By 1980, the last few albums produced by Paul McCartney and Wings did not enjoy the success of LPs like 1973’s Band on the Run. McCartney decided to record a solo album, McCartney II, on which he played all the instruments. Its title was a nod to 1970’s McCartney, his debut solo album recorded without other musicians.

“Junior’s Farm” was written by Paul McCartney and recorded by his band, Wings. The roots of the 1974 №3 hit go back to McCartney’s purchase of a Scottish estate called High Park Farm. In his memoir The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney said the estate provided a respite from the business of being a Beatle.

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Kenny Rogers said that Jimi Hendrix once told him that “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” was his all-time favorite song.

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The core members of Mountain — singer-guitarist Leslie West, bassist and producer Felix Pappalardi, and drummer Corky Laing — formed in 1969. Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” is the band’s biggest hit, reaching №21 in 1970. West told Music Aficionado that Laing came up with the inspiration for the lyrics.

“She Works Hard for the Money” is the title track of Donna Summer’s 1983 album. Released as the lead single, it was a №1 R&B hit that year. Summer wrote the song with producer Michael Omartian.

"Twist and Shout” became one of the Beatles’ big hits when it was released in March 1964 at the outset of Beatlemania. The song was a cover of the Top 20 hit two years earlier by the Isley Brothers.

The British Invasion knocked many American groups off the charts in the mid-1960s. Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, who scored a number one hit with “Sugar Shack” in 1963, decided to adopt a grittier sound with “Bottle of Wine.” Gilmer still performed lead vocals, but the band shortened its name to the Fireballs to reflect ‘60s fans’ preference for groups.

“Sentimental Lady” was written by guitarist Bob Welch and first recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s 1972 album Bare Trees. The Fleetwood Mac version was 4:34 with backing vocals by Christine McVie.

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“Tiny Dancer” was first released on Elton John’s 1971 album Madman Across the Water. When an edited single version was released in 1972, it only reached №41. As more album cuts were played on FM radio in the 1970s, “Tiny Dancer” in its original form became a listener favorite.

“Want to take a mind excursion? How ‘bout a little diversion? The hippest of all trips. The return to reality. Well, join me.” With that introduction, William Mercer, or Rosko to free-form radio fans, would open his shows that showcased a broad range of music: rock, soul, folk, and jazz. Mercer, who grew up on New York’s 114th Street and Manhattan Avenue, read poetry by Kahlil Gibran and delivered impassioned monologues against the My Lai massacre and the Kent State shootings

After leaving the Beatles, George Harrison had an impressive solo career before his untimely death in 2001 at age 58. Harrison notched five Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Of the five, only one was not original to Harrison: “Got My Mind Set on You.”

Sly and the Family Stone appeared at promoter Bill Graham’s Fillmore East on three weekends in 1968 and 1969, appearing with bands that include the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Eric Burdon & the Animals.

America was originally a trio: guitarist-singer Dewey Bunnell, pianist-singer Gerry Beckley, and guitarist-singer Dan Peek. Peek, who died in 2011, left the band in 1977. Bunnell and Beckley have worked as a duo ever since.

The Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ tune “This Diamond Ring” song took a labyrinthine path to №1 in 1965.

The 1960s was a watershed era for blue-eyed soul, with multiple hits by the Young Rascals, Mitch Ryder and the Righteous Brothers. Add the Box Tops, whose 1967 “The Letter” became a №1 single and would sell four million copies.

As drug use became more prevalent in the 1960s, pop music reflected the times. Songs that glamorized getting high flooded the airwaves. The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and “Purple Haze” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience had some of the more obvious references to drugs; others, like the Association’s “Along Comes Mary,” were more oblique.

Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps recorded “Be-Bop-a-Lula” in 1956. Like many songs of the era, there are several versions of how “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was written. “I started composing ‘Be-Bop’ when I was in the Navy, and on my final trip back to the US,” Vincent told Disc magazine in 1959.