Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels teamed with Four Seasons producer Bob Crewe for the 1966 hit recording, coupled with a Little Richard classic
Browsing: Perfect Rock Songs
It’s a song you’ve heard 100s of times. When it comes on the radio, you perk up because its instantly recognizable guitar introduces a welcome listen
The anthemic call-and-response chorus, sung repeatedly over a twin-Les Paul guitar riff, has to rank as one of rock’s all-time greatest earworms
The band’s Tom Johnston credits the lyrics’ imagery to a fellow musician for helping start “the thinking process with this wacky sheriff, samurai swords, and all that”
The singer and the keyboardist were having trouble coming up with a lead lyric for the new song they were writing. The answer was sitting right in front of them.
An early review of the song described it as a “terrific new rocker… sounds like it will rank among their best single songs.” They were right
The third single of her 1981 solo debut, Bella Donna, features many top-notch musicians though none stands out more than Waddy Wachtel and his chugging guitar
The feel-good song was as emblematic of its time as any of the psychedelic records that were starting to dominate rock in 1967.
Some fans who have heard the tune 100s of times think it’s called “Without Love” since those words are repeated many times. The unusual way it became a song
One of the great American rock songwriters of his generation wrote and recorded a song with lyrics that seem to have anticipated #MeToo by decades