50 years Tangerine Dream – 5 albums you should listen to

As I never tire to mention, I’m a big fan of the German electronic band Tangerine Dream and am heavily influenced by their work and their embracing of different styles and re-inventing themselves over the decades. Founded 50 years ago today and having released far over 100 albums, soundtracks and compilations, it’s hard to choose only a few favorites, or to tell anyone not familiar with the band where they should start listening. And although I’m doomed to fail, I’ll try anyway and present five Tangerine Dreams albums you should listen to – from classic times to more modern works.

Tangerine Dream through the years

5 songs everyone recognizes but don’t know the artist

Don’t you hate that: You know the song you’re just hearing but can’t remember the title or who the artist is. Well, you’re not alone – and there’s a big amount of songs that most people recognize, but don’t know the title, let alone the artist’s name. “Popcorn” probably is the perfect example: Everyone knows the bouncy melody, but who can honestly say, who recorded it? Some might know the version by Hot Butter – but that’s not the original…

5 songs you didn’t know were written by Pet Shop Boys

Not all famous artists write their songs themselves – but there’s a lot that do. And although I’m really interested in the “who wrote what”, there’s of course many where I don’t know that they were written by somebody else. Shame on me, I only discovered after his death, that Prince wrote The Bangles’ “Manic Monday”.

Source: Wikipedia

One of my favorite synthpop bands are Pet Shop Boys, and although I knew the obvious songs they wrote for other artists like Liza Minelli (“Losing My Mind”) and Dusty Springfield (“In Private”), there are more songs besides the big hits, that they wrote and not always recorded themselves later.