Cult singer-songwriter Fiona Apple summed up her place in pop's firmament while accepting a GRAMMY in 1997, after the release of her debut album, Tidal: "This world is b******t," she proclaimed  …

Providing the plodding, hip-thrusting title track to the John Hughes film Pretty In Pink forever ensured that the Psychedelic Furs would be remembered as poster children of '80s pop. But they di …

If you take the road from art-rock to heavy metal, you have to pass through early Blue +yster Cult. By the mid-'70s, the band would come to stand for all that was literary in metal (in a sci-fi and hor …

Pretenders is essentially the Cinderella story of Chrissie Hynde, who skipped the tire town of Akron, OH, for England in the early '70s, when punk, glam, and pop converged to form new wave. Her right-p …

Here's one way to make it into the Hall of Fame: get your group together in high school, then stay together for more than 40 years without a single lineup change. Spend ten of those years fine-t …

When it's the Four Tops, deep just goes without saying. Deep, as in more than 40 years' worth of the real deal, of Motor City grit wrapped in soul satin. Deep, as in grooves that m …

A middle-aged TV producer who fell into musical mockery almost by accident, Allan Sherman looked like a smart-aleck CPA and sang like the uncle who's had too much Manischewitz at his nephew's Bar Mitzv …

When fire-hydrant-shaped funnyman Allan Sherman fixated on food, the portly punster was truly in his element. Sherman fashioned a full-figured theme song of sorts from Gilbert & Sullivan's "Little Butt …

Jeff Buckley's hushed, angelic interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" marked him as one of the most moving, influential (on everyone from Radiohead to Damien Rice) vocalists of the '90s. Jason  …