1939. Dori Caymmi, the son of the songwriter, and biographer Martha Gil-Montero explain how the song brought Brazilia...