Video: Duffy Plays Acoustic Set at 'Rolling Stone'

British singer Duffy recently played an intimate acoustic set at the Rolling Stone's office, showcasing songs from her just-released second album Endlessly.

During the session, she talks about how she wrote nearly all of the songs on the album with Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.'s 66-year-old father Albert Sr., who has written or co-written hits like the Hollies' "Air That I Breathe," Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and Leo Sayer's "When I Need You." Duffy then performs the ballad "Don't Forsake Me."

Next, she explains how her collaboration came about with the Roots on the album version of "Well, Well, Well," and then plays the song with her touring band. During that performance, you'll also see the integral role that an empty beer bottle plays in the song's arrangement.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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