Written and recorded in the time it takes to watch an episode of The Osbournes, but still the SabsвЂ™ most famous record, Paranoid was hard rock stripped to a jackhammer riff and primal howl. Chilton continues to perform and record Bell died inВ a car crash in 1978. BellвЂ™s was filled with hope, encouraging us all to look to the skies, where вЂњHeвЂ™s the life/ Waiting to love youвЂќ. In 19, both recorded songs about God:В ChiltonвЂ™s Jesus Christ wasВ a wracked Nativity song, sung from the dregs of his heartВ вЂ“ one you wonвЂ™t be hearing in a primary school come December. The contrast between Chris BellВ and Alex Chilton became clearer when the former left BigВ Star. Yesterday was essentially the first BeatlesвЂ™ solo performance, and was so disliked by MaccaвЂ™s bandmates that it was initially offered to singer Chris Farlowe. RHJДЄs Paul McCartney worked on the aching piano melody that had come to him in a dream, its first working lines were: вЂњScrambled eggs/ Oh baby, howВ I love your legs.вЂќ Forty-four years later, his ballad about the bitter memories evoked by lost love remains the most covered song of all-time, with more than 3,000 versions and counting. And while the title might be a distancing device, lest the purists criticise the Fab FourвЂ™s foray into a time-honoured musical tradition, thereвЂ™s no denying that Lennon is talking straight when he states, вЂњ(I) Even hate my rockвЂ™nвЂ™rollвЂќ towards the end.В Not the death of the Beatles by a long chalk, but certainly a signpost for future honesties. LennonвЂ™s cosmic blues only serves to add further weight toВ the darkness at the heart ofВ the BeatlesвЂ™ sprawling WhiteВ Album. That strand would find its fullest expression on Pet Sounds, but In My Room вЂ“ about a place вЂњI can go and tell my secrets toвЂќ вЂ“ will ring true for as long as adolescents angrily stomp off upstairs. The Beach Boys, unlike almost all their contemporaries, understood that the teenage state of mind involved more than parties and break-ups it was also about solipsism and solitude. It wasnвЂ™t all T-Birds and SurfinвЂ™ Safaris. Now a standard, it was banned by US radio after 9/11 too much irony. Its greeting-card sentiments would have turned to goo if sung by anyone but genial toughie Armstrong, and even then it tanked at home while hitting the UK top spot. Co-written with George Weiss, this two-minute paean to lifeвЂ™s simple pleasures was the result. The machismo with which he plans his own funeral вЂ“ вЂњPut a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain/ So you can let all the boys know I died standing patвЂќ вЂ“ contains startling similarities to some of rapвЂ™s funeral songs, such as TupacвЂ™s Life Goes On: вЂњBury me smilinвЂ™ with Gs in my pocket.вЂќ GTДЄs the US descended into racial and political strife, Impulse! records boss Bob Thiele (a jazz aficionado) decided the country needed something uplifting. GMДЄ classic New Orleans funeral blues, in which a rounder discovers his woman has died and heвЂ™ll shortly be following her. A song for when the вЂњBloody MaryвЂќ of life is sorely вЂњlacking a TabascoвЂќ. But thatвЂ™s a strength that derives from its graceful, old-fashioned melody, and the way the virtuoso lyric glories in the pleasures of witty metaphor and scabrous innuendo. This wry treatise on female sexual disappointment, co-written, perhaps significantly, by Alex Turner and his ex-girlfriend Johanna Bennett, could be about a woman who settled down too young at 23 or one who has hit a midlife crisis at 43. Those lines would deepen further over the drug-addled next decade, before TylerвЂ™s dreams were finally fulfilled by global popularity in 1987. Still only in his mid-20s, but frustrated by a lack of momentum in his music career, Steven Tyler displayed a Jackson Browne-esque level of maturity-before-his-time when he sang вЂњEvery time that I look in the mirror/ All these lines on my face gettin clearerвЂќ in AerosmithвЂ™s anthemic debut single from their first album. It was so far ahead of its time when originally recorded in 1969 that Studio OneвЂ™s legendary producer Coxsone Dodd rejected it, leaving the song unreleased until the vocal trio formed their own label two years later. Partially sung in Amharic (the title translates as вЂњgive praiseвЂќ), itвЂ™s a minor-key classic of close harmonies and the traditional Rastafarian longing for repatriation.

Satta Massagana is one of theВ most covered tunes in theВ history of reggae and a rareВ instance of a song that crossed over into church groups rather than the other way round.

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