REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE, PUBLIC ENEMY (1987)

 Rebel Without A Pause was the first single lifted off the It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back album. Faster beats, a screaming horn loop and textures aplenty created an intense sample-delic wall of noise that was further into people’s faces than ever before: a powerful mix of innovation and aggressi...

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I FEEL LOVE, DONNA SUMMER (1977)

 A spectacularly influential 45, electronic dance music began with producer Giorgio Moroder’s seductive collaboration with breathy disco queen Donna Summer. According to legend, Brian Eno excitedly played the record to David Bowie at Hansa Studios in Berlin, and promptly declared: “I have heard the sound of the future.” He wasn’t wro...

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MR. TAMBOURINE MAN, THE BYRDS (1965)

 The Byrds upped the jingle-jangle factor on their electric cover of  Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man and established the folk-rock genre. Their version so impressed the songwriter, he said: “You can even dance to that!”...

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SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT, NIRVANA (1991)

 An obvious but unavoidable entry, almost overnight Smells Like Teen Spirit transformed 80s outsider rock into the mainstream music of the 90s. Rock had a new godhead, in the shape of Kurt Cobain, with swinging Seattle its epicentre. The song itself owed a lot to the Pixies and Boston’s More Than A Feeli...

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PAPA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG, JAMES BROWN AND THE FAMOUS FLAMES (1965)

 This marks the emergence of The Godfather Of Soul’s signature sound and is one of the f rst funk records to make an indentation on the charts. Brown’s heavy use of percussive rhythm changed the direction of R&B – and led to some pretty nifty dance moves while he was at ...

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LIKE A ROLLING STONE, BOB DYLAN (1965)

 Clocking in at six minutes, Bob Dylan’s monumental single was like no other 45 that came before it. With its densely expressionistic lyrics and bluesy barroom groove, it was a work of high art and the very antithesis of ephemeral pop. As Bruce Springsteen said: “It sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your min...

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THAT’S ALLRIGHT, ELVIS PRESLEY (1954)

The King’s f rst single hit the record shops in Memphis on 19 July 1954 and its iconic aftershock is still felt today. His hillbilly version of the Arthur Crudup song was fresh, exciting, sexy and was the music post-war youth had been waiting for. Elvis was still a teenager when he f rst got behind the mic at Sun Studios – he was about to redef ne popular mus...

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I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, THE BEATLES (1964)

 The f rst Beatles 45 to be recorded on new fangled four-track equipment, I Want To Hold Your Hand signif ed a spike in the sophistication of Lennon and McCartney as songwrite...

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