Encore: The Stories Behind The Songs You Love iHeartRadio

Lady Gaga is more than your average pop star. From the early modest days of sewing her own costumes and singing about disco sticks, she has continually reinvented herself along the way to become one of the planet’s biggest stars of both music and film.

She’s won Grammys, an Oscar and every award in between. She’s sold over 170 million records and generated hundreds of millions of dollars with her groundbreaking tours. She’s stolen the screen next to leading men such as Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born and Joaquin Phoenix in this year’s Joker: Folie à Deux. Heck, she even pivoted to jazz with remarkable success, becoming BFFs with her mentor and collaborator, the late, great Tony Bennett. 

She’s also become a tireless advocate for UNICEF, the Rainforest Foundation, the LGBTQ+ community, and mental wellness. And let’s not forget, she is the matriarch to millions of little monsters out there who continue to worship their Mother Monster. How’s that compare to your résumé?Yes,

Lady Gaga is one of music’s greatest overachievers, but to quote one of her biggest hits: she was born this way.

Her breakthrough single, “Just Dance” instantly became a club hit, reaching the Billboard dance charts soon after. It would also hit the Hot 100 in the U.S., but it was in Canada where “Just Dance” would first reach #1.

Finally, Lady Gaga’s debut album, The Fame, was released via Interscope on August 19, 2008. The album would produce hit after hit - with fans waiting to see what she would be wearing, and how she would creatively one-up herself with ever video, and every public appearance.

On November 10, 2009, she released the song that would become arguably the biggest song and video of her career. “Bad Romance” was an instant smash hit, with its “Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah, Roma, roma-ma, Gaga-ooh-la-la” chant, Hitchcock references and a pounding beat that channels German techno.

This is the story of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance - with newly unearthed audio from Gaga herself!

Encore will be going on a brief summer hiatus! See you in July for season 4!

Also contains audio from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmeKqC4H_M

https://soundcloud.com/howardstern/ladygaga-vomitartrape?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fhowardstern%252Fladygaga-vomitartrape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0101Sm7HAjs 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPGwSgfGBB8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ5UQOMlEQo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Cfi7U4eL4 

 

Quickly - don’t think too hard - but is there a more immediately recognizable Rock riff of the last 25 years than The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army? 

Not so much a song owned by a band anymore, and more of a tour-de-force piece of performance art for passionate sporting event-goers worldwide to make their own; Seven Nation Army has become a part of the public consciousness in ways that very few songs since the turn of the century have managed to.

Seven little notes, no real chorus, and a band who spent a lot of their existence arguably trying to *not* follow trends and gain worldwide celebrity status - it doesn’t really seem like the recipe for success on paper. 

This is the story of The White Stripes 2003 Classic - ‘Seven Nation Army’

Featuring newly unearthed audio from the band themselves!

Also contains audio from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7bSDbIePc

Like Madonna, Bono, Prince and Beyoncé before her, Adele is one of the great mononymous superstars of our time.

Adele Adkins was born on May 5, 1988 in Tottenham, a working class town in northern London known best for its football club, Tottenham Hotspur. Her mom Penny Adkins, was only 18 when she was born and when she was only two, Adele’s father upped and left for Wales; he would never be in the picture as Adele grew up.

From the age of 4, Adele began to sing at every opportunity she would get. When the Spice Girls emerged, young Adele would become obsessed with the Girl Powerful group. In 2016, she would tell Vogue, “People always think I joke about this, but the Spice Girls blew up when I was seven, and seeing them coming from a humble background — there was hope in it. It was really a massive part of my life when the whole Girl Power thing happened.”

When she was 11, her mum and stepdad moved her to West Norwood in south London, which she would immortalize in her 2007 hit “Hometown Glory.” It was there that Adele would fall in love with contemporary R&B and the big, classic voices that would shape her voice in the years to come.

“Hometown Glory,” was first released in October 2007 as a limited 7-inch on a small label called Pacemaker. The song didn’t do much until it was re-released the following year by XL. But the buzz was growing for Adele. As 2008 arrived, she became the youngest artist ever to win the BBC’s Sound of 2008 award, which is selected by music critics and industry figures searching for the UK’s most promising new music talent. She also took home the Critic’s Choice Award at the BRITs, which was given to the top rising star. 

Soon after, Adele released her debut album, 19, on January 28, 2008. She named it 19 because, well, that’s how old she was when she recorded the album. It didn’t take long for critics and fans to fixate on her age, and how mature she sounded for someone who was only 19. 

Adele was quickly popping up everywhere on both sides of the pond. 19 was on the shortlist of nominees for the coveted Mercury Prize, which is awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the United Kingdom or Ireland.”Hometown Glory” popped up all over TV, soundtracking huge dramatic scenes in countless TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance, Coronation Street and 90210. But perhaps the greatest achievement, at least in Adele’s eyes, was one of her heroes, Beyoncé calling her “THE British singer,” separating her from the rest of the pack.

Her followup single “Chasing Pavements” earned Adele her first Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out her former classmate Leona Lewis. It was also nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Even bigger than that, Adele also won Best New Artist.

Now with a lot more pressure on her, Adele was ready to record her followup album Feeling the raw sting of a recent breakup, Adele reached out to Paul Epworth in October 2009 and immediately they headed into the studio. She brought him a ballad she had begun writing a couple years ago about a boy, which he felt needed to be stronger and more aggressive in its arrangement. With Epworth’s help they channeled the anger she felt from her recent split and used some guitar riffs he had previously written down.

