Paul Zollo is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
Like other Chicagoans who left their hometown to become world-famous, both John Prine and Bill Murray remain Chicagoans at heart forever, forever imprinted by the big city where they started their careers in close-proximity to each other. So it made sense to bring these two old friends together to discuss how they went from Chicago boys to legends. Presented by…
As a kid growing up in Tarzana, Calif., he wanted to be a musician, but since his brother already was good on guitar, Dave Koz became a drummer. "And, unfortunately, not a good one," he says, laughing during a recent interview at the Recording Academy headquarters. "Drums were not for me. But the thing I loved most was horn sections.…
Chad Hugo is a musician first. He's become famous for not wanting to be famous, preferring to let superstar friends such as longtime musical partner Pharrell Williams, or Jay-Z or Justin Timberlake, stand in the spotlight, while he stayed in the studio fine-tuning their tracks. Through a career as a producer, as well as member of his own band, N.E.R.D.,…
"In New Orleans," says Jon Cleary, "you have to keep it real." It’s that authenticity which drew him to this city, and its music, in the first place, although he grew up more than an ocean away in England. Never did he yearn to reinvent New Orlean music, or to bring some singular British slant to it. He yearned only…
To create 24K Magic, his first full-studio album since 2012's phenomenal commercial and artistic triumph, Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars enlisted a collective of producer/songwriter collaborators, musicians, technicians and other artists to carry out his vision. The goal was to create a '90s-esque danceable party album. Calling on the likes of the Smeezingtons (Mars, Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, and Philip Lawrence)…
"When Dylan emerged, he blew everyone's mind," said the poet Allen Ginsberg. "Everybody except Leonard Cohen, this is." Ginsberg was right. Even before Bob Dylan transformed modern songwriting with his expansive folk poetry, Leonard Cohen was already there. A published poet and novelist in Canada, he was fusing poetry and song long before he officially became a songwriter. The switch…
If ever there was one album every music lover should have in their collection, it would be the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released in the United States on June 2, 1967, the album marked a sacred moment for music. Spanning 13 tracks at nearly 40 minutes, it represents the Beatles at their most creatively ambitious. The songwriting,…
Asked about the source of the songs on her previous album, 21, Adele repeated the same answer several times: "A rubbish romance." Backstage at the 54th GRAMMY Awards in 2012, after winning six GRAMMYs for that album, including Album Of The Year, she was asked if a sequel was already in the works. "No," she laughed. "I'm too busy being…
(The Making Of GRAMMY-Winning Recordings series presents firsthand accounts of the creative process behind some of music's biggest recordings. In this installment, producer/engineer Tony Visconti and engineer/mixer Tom Elmhirst detail the making of Blackstar, which earned David Bowie four posthumous awards at the 59th GRAMMYs: Best Alternative Music Album, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and Best Rock Song and Best Rock…
“It’s good to start with something true,” Paul Simon told me in regard to his iconic “Still Crazy After All These Years.” It was a title which emerged, he said, while he was taking a shower. And he didn’t love it, because it was a true reflection of how he felt about himself. But like any savvy songwriter, he used…
"If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George," wrote Paul McCartney on his website following the news of the passing of producer George Martin on March 8. "From the day that he gave the Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've…
(Taylor Swift's 1989 won Album Of The Year honors at the 58th GRAMMY Awards. The following oral history, which was published prior to the 58th GRAMMY telecast, features commentary from Swift and some of the album's key contributors.) It can take a village to create an album, and in the case of Taylor Swift's 1989, an international village.From Sweden to New York…
Songwriting is both an art and a craft, and much of the craftiness has to do with concealing the craft — the contrivance — to create a song that seems inevitable, and uncontrived. Yet craft elements, especially rhymes, are overt contrivances that don’t happen by accident. <iframe width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9C1BCAgu2I8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> We know music, at its best,…
Why rhyme? Do songs have to rhyme? Well, actually, no. There are some famous songs — like “America” by Paul Simon, “Moonlight in Vermont” by Blackburn & Suessdorf, or “I’ll Be Your Man” by The Black Keys — without any rhymes. But they are exceptions. Generally in songs, be they rock, rap, folk, blues, funk, or hip-hop, rhymes are integral to…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?) Miles Davis"Someday My Prince Will Come"Someday My Prince Will Come (1961)"One track that made an…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?)Kris Kristofferson"To Beat The Devil"Kristofferson (1970)"'To Beat The Devil' by Kris Kristofferson. I wouldn't be doing…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?)Elliott Smith"Alameda"Either/Or (1997)"I grew up with my dad's records — [Johnny Cash's] At Folsom Prison, [Merle…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?)Emmylou HarrisRoses In The Snow (1980)"It was the first album I ever got as a kid.…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?) Tina Campbell: The Winans"Count It All Joy"Heart & Soul (1995)"The record that did it for me…
(Every artist has a soundtrack that reveals their musical journey. But what is the one recording that proved to be a transformative moment? In this ongoing series, GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists will reveal their answer to the deceptively difficult question: What recording changed your life?)"The Living Years"Mike & The Mechanics (1988) "Many records have affected my life, but one that stands…
