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Song Stories

“The Heart Gently Weeps”

Wu-Tang Clan | 2007

On the 2007 Wu-Tang Clan album 8 Diagrams, group leader and producer RZA decided to go for something a little bit different. “The whole trick is, 'Will you be satisfied with the unexpected?'" he told Rolling Stone. In this case, that meant using the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” as the basis for a song called "The Heart Gently Weeps." RZA recruited John Frusciante and George Harrison’s son, Dhani, to play guitar on the track. "Dhani is super-professional," he said. “I try to explain that to the hip-hop people, because sometimes we all stuck on this money s---, but if you do music first, money is going to come."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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