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When words alone fail to illuminate the confounding mysteries of the heart, music lends a hand. Whether it's unrequited love, a fleeting affair or love that lasts a lifetime, there's a song for it. NPR listeners share "their" songs — along with the stories of bliss, bitterness and bygone times that make the music meaningful.

In 1969, music producer Lou Adler assembled LA's top background singers for a gospel reading of Bob Dylan songs. NPR's Eric Westervelt speaks with Adler and Merry Clayton about the album's re-release.

If you're going to be downbeat, glum, or morose, it's best to do it the way Timothy Showalter does it.

Mark Helprin's sweeping midcentury novel, In Sunlight and In Shadow, describes a postwar New York in limbo. Helprin borrowed from his own experiences to write this tale of love and familial obligations. "It's all based on what I know and what I knew," he says.

This Christmas week we rebroadcast our series on American popular song. This one profiles composer Jerome Kern.

Traditionally, the folks at NPR Music make a list of their 100 favorite songs of the year. But this time, they expanded the list to 302 songs and made a really long mix tape.

Our Song of the Day, “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf, is the best-known song in the movie, "Easy Rider." This counter-culture film was released July 14, 1969.

Eliza Gilkyson wrote "Requiem" as a song of grief following last year's Asian tsunami. Now, after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, listeners are again turning to the song of prayer and comfort.

As part of our ongoing coverage of the civil rights movement and the summer of 1963, NPR Music has created a stream of more than 100 songs inspired by that era.

Athlete, army reservist, Rhodes scholar, janitor, helicopter pilot, singer, songwriter and actor - Kris Kristofferson led a full life. He died September 28, 2024 in Hawaii. He was 88. Sheldon Zoldan’s Song of the Day is paying tribute to the musicians, singers and songwriters who died in 2024.