Marty Balin, a co-founder, vocalist and songwriter for psychedelic mainstays Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, has died, a statement from his family confirmed. He was 76.
Rachel Martin talks to NPR Music critic Ann Powers about Piano & a Microphone 1983, Prince's first posthumous album of previously unreleased material, out now.
"Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard was number one on the Billboard Country chart 50 years ago today. The song reflects on the pain and suffering Haggard caused his mother when he was sent to San Quentin Prison after trying to rob a roadhouse in his hometown of Bakersfield, California. Haggard says he was inspired to join the prison country band after seeing Johnny Cash perform at San Quentin on New Years Day, 1959. Haggard turned his life around after his release from prison in 1960.
Dessa is a singer and writer from Minneapolis who spent years trying to fall out of love and get over her ex. Nothing seemed to help -- until she visited a research lab for a brain scan.
"People Got To Be Free" by the Rascals was number one on the Billboard pop chart 50 years ago today. Felix Cavaliere, the co-author of the song, says it was written in reaction to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.