THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

16. THE KINKS: You Really Got Me/ It's Alright (1964) Thanks to Dave Davies' guitar distortion, You Really Got Me is credited with inventing heavy metal. It's equally a paradigm of visceral '60s beat economy. Its primeval riff, clipped verses and stomping chorus cut a swathe through the docile jangle of 1964 pop. Of course, distortion had been around...

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CULT RECORD: MINUTEMEN: "DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME" (1984)

The Minutemen made punk rock that sounded like overheard conversation, with brief, angular song fragments flowing together in thew rhythm of babble. Guitarist/ vocalist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley mixed and matched these fragments with the surgical precision of beboppers, splicing their hardcore rant with folkie didding and...

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CULT MOVIE: TROUBLE MAN (1972)

"So man if you don't dig this super cool black... stay away from the box office you motherf--." That, at least, was how one critic greeted the arrival of the original Mr T-- not the A-Team star, but the hero of this blaxploitation film. Another reviewer obviously felt threatened by Hooks' bullet-proof private eye ( who can close halls with a stern...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

18. THE SMITHS: How Soon Is Now/ Well I Wonder (1985) Sire boss Seymour Stein called it, "the Stairway To Heaven of the '80s" which may well be on the money. Certainly, it's expansive, ambitious--and, importantly, formed the musical backdrop to many a teenage night out. In that sense, it's a great Saturday night record-- but only if you've endured...

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CULT RECORD: PRIMUS: "FRIZZLE FRY" (1990)

If the Melvins had chops, if Rush did acid, if the Police were skatepunks and smart enough to like metal-- well, none of them could have been Primus, a band as hopelessly original as Don Knotts or the platypus. Such invocations are useful, though, if only to derail the more looming one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom theb Bay Area trio shares...

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CULT MOVIE: AI NO CORRIDA (1976)

This tale of obsessive sex between an innkeeper and a servant was seized by US customs in the year of its release, hit by an obscenity charge in Japan and only came to British cinemas in 1991. The appeal may pale if your passion for onscreen passion doesn't match the director's but this is no porn film. For once, the sex really is vital to the development...

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MY TOP 10

BY NICK HORNBY 1. THE PREMIERS Farmer John Warner 2. THE CONTOURS Do You Love Me? Oriole 3. FATS DOMINO Let The Four Winds Blow London 4. SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON Help Me Pye International 5. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Diddy Wah Diddy A&M 6. LOU CHRISTIE I'm Gonna Make You Mine Buddah 7. ROD STEWART AND THE FACES You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything Warner...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

20. CHUCK HIGGINS: Broke/ I'll Be There (1954) Usually at home on low-budget LA labels, the summer of '54 saw honking Hollywood sax man Chuck Higgins in the relative splendour of Specialty, working with pianist HB Barnum and future James Brown guitarist Jimmy Nolen. A  carefree tale of high times and squandered riches, Broke is a brazen celebration...

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CULT RECORD: DAVID BOWIE: "THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS" (1972)

David Bowie has a justly earned rep as a karma chameleon, repackaging himself as Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, the Man Who Fell to Earth, and various other disguises. But his enduring persona, the one that owns him body and soul, is Major Tom, the glam-rock space cadet, too beautiful for physical desires, who floats above the audience in a ghostly...

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CULT MOVIE: BOOGIE NIGHTS (1992)

Wahlberg is the porn star (Dirk Diggler) who is so blessed by nature that if he hung around Newmarket when a race was going off he'd be dragged into a paddock. After a prolonged build up, we finally get see the organ known as Mr Torpedo Area at the end of this dazzling memoir of the 1970s porn business. Reynolds is excellent as a sleazy but sincere...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

22. THE CLASH: (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais/ The Prisoner (1978) Between their first two albums, The Clash were deeply into reggae, at one point recording with Lee Perry when he was staying in London. This rough-skanking tune came about at a reggae gig,where Joe Strummer entered into a searing meditation on the point of it all-- cultural exchange,...

