Dylan’s previous album, Down In The Groove, released a year earlier, had seen disappointing sales (peaking at No. 61 in the US and No. 32 in the UK), along with unanimous negative reviews. After 25 years of releasing records, Dylan’s sales were not good. It appeared that America’s finest singer/songwriter had hit a creative slump. The times were indeed a-changin'.

In late 1987, Bob was recovering from a hand injury and at home wrote "Political World," his first new song in a long time. The singer then had a rush of inspiration and during the first few weeks of 1988 wrote “Dignity,” “Everything Is Broken,” and ‘What Good Am I.” By the second month of the year, Dylan had over 20 new songs. With his hand injury still healing, he stored all the new songs in a drawer.

In the spring of '88, during a US tour with his group U2, Bono paid Dylan a visit at his home. When he asked Dylan if he had written any new songs, Dylan showed him the ones stored in his drawer. Bono enthused about them and told Dylan he had to get back in the studio and start recording. The Irish singer also suggested working with Canadian producer and Grammy award winner Daniel Lanois, who had produced U2’s last two studio albums, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. Bob knew of Lanois, who had also worked with his one-time collaborator, Robbie Robertson, on his solo album. (If you’ve never heard it, check out Lanois’ 1989 solo effort Acadie).

Dylan decided to hire Lanois and sessions started later in the year in New Orleans. Dylan didn’t want to use his tour band for these sessions so local musicians were hired including guitarists Mason Ruffner and Brian Stoltz, bassist Tony Hall, and drummer Willie Green as well as Lanois himself who played lap steel, dobro and guitar.

Dylan later stated in his autobiography that the sessions were at times very difficult. Bob would lay down a new take of a song and then leave the studio while the producer and band would continue to work on it. Returning to the studio, Dylan was not always happy with the results.

Despite all this, something magical happened during these sessions as the finished album proves. "Ring Them Bells," "Political World" (which finds him once again in protest mode), "Where Teardrops Fall," and “Everything Is Broken” (with its wonderful blues shuffle and blues harmonica) all showed Dylan was well and truly back on form.

The atmospheric production gave the album an edge, and Bob seemed to have been rejuvenated; maybe working with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys had helped him turn a corner. Whatever the reason, America’s finest singer/songwriter was back.

When released, it was hailed by critics as a triumph, and the fans agreed. Oh Mercy gave Dylan his best chart showing in years, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard charts in the United States and No. 6 in the UK.

Very few musician have influenced the music and the culture of their times as Bob Dylan has and every artist experiences highs and lows during his or her career — the Rolling Stones, Springsteen, Lennon, McCartney... everyone. Oh Mercy gave Dylan and his fans a new lease on life and saw Bob exiting the '80s on a high point. In my opinion, it is his least appreciated classic and at times points to what were to become some of his finest albums: 2006’s Modern Times and 2009’s Together Through Life. 

This is where it all began for Pink Floyd. Spotted by US label Elektra’s UK representative Joe Boyd, at London’s UFO Club, the label couldn’t agree on a deal, so Boyd took them in to his studio of choice, Sound Techniques in London’s Chelsea, and produced “Arnold Layne” himself, with a view to starting his own independent label. However, the recording was paid for by the band’s agent, Bryan Morrison, so Pink Floyd were free to go where they liked, which ended up being EMI.

Joe Boyd was vindicated by the release of his production as Pink Floyd’s first single, their first hit. EMI’s designated producer, Norman Smith, apparently found it difficult to replace the single’s sound, engineered by Sound Techniques' co-owner John Wood, and the band returned to Sound Techniques to cut the follow-up single “See Emily Play,” although this time without Boyd.

Pink Floyd’s debut single and its B side “Candy and a Currant Bun” were recorded between 23 January and 1 February 1967, and shortly afterwards the band turned professional, signing with EMI and releasing “Arnold Layne” on March 10.

Written by Syd Barrett, the song that sealed their pop-psychedelic reputation was inspired by a real-life underwear thief who stole women’s clothes from Cambridge washing lines. Roger Waters stated, “Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and 'Arnold', or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines.” The mystery thief was never caught.

