What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”

What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold August 24, 2026 Duration: 42:42

The original rock podcast - now in its 20th year! – knocks the week’s news across the conversational net. Amid the top-spin, rallies and double-faults, you’ll find …

 

… farcical developments in the Tupac trial

 

… the shock-horror reaction to the Sam Mendes Beatles’ wigs!

 

… Dave Marsh’s ‘1001 Greatest Singles’ in 1989: what 45s released since would make his Top 10?

 

… ‘If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me’, ‘I’ve Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart’: real or made-up Country song titles?

 

… “People buy albums because they like the band. They buy singles because they like the song”

 

… musicians who wrote a second memoir as the first one wasn’t all true

 

… the Stones single that’s streets ahead of their others

 

… the Hank Marvin Challenge: the correct facial expression when playing instrumentals!

 

… are the greatest singles the ones with the most emotional depth?

 

… and the mystery of ‘No Way Out’ by Joyce Harris.

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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: 50

Word In Your Ear
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