Search results for

NPR's Scott Horsley reports on criticism directed at Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over the highest inflation rates in over 40 years.

In 1985, the British rock quartet Prefab Sprout released its second album Steve McQueen. Influenced as much by Tin Pan Alley as new wave, the record was both hailed and panned by British and American critics alike. Twenty-two years later, age — and a deluxe re-release — has served it well.

Rock legend Ray Davies joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss his career with the '60s British band The Kinks, and as a solo artist. He also describes a harrowing incident in New Orleans that nearly cost him his life.

From the late '70s to the early '90s, the zany dance-rock outfit did the "Rock Lobster," had its own "Private Idaho" and got together at the "Love Shack." Now, the band has produced Funplex — its first new album in 16 years.

Olivia Newton-John was one of the biggest pop stars in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the movie musical Grease, she starred as good girl Sandy Olson, who falls for a bad boy played by John Travolta.

In 1971, Motown founder Berry Gordy created MoWest, a California label that would last only two years before being dismantled. A new anthology documents this odd and little-known chapter in Motown's history.

Rock critic Ken Tucker says that Beyonce's new album, titled 4, is something of a risk – it's not merely a collection of new songs, but a personal reassessment of the kind of pop star she wants to be.

Elvis Presley is constantly being discovered by new generations, and by older fans in new stages of life. Critic Milo Miles talks about the surprise rewards he found while listening to the new reissue Elvis Is Back! — and during his first visit to Graceland in Memphis.

Broadway musicals of the 1960s were surprisingly good at explaining complicated economic matters. Before tourists took over the Great White Way, the "tired businessman" was the target audience. These four songs are particularly illustrative of the kind of vaudeville mixed with corporate-speak that the businessman favored.

The Canadian singer grew up watching old movies and musicals in London, Ontario. She took those influences and turned them into an album that sounds both old-fashioned and timeless. Its title is The Cricket's Orchestra.