“Arnold Layne” peaked at No. 20 in the UK chart, despite having been banned by some UK stations, including Radio London, due to the supposedly risqué lyrical content. It was released on 24 April 1967 in the US, but the single failed to chart.

A black and white promo clip was filmed on the beach in East Wittering, Sussex, featuring the band members interacting with a tailor’s mannequin, while a further clip has recently surfaced. Filmed for French TV show Bauton Rouge, it shows Pink Floyd cavorting in some woods, beside a lake, and in front of a church.

“Arnold Layne” wasn’t originally included on the band's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn but it has since been featured on numerous compilation albums, including Echoes, the career-spanning Best Of, and a three-disc version of Piper released in 2007.

David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason played “Arnold Layne” at the Barbican, London as part of the Syd Barrett tribute show, Madcap's Last Laugh, on May 10, 2007.

The group decided on a double album so they could feature songs left over from their previous albums Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV, and Houses Of The Holy. Physical Graffiti was Led Zeppelin's sixth album, their first double, and the first on their own Swan Song Records label. The title was the idea of Jimmy Page to illustrate the sheer slapdash energy of the album. 

After reuniting at Headley Grange, where the band had previously recorded songs from Led Zeppelin III onwards, Zeppelin wrote and recorded eight songs, the combined length of which stretched the album beyond the typical length of an LP. This prompted the band to make Physical Graffiti a double album by including previously unreleased tracks from earlier recording sessions.

It is the only Zeppelin album to feature John Paul Jones playing additional guitar on some tracks.

Graffiti received glowing reviews. Rolling Stone said the double album was "the band's Tommy, Beggar's Banquet and Sgt. Pepper rolled into one: Physical Graffiti is Led Zeppelin's bid for artistic respectability." Billboard magazine's five-star review stated: "[Physical Graffiti] is a tour de force through a number of musical styles, from straight rock to blues to folky acoustic to orchestral sounds." In 1998 Q readers voted Physical Graffiti the 28th-greatest album of all time.

The Physical Graffiti sleeve design features a photograph of a New York City tenement block, two five-story buildings located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City. The images on the interchanging windows of the cover included a picture of drummer John Bonham wearing ladies tights (taken during a Roy Harper gig in London) and both Robert Plant and tour manager Richard Cole in drag, along with an array of legendary faces including: astronaut Neil Armstrong, The Virgin Mary, rock and roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis, and German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich.

On its first day of release in the US, the album shipped a million copies; no other album in the history of Atlantic Records had generated so many sales.

Many critics say that his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass is the finest solo Beatles effort and truly established Harrison as an equal to Lennon and McCartney. But the success of the song was marred by a long-running legal battle which in 1976 saw Harrison being found guilty of 'subconscious plagiarism' of the Ronnie Mack song “He's So Fine.” Earnings from the song were awarded to Mack's estate; the Chiffons, who had scored a hit with “He's So Fine” in the early '60s, then recorded their own version of “My Sweet Lord.”

By the end of the Beatles, George had accumulated hundreds of songs, many of which found a home on All Things Must Pass. “My Sweet Lord” was originally intended for Billy Preston.

In December, 1969, George was playing in Copenhagen, Denmark with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. Billy Preston was part of that group. Harrison told the court that the song that became "My Sweet Lord" was conceived when he slipped away from a press conference and began "vamping" some guitar chords, fitting the chords to the words "hallelujah" and "hare Krishna." Later, members of the band joined in and lyrics were developed.

Upon returning to London, a few weeks later, Preston went into the studio to make an album, with Harrison producing. The unfinished "My Sweet Lord" was brought up, and was worked into a finished version. This recording was issued by Apple Records, and a "lead sheet" containing the melody, words, and harmony was submitted for the United States copyright application. George then later recorded his own version of the song during the All Things Must Pass sessions.

In an interview published in the November 27, 1992 issue of Goldmine magazine, Harrison stated that the events that occurred during the litigation of a claim that he had plagiarized the melody for "My Sweet Lord" would fill a book.