As the two worked together, Adele began to feel her heart race, which became the beat of the song. The two of them came up with the verses and the chords of the song in under 15 minutes, with the rest only taking about two hours.

This is the true story of Adele's iconic song 'Rolling in the Deep' with newly unearthed footage from Adele herself!

Also contains clips from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_mj1CuXrPE

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1wjMGosYa8

 

As I’m sure you’re mostly aware of already - the lyrical content of Amy Winehouse's breakthrough single ‘Rehab’ is very much a true story. 

Working with up-and-coming producer Mark Ronson in New York city, Amy inspired the entire production of the song simply walking down the street, telling Ronson her true ‘rehab’ story. Ronson initially thought of it as a funny little anecdote - and one worth turning into a song. Unfortunately, the tale of Rehab was far from a funny one - and Winehouse's knack of drawing inspiration from bad situations would lead to tragedy.

Amy Winehouse was a star - a breath of fresh air in the music industry that pulled the Motown sounds of the 60s into the 21st century with edginess, swagger, and admittedly - a sense of glorified self-destruction.

Released in the UK as the Album’s lead single in late October 2006, Rehab was the perfect distillation of Amy the persona and Amy the artist. 

Winehouse truly had nothing to hide and she was ready to expose her talent and her scars to the world unapologetically. This is the story of Rehab, with newly unearthed audio from Amy Winehouse herself.

Also contains audio from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SBezSiJGfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0q3Re5ksVg

Content Warning: This episode discusses themes that may be difficult for some listeners, including substance abuse, disordered eating, and interpersonal violence. Please take care while listening.

Did you hear the one about the three sons of a preacher who one day decided to start a rock band with their cousin and somehow sell millions of albums, win some Grammys and have one of the biggest crossover rock songs in recent memory?

No? Well, great! Because I’m here to tell you all about how Kings Of Leon did just that.

Nathan, Caleb and Jared Followill were three good old southern boys from a small suburb about 17 miles east of Nashville, Tennessee. Their parents were Ivan, a Pentecostal church preacher and traveling evangelist, and Betty-Ann, who ran the church worship. At first the Followills traveled across the rural South in a purple Oldsmobile, attending all-night church meetings, tent revivals and healings. The family would be on the road for the better part of the year, making it hard for them to call any place home. But when Jared was born in 1986 they settled down just outside of Memphis until he was about six, and then went back on the road after Ivan began drinking and got into some trouble. 

The boys were home-schooled by their mom and given strict rules that prevented them from swimming with girls, playing competitive sports and even wearing shorts, which made water activities pretty awkward. Movies were also prohibited, the same with music other than what they heard in church. But church music was becoming a bigger part of their lives. Nathan would begin drumming on stage with a band during his father’s sermons, and Caleb followed as a singer, with hopes of becoming a pastor like his father.

The relationship between their parents, however, was heavily strained due to Ivan’s heavy drinking, and in 1997 they split up, following his departure from the church. That seemed to change everything for their three sons.

With their parents apart, the Followill brothers began to stray from their religious upbringing. Nathan and Caleb got into rock’n’roll, alcohol and weed, while Jared became a “little sh*t” with a BB gun, his brothers would tell Rolling Stone. Their cousin Matthew Followill, who lived in nearby Mississippi, was basically welcomed into the fold as an unofficial fourth brother.

Believe it or not, but Nathan and Caleb Followill were originally a country-singing duo called the Followill Brothers. They performed at open-mic nights and signed a publishing deal that helped support their weed-smoking habit. The guy that signed them, Ken Levitan, introduced the brothers to a  songwriter named Angelo Petraglia, and almost immediately he became an intrinsic part of their world, tutoring them on how to write a song.

With some guidance from the younger ears of Jared and Matthew, Nathan and Caleb pivoted to rock’n’roll, writing a song called “California Waiting,” which secured them a record deal with RCA, the same label as the Strokes. There was one catch: the label wanted to put a band together for them. In a risky act of defiance, the Followills rejected the offer and instead they told the execs they would bring in their young brother and cousin and put together their own band. They told RCA to give them six weeks to put something together.

And so in 1999 the two brothers recruited their younger sibling Jared, who was only 14 at the time, to play bass, an instrument he had never ever touched. At first he wasn’t happy with the instrument assignment, thinking bass was too uncool, but he decided to give it a shot.

They also kidnapped their cousin Matthew from Mississippi, telling his mom that they’d bring him back after a week. Matthew had only taken two guitar lessons, and they had to buy him a guitar but just like they became a proper rock band. And for the next month, the Followills locked themselves in a basement, smoked a lot of weed and came up with some songs.

Of course, they still needed a name. Petraglia suggested going with one that leaned into their religious connections, like Kings Of Zion. While they turned that idea down they did come up with something close: Kings

There’s quite simply nothing more fascinating in pop music than the ‘sleeper hit’. I can only imagine how a band or artist feels when they introduce themselves to the world to little to no fanfare… then have to swallow their pride, keep on plugging away - and then suddenly blow up almost retroactively. 

The rollercoaster ride of ups and downs that surrounded the release of their breakthrough hit 'Mr Brightside' is an example of Rock Music's greatest sleeper hits in 2003… or is it 2004? 2005? It's not that simple.

This is the true story of The Killers' Mr. Brightside, with newly unearthed audio from the band themselves, and Rob Stevenson - the man who 'discovered' the band.

Also contains references to this great oral history of the band