Albums we bought because we liked the title

Albums we bought because we liked the title

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold March 1, 2026 Duration: 46:55

Spinning sides at the conversational disco to see what fills the dancefloor, which this week includes …

 

… Jerry Garcia had seven fingers! Brian Jones had seven children! Morrissey worked for the Inland Revenue!

 

… the most terrifying villain in the history of cinema  

 

... is pop music becoming inbred?

 

… when Neil Sedaka made records with 10cc (and Abba)

 

… Happy? Get Lucky? Crazy In Love? What was the last hit single the whole world seemed to be singing?

 

… Noddy Holder, Kim Wilde, Robert Wyatt, Gary Numan: what makes you a National Treasure?

 

… rock and roll puns and double-entendres

 

… “drawn from the national conversation”: the divine Englishness of the Pet Shop Boys

 

… the Gilded Palace of Sin, In The Court of the Crimson King and other records we bought because of the title

 

… and acts wiped out by the Beatles “like corn before the sickle”.


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
Podcast Episodes
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