At that trial, the judge was called upon to make an analysis of the music of both “He’s So Fine” and “My Sweet Lord,” and Harrison himself testified about the process that occurred in writing his song. The Court noted that “He’s So Fine” incorporated two basic musical phrases, which were called "motif A" and "motif B." Motif A consisted of four repetitions of the notes G-E-D, while B was G-A-C-A-C. The experts for each party agreed that this was a highly unusual pattern.

The judge said it was "perfectly obvious that the two songs were virtually identical," but was convinced that neither Harrison nor Preston consciously set out to appropriate the melody. Harrison conceded that he had heard “He’s So Fine” prior to writing “My Sweet Lord,” and therefore, his subconscious knew the combination of chords in the song.

The Chiffons did a fine version of the Harrison classic and some would say Harrison had done the same! Around the time that the ruling was handed down Harrison himself stated, "99% of popular music that can be heard is reminiscent of something or other."

It’s one of those songs, isn’t it? A timeless classic which can still, to this day, send a shiver down the spine. The single won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1971.

Paul Simon wrote the song while his partner Art Garfunkel was filming in Europe for the black comedy Catch-22 that starred Alan Arkin. The duo were coming to the end of their relatively short career, tensions were high, and by the time their fifth and final studio album was in the charts, Simon and Garfunkel were no longer.

Paul Simon told Rolling Stone in 1972 that he now regrets his insistence that Art Garfunkel sing this song as a solo, as it focused attention on Garfunkel and relegated Simon to a secondary position. Art initially did not want to sing the lead vocal, feeling it was not right for him, stating that Simon should have sung the song. But after all these years, as a listener, you can’t imagine anyone else but Art singing this beautiful song. 

When Simon first presented the song to Garfunkel it had just two verses and the singer suggested Simon pen another verse, which he did. The final verse was written about Simon's then-wife Peggy Harper, who had noticed her first gray hairs, inspiring the line, "Sail on, silver girl." The first two verses had been recorded in New York and the final new verse was laid down in a studio in Los Angles.

Simon has also said he took inspiration from the Swan Silvertones' 1958 song "Mary Don't You Weep," which includes the line "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me."

So many great artists have recorded the song. Aretha Franklin saw her version reach No.1 on the US R&B chart. The Supremes, Dionne Warwick, The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, and Whitney Houston all delivered their own soulful versions.

Arguably the most famous cover of the song was by Elvis Presley, who recorded it in Nashville in 1970 for his album That's The Way It Is. The song became a permanent fixture in his sets in Las Vegas. During one season in Vegas, Paul Simon attended one of the shows, and, after seeing Elvis perform the song, was reported to have said, "That's it, we might as well all give up now."

Presley continued to use this song throughout all his live performances, including his final live appearance in Indianapolis on June 26, 1977.

Bridge Over Troubled Water has since sold over 25 million copies worldwide making it one of the best selling albums of all-time and I’m not surprised. Along with the title track, other classics on the album include “The Boxer,” “The Only Living Boy in New York,” ‘Cecilia,” and “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)”.

So the duo who had started life known as Tom & Jerry in 1957 bowed out on an almighty high, but like all great stars, they returned — their 1981 Concert in New York's Central Park attracted more than 500,000 people, making it the seventh most highly attended concert in the history of music.

And what of Tom and Jerry? Well, we all know the story: Art went off and did a bit of acting and made a few solo records and Mr Simon went on to make some of the finest albums of the '80s and is still making great records today. 

It’s a tough call knowing which way to turn after you lose your friend and band member. Zeppelin decided to call it a day after the death of their drummer John Bonham, who was found dead at guitarist Jimmy Page's house during band rehearsals. Jimi Hendrix went in a similar way, as have many other musicians. In the July 2004 issue of Classic Rock, Scott was rated as number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen Of All Time" ahead of Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant, which just shows how much respect and admiration Scott has gained over the years since his untimely demise.

Like his future band mates Angus and Malcolm Young, Scott was born in Scotland; his family emigrated to Australia in 1952 along with thousands of other Brits who were tempted by a new life down under. The Scotts settled in Freemantle in Western Australia. His father, who worked as a baker, was also a keen piper and through this a young Scott started his musical career as a drummer in a bagpipe band. He continued with this until he was 17 when he won a Novice Champion for his drumming.

After working as a postman, bartender, and truck packer, Scott formed his first band, The Spektors, in 1964 where he played drums and also sang. A couple of years later he formed The Valentines who had a local hit with a song called "Every Day I Have To Cry". During this period, The Valentines supported The Easybeats, where Bon met George Young, the elder brother of Angus and Malcolm Young, whom he would later join in AC/DC.

Scott's next group, Fraternity, found themselves opening shows for British groups Deep Purple, Free, and Black Sabbath as they toured Australia. Bon's life as a musician was taking shape. In 1972 he toured the UK where they opened for Status Quo. The Oz band changed their name to Fang where they also found themselves supporting Geordie, who ironically featured singer Brian Johnson. Two years later and back in Australia, Scott was offered the job as lead singer with AC/DC who had just sacked their singer.

During the next four years AC/DC worked nonstop, sometimes playing three gigs in one day. The group played everywhere and anywhere in Australia as well as touring Europe and the US, gaining cult status as one of the best new hard rock bands on the planet. Their 1979 album Highway to Hell reached the top 20 in the United States, and the band seemed on the verge of a commercial breakthrough. However, on 19 February 1980, Scott died after a night out in London.

Scott, who was just 33 at the time, passed out after a night of heavy drinking at the Music Machine in London. He was left to sleep in a Renault 5 owned by his friend Alistair Kinnear, at 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, South London. The following afternoon, Kinnear found Scott lifeless, and alerted the authorities. Scott was rushed to King's College Hospital in Camberwell, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Pulmonary aspiration of vomit was the cause of Scott's death, and the official cause was listed as "acute alcohol poisoning" and "death by misadventure." Scott was cremated and his ashes were interred by his family at Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle, Western Australia.

AC/DC briefly considered disbanding, but the group quickly recruited vocalist Brian Johnson of the British glam rock band Geordie. AC/DC's subsequent album, Back in Black, was released only five months later, and was a tribute to Scott. It went on to become the third best-selling album in history, behind Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon, and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Scott never saw or enjoyed the success that AC/DC went on to achieve, unlike Hendrix, Morrison, and Bonham, who all died too young, but lived long enough to enjoy some fame and fortune. Mr Scott, we salute you.

CBS quickly cut away from the scene but was still flooded with calls from angry viewers about the halftime entertainment, produced by MTV. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident, saying, "I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl."

I’d never heard the expression "wardrobe malfunction" up until then. Now everybody was using it. So was it an accident or a brilliant publicity stunt? And you might have known a member of the Jackson family was involved!

The irony of the whole episode known as Nipplegate is that, as we know, the media uses sex to sell everything—cars, sports, hotels, food, films, everything—but when an unexpected incident like this happens, everybody is up in arms. And do you know how long that breast was exposed? Nine-sixteenths of a second.

An estimated 140 million people were watching the show when, at the end, pop star Justin Timberlake popped off part of Jackson's corset. Janet explained that her red bra was supposed to remain after Justin pulled off the leather cover; her breast wasn't supposed to show. Jackson later explained that the decision to have a costume reveal at the end of her halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. The singer also apoligised, saying, “MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended - including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL."

Users of TiVo, the digital video recorder system that lets viewers pause and "rewind" live television broadcasts, apparently couldn't get enough of the fashion fiasco, a spokesperson said. "The audience measurement guys have never seen anything like it, the reaction charts looked like an electrocardiogram," making the moment the most re-watched ever during a broadcast.

In 2001, a US appeals court upheld its earlier decision throwing out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp for the split-second exposure.

The US Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in 2008 that the fine should be voided because the US Federal Communications Commission’s policy on indecency in broadcasting was arbitrary.

A few weeks after the event (and this could only happen in America), a woman filed a federal lawsuit seeking billions of dollars for herself and "all Americans who watched the halftime show" for their "outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury". I'm not sure how far she got with that one.

Anyway, I feel sorry for Justin Timberlake; he seems like such a nice young man. He put his musical career on hiatus to focus on acting after the incident. He later stated that he "probably got 10 percent of the blame," explaining that "America's harsher on women" and "unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”

And Janet, well, she’s a Jackson, she’s alright. And do I think it was planned? No I don’t, but we’ll never know, will we?