Record Shopping With Florence and the Machine

When she dropped into New York in early April, singer Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine invited Rolling Stone to tag along for an epic record-shopping excursion. On her killer debut album Lungs, Welch delivers piano-pop anthems with an arty, avant-garde bent, so it made sense to head over to Other Music, the independently owned shop that specializes in more obscure, left-of-center records.

Welch managed to find plenty to purchase, including new records from her favorite acts Goldfrapp, Holly Miranda and Liars. Her grand total? Fifty-five bucks. Welch also revisited some of her old favorites and told RS about the impact those records had on her life and work. While eyeing a deluxe edition box set of the Beatles' Abbey Road, Welch said, "This is the first Beatles album I ever heard. And I loved it! For some strange reason I was really anti-Beatles. My step-dad was into the Beatles and my dad was into the Stones. So I was always in the Stones camp, until someone gave me [Abbey Road] for Christmas." Watch the full clip above.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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