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CULT RECORD: PUBLIC ENEMY:" IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK " (1988)

Public Enemy is, hands down, the most influential and important group in the history of hip hop. By roughly stitching together contrapuntal noise and prophetic rabble-rousing, the avant-garde group quickly became rap's conscience. The contrasting personalities of PE's duo-- straight man and heavy-duty lyricist Chuck D and trickster sidekick Flavor...

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CULT MOVIE: HALLOWEEN (1978)

The daddy of all those 1980s slasher movies(including its own five sequels-- Part III, Season Of The Witch doesn't count), this grips from the opening long single take that introduced the world to Michael Myers. Fifteen years after slashing his sister to death and being institutionalized, Myers returns to his hometown of Haddonfield for a knife-wielding...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

24. THE PREMIERS: Farmer John/ Duffy's Blues (1964)  In two short years, The Premiers made it from the barrios of East LA to Hollywood, where they cut this furious party number. Despite those high-pitched screams, Farmer John was recorded in a studio, rather than, " live at the Rhythm Room" as the label proclaims. The girls were brought in from...

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CULT RECORD: PSYCHEDELIC FURS: " TALK TALK TALK " (1981)

"You didn't leave me anything/ That I can understand/ Now I'm left with all of this/ A room full of your trash." Richard Butler's plaintive cry to a disorganized ex-lover, from "All of This & Nothing," could refer as easily to the Furs' messy career. At times a mess like a great party in progress, with honking horns and way over-flanged guitars...

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CULT MOVIE: NAKED LUNCH (1991)

Cronenberg's fantasy masterpiece interweaves various parts of writer William S Burroughs' bizarre novel with episodes from his real-life experiences. Bill Lee (Weller) accidentally shoots his own wife and is embroiled in dodgy dealing in a shadowy port called Interzone. Then his typewriter morphs into a giant cockroach. Viewers who are unfamiliar with...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

26. STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL: Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)/ Another Journey (1975) Written as a sardonic riposte to former band-mates who wanted to get in on the songwriting royalties, Harley hit on a pop formula that was as potent as it was unorthodox. Melodic, immediate and made pleasingly annoying by Harley's vocal affectations, there's...

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CULT RECORD: THROWING MUSES: "THROWING MUSES" (1986)

Throwing Muses' melodic hooks,willed riffs and hypnotic rhythms are islands rising out of chaos-- safe but slippery stones leading across a river of needs and disappointments. Originally a group of Newport, Rhode Island, teenagers inspired by Velvet Underground records to create odd songs with dark moods, the Muses have become an accomplished vehicle...

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CULT MOVIE: THE IPCRESS FILE (1965)

The first problem Furie, Caine and producer Harry Saltzman had when filming Len Deighton's novel was that the spy in it didn't have a name. They wanted a really boring name and Caine finally said Harry was the most boring name he could think of. There was a stunned silence while Saltzman's acolytes waited to see if the boss would take umbrage. But...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

28. THE WHO: Won't Get Fooled Again/ I Don't Even Know Myself (1971) It doesn't sound like the greatest idea: hauling Pete Townshend's eight-minute treatise on the contradictions of revolution off Who's Next; crudely hacking down its synth parts and ensemble passages; and squeezing it on to a 7-inch single. In fairness, though, enough of the song's...

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CULT RECORD: THE SLITS: " CUT " (1979)

In the punk movie Jubilee, Derek Jarman cast the Slits as a wild girl gang marauding the streets of London. That was how the Slits liked to project themselves: as urban primitives who'd just picked up their instruments for the first time-- which most of them had. Viv Albertine, Ari Up, Tessa Pollite and Palmolive launched the Slits in 1977 (Albertine...

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CULT MOVIE: BLUE VELVET (1986)

Repellent, fascinating, surreal-- this is the kind of film for which critics ransack their entire vocabulary of adjectives. Never comfortable viewing, with the tone set from the opening shot of impossibly blue skies and white fences contrasted with wet, dark beetles. MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont, a character with certain similarities to the director...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

30. DAVID BOWIE: Changes/ Andy Warhol (1972) He'd had three UK flop singles since Space Oddity, and this fared little better in the charts. His debut single on RCA-- and the opening track on the Hunky Dory LP -- represented a sea change for both Bowie and pop music. A charged, accusatory lyric, a colourful volley of piano and sax and then you're into...

