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

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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