The Sons of the Pioneers pioneered one of the strangest branches of American music: singing cowboys.  Their 1934 song “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” made popular by a Gene Autry film of the same name, was written by Bob Nolan, a Canadian by birth who ...

The New Orleans piano player Henry Roeland Byrd made a name for himself as Professor Longhair, a former street hustler turned self-taught musician who started recording in his early 30s. In 1953 Atlantic records released "Tipitina." “As a kid you heard that song seven or eight times ...

Trout Mask Replica (1969) is part free jazz, part blues, part beat poetry. Frank Zappa (who gave singer-songwriter Don van Vliet the name Captain Beefheart) produced the album. “It sounds like it's been made up on the spot,” describes Mike Barnes, van Vliet’s biographer. “But in fact it was ...

Did you know there are audio recordings that predate Thomas Edison's phonograph by almost 20 years? The phonautogram was invented by a Frenchman named Eduoard Leon-Scott and patented in 1857, translating sound waves (shakily) onto sheets of paper. But for the last century ...

Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon, was the first album of all-electronic music. Released in 1967, it found favor with electronics geeks, as well as legions of stoners who soaked in its mind-blowing sounds.

The first song in our series is Howlin’ Wolf’s "Smokestack Lightning," a cornerstone of Chicago Blues. Howlin' Wolf's daughter and his longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin talk about the importance of his music.

"Radio Free Europe" was R.E.M.'s first single. It represents a breakthrough moment, when indie rock was splitting away from punk music to become its own sound. Engineer Mitch Easter, radio manager Mike Henry, and R.E.M.’s Mike Mills look back.

Bonus Track: R.E.M. Live at Tyrone's O.C. (1981)

This hit country song was written in 1970 by Loretta Lynn. With her plaintive, but proud voice, Lynn tells the story of growing up poor in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Lynn, Nashville veteran Harold Ray Bradley, and Jack White of The White Stripes explain what makes the song a classic.

This 1961 comedy routine by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner is about a man so old, he once knew Jesus — personally — and dated Joan of Arc. Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner explain why "2000 Year-Old Man" will live forever.

This guitar instrumental altered the course of rock music. The story of Link Wray and "Rumble," from 1958, is told by guitarist Steven Van Zandt, bassist James Hutchinson, and writer Brian Wright-McLeod.

This samba was recorded by the Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda in 1939. Dori Caymmi, the son of the songwriter, and biographer Martha Gil-Montero explain how the song brought Brazilian music to the global marketplace — with unforeseen consequences for Miranda.

Our series begins with John Lee Hooker's breakthrough song "Boogie Chillen". Blues veteran Charlie Musselwhite and writer Peter Guralnick explain how Hooker's 1948 song left its mark on American music.

One of this year's selections is a song so sad that George Jones was initially reluctant to record it. Yet it became one of the most popular songs in country music.