Brian Wilson originally wrote the Beach Boys' classic 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Brian Wilson said ‘Be My Baby’ is ‘the greatest record ever produced’

The legendary Beach Boy was shocked the first time he heard the Ronettes’ song. “I was driving and I had to pull over to the side of the road — it blew my mind.” He claims he spent his career trying in vain to do something as good. “It’s the greatest record ever produced. No one will ever top that one.”

The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’ is a quintessential ‘wall of sound’ record

The 1963 single features one of the most recognizable drum beats in the world; many critics consider the song the greatest pop recording of all time. If nothing else, it’s a definitive example of both the classic girl group sound and Phil Spector’s ingenious ‘Wall of Sound.’

Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys were an influence on early punk rock

The Beach Boys' sunny sound profoundly influenced early punk acts like the Ramones, who took Brian Wilson's sugary hooks and ramped up the tempo.

Phil Spector’s Philles Records was home to several definitive girl group singles

The label, formed by Spector and Lester Sill, released most of Spector’s early “Wall of Sound” recordings, including the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” and the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.” This 1963 compilation, “Philles Records Presents Today’s Hits,” collects some of the label’s early hits.

Carole King regrets writing a song excusing domestic violence

While working at the Brill Building, Carole King became one of the architects of the classic girl group sound, penning hits like the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day.” One song she regrets writing, though, is the Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss),” a song she now believes normalizes domestic violence.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The classic girl group sound arrived with doo-wop

Doo-wop was a vocal-based pop music popular in the ‘50s that coincided with the rise of early rock ‘n’ roll. The mid-tempo, harmony-heavy songs about teenage life provided the template for the girl group sound, which arrived at the end of the decade.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles

Although the quartet was already a sensation in Great Britain, Capitol Records turned down the opportunity to release "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You," licensing them instead to a smaller independent label in Chicago.

Stan Getz initially didn't want to release 'The Girl from Impanema'

According to Stan Getz's son, Nick Getz, the legendary saxophonist thought the song was not a good fit for "Getz/Gilberto" because Astrud Gilberto's voice was too unprofessional. That low regard was reflected in the record's credits: Astrud Gilberto was allegedly paid $120 for the recording session and received no royalties for the song.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' 'Islands in the Stream' was written by the Bee Gees

The Gibbs originally penned the song for themselves, but the brothers didn’t think it was the right fit, so they reworked it as an R&B number with Diana Ross or Marvin Gaye in mind; however, nothing came of those ideas. It was then pitched to country star Kenny Rogers, who wasn’t sure he was the right fit, though Barry Gibb convinced him it would work as a duet with Parton, who was recording in a nearby studio.

Stephen King's basement inspired a Ramones classic

The horror writer was a fan of the band and invited them to his home in Maine. While hanging out in the basement, Dee Dee Ramone, the band's bassist, stole away with a copy of King's "Pet Sematary" and wrote a song about it. The song appeared in the film adaptation of the book, which began shooting a month later.

Motown Records used the assembly line for songwriting

In the 1960s, Motown Records was the world's most reliable rock 'n' roll label and the home of the Supremes. That success was largely due to its songwriting process, a finely tuned assembly line model inspired by Motown owner Berry Gordy's time working at the Ford Motor Company.

The Ramones' debut album went gold 38 years after it was released

The 1976 album from the influential New York band featured classic tracks like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Beat on the Brat.” That didn’t translate to sales, though, at least not for many decades: The album didn’t sell more than 500,000 copies (earning gold certification) until 2014.

Few realized Connee Boswell used a wheelchair

The original American girl group, the Boswell Sisters, toyed with jazz standards by experimenting with challenging renditions. The group became a popular radio act during the 1920s and 1930s, with few of their fans aware that group leader Connee Boswell used a wheelchair.

Minnelli collaborated with Pet Shop Boys on an album in the 1980s

Her 1989 album "Results" was a rare venture into contemporary pop. Produced by the British pop duo, the tracks are dark and synthy, infused with Minnelli's show-tune background. Music videos that resulted, like for the song "Losing My Mind," are also shot in a style reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Billboard's first No. 1 single was Tommy Dorsey Orchestra's 'I'll Never Smile Again'

The song was No. 1 on Billboard’s Best Selling Retail Records chart, the predecessor to the Hot 100. The chart only measured record copies sold, excluding other indicators of popularity, like sheet music sales or jukebox plays, that were used on other charts.

David Bowie tried to hire Norman Rockwell for the cover of 'Young Americans'

The Thin White Duke thought the iconic artist, known for his classic Americana, would be the perfect artist for his campy 1975 album, “Young Americans.” Bowie called the Rockwell residence and made the request, but was told that Rockwell would need around six months to complete the painting, which Bowie felt was too long.

'New wave' was coined for listeners put off by punk's ethos

The term was a reference to New Wave cinema, an iconoclastic, largely French form. Sire Records' Seymour Stein is believed to have pushed to use it to describe the label's bands, many of which came from the CBGB's scene, to avoid the negative associations with "punk rock." Sire ran a promotional campaign named "Don't Call It Punk" that made that message clear.

Prince removed the bass from 'When Doves Cry,' creating the song's unique sound

It was an unorthodox choice, especially for someone associated with funk music, a genre that relies on prominent bass lines, but Prince wanted the song—written in the 11th hour for "Purple Rain"—to have more space. It worked: The song wound up as the lead single for the album and went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Fearing the corruption of its youth, Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll in 1956.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Before the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed was a workaday songwriter

His job at Pickwick Records, a label that churned out budget records for department stores, was to crank out generic pop fare. One of those songs was 1964’s “The Ostrich,” a dance song in the style of Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” and Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion.”

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

The 'Jeopardy!' theme was originally written as a lullaby

Merv Griffin originally composed the song in 1963 as a way to help his son Tony fall asleep and claims he wrote it in less than a minute. The song, played during Final Jeopardy!, is called "Think." It's estimated that the song alone has earned Griffin over $100M.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Daniel Johnston's home recordings have inspired countless rock legends

The singer-songwriter self-released cassettes in the early '80s that were not fit for the radio—their sound quality was poor, and the songs were often little more than an organ and Johnston's high-pitched voice, singing about things like Casper the Friendly Ghost. The tapes eventually found their way to alternative tastemakers, who lauded the songs' brilliance and inspired a cult following that has admired Johnston's music for decades.

Many iconic Christmas songs were written by Jewish composers

Jewish songwriters shaped the sound of Christmas, composing hits like “Let it Snow” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, wrote “White Christmas, which remains the bestselling single in music history.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

TikTok is resurrecting sampled songs

Rapper Doechii's song "Anxiety" has become a bona fide chart hit. Interestingly, its popularity on TikTok propelled Gotye's "Somebody I Used to Know" (the song Doechii's song samples) and Sleep Hallow's "A N X I E T Y" (a song that samples the Doechii song) onto the charts as well.

'Steamboat Willie' was inspired by 'The Jazz Singer'

Walt Disney was mesmerized by Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" and the way it used synchronized sound, which synced film with audio. He replicated that effect in “Steamboat Willie," producing the first animated film to do so.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.