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CULT RECORD: SCREAMING TREES: "SWEET OBLIVION" (1992)

Northwest indie rockers back when grunge was still just something that ringed your bathtub, the Screaming Trees have spent their entire career trying to reconcile punk and classic rock. Singer Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, his brother bassist Van Conner, and drummer Mark Pickerel erupted from Ellensburg, a dull cow-town on the wrong side...

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CULT MOVIE: ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)

James Caan turned down Nicholson's role because there'd be "too many white walls", a fact for which we and Jack should be eternally grateful. Nicholson and his character Randle McMurphy seem to merge in this harrowing tale of life and rebellion in an asylum. Many of the group therapy scenes were refilmed with actors adding detail and nuance as they...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

32. IKE AND TINA TURNER: River Deep Mountain High/ I'll Keep You Happy (1966) Some records are cut so loud and dense that the needle can jump out of the grooves-- purpose-built for the heavy-weight arm of a jukebox. River Deep Mountain High isn't just dense; it's a black hole. Phil Spector's intention was to take R&B to a new dimension, sucking...

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CULT RECORD: NINE INCH NAILS: " THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL" (1994)

When Trent Reznor went gold in a genre that had never been there, singing "Head like a hole/ Black as your soul/ I'd rather die than give you control" on the first Lollapalooza tour, the key to his triumph wasn't just adding extra guitars to Pretty Hate Machine's teenybop death disco-- it was writing an industrial song with the word "I" in it. In the...

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CULT MOVIE: KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

Watch this and feel Hammer's pain. He's driven over a cliff, given a needle, knocked out by a blackjack, strapped to a bed and worked over by heavies and finally shot. Not since Rasputin has one man taken so much punishment and lived. Of course, the mad monk was finally thrown into a river with weights attached, one of the few kinds of violence not...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

34. CHIC: Good Times/ A W arm Summer Night (1979) Strip away the mirror balls and you'll find that Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were actually acute social observers. By the late '70's, the fruits on America's vine were withering; recession was taking hold and form its jet airliner take-off, Good Times was an ironic recreation of the Depression-era...

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CULT RECORD: ICE CUBE: "AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED" (1990)

Ice Cube's obsession lies in lyrically unearthing the horrors and subversive pleasures of the South Central ghettoes he helped cloak in rap mythology. Even when he misses the mark, the furious intelligence and rhetorical skill of his gangstAfronationalist aesthetic manages to provoke and inspire. Breaking with N.W.A at an extraordinarily young age...

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CULT MOVIE: THE DEER HUNTER (1978)

An epic stunner about the effects of the Vietnam War on the lives of the people from a small industrial town in Pennsylvania, especially three young steelworkers who enlist in the US army and find themselves caught up in a brutality they had never bargained for. The film is long (three hours) and slow in places, but this is a deliberate and effective...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

36. JANE WIELDIN: Rush Hour/ The End Of Love (1988) The first to bail from the Go-gos, in 1984, rhythm guitarist Jane Wieldin was widely considered "most likely to succeed" in the pop mainstream, on the strength of her self-titled debut album. But the affections of a fickle public eluded her until this 1988 single from her second album, Fur. The cutesy...

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CULT RECORD: SEBADOH: "SEBADOH III" (1992)

Freed from Dinosaur Jr. in 1989, tune machine Lou Barlow has chiseled out a body of work that spans the spectrum of '90s postpunk. Barlow has both followed post-Nirvana moves toward the mainstream by making the sloppy college-radio fave Sebadoh into a tight construction of indie tune and hard rock, while continuing to lead the lo-fi avant-garde, reinterpreting...

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CULT MOVIE: CECIL B. DEMENTED (2000)

Griffith reminds everyone what a fine comic actress she can be in this affectionate satire about the movie business. She plays a star who is kidnapped by a cult leader (Dorft) to be used as part of his revolutionary assault on mainstream cinema. Griffith queens it as an egomaniac star who is made over to look more and more like Waters' departed muse...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

38. THE SKATALITES: