When the Beatles arrived in the States for a second time, they stopped off for a couple of nights on their tour in Colorado towards the end of their scheduled run, and on the second night, they were blessed to have folk royalty in their midst in the form of Joan Baez.

As one of the most prominent female musicians of the 1960s British Invasion, Marianne Faithfull rubbed elbows with countless rockstars. Big egos, larger-than-life personalities, and a propensity for debauchery were all part of the music industry deal. But surprisingly, Faithfull had some of the highest praise for a rocker typically associated with the epitome of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

As the star teams up with director Michael Grandage for his first West End part in 17 years, the pair discuss the thrill of putting on a new play, how it updates Ibsen for our times – and a Trainspotting-esque toilet encounter in Russia

As much as Jackson is responsible for the highest-selling album of all time on vinyl, trailblazers came before him that made his achievements possible. Regardless of the era, selling one million copies of an album is an incredible accomplishment, and Harry Belafonte was the first to make chart history in this regard. Belafonte’s feat came in 1956, a decade before copies of Pet Sounds or Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band rested on the shelves of houses across the land.

When Simon was working on her second album Anticipation during the summer of ’71, Kristofferson offered her a song, “I’ve Got to Have,” which she recorded as the closing track. The song, which was released as a single in Australia, reached the Top 10, while her title track went to No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S.

The duo invented their own chord, which they could use to give their songs a jazz feel without being overly jazzy. It was called the Mu Major, and it was similar to a suspended second chord; however, it contained a major or minor third, which you don’t tend to see when dealing with suspended chords. This meant that they could play standard minor and major chords, but give them more texture without making the track sound too jazzy.

The Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof is perhaps best known as one of the organizers of Live Aid, the massive two-venue benefit concert that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1985.Some of the biggest artists and bands of all time came together for that concert, including Paul McCartney, Queen, Madonna, Elton John and David Bowie. But how exactly did Geldof convince them all to give up their time for free on the same day ?

Tourists have flocked to Woodstock, New York since the late 1960s, when word got out that rock stars and other musicians had moved there, and the town lent its name to the biggest event in rock music history, 1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair. Musician Amy Helm was born a year later in Woodstock and has seen the town’s popularity grow. Today, she only has warmth for visitors and reveals to them her favorite things locally and in the Hudson River Valley.

American singer-songwriter, poet, painter, author and human-rights advocate Patti Smith first found herself in New York during the hippie takeover of 1967, a politically charged summer of free love, activism and riots. She worked in two Manhattan bookstores, Scribner’s and The Strand, and wrote verse, which led to her forming the Patti Smith Group in which she fused her Rimbaud- and Blake-inspired poetry with the emerging punk rock scene.

Kidjo is known as a legendary singer, a five-time Grammy winner and one of the most lauded African artists of our time, but her path in music was almost cut short. Looking back, her life and work has really been defined by one thing : freedom.

Baez was already writing “Diamonds and Rust” when she received a phone call from Dylan. He called from a phone booth in the Midwest and read the lyrics to his song “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” Her song wasn’t about him initially. But she was writing about him now.

Four new songs recorded by Marianne Faithfull in the year prior to her death are to be released for Record Store Day on 12 April. Burning Moonlight was due for announcement in February, but postponed following Faithfull’s death on 30 January at the age of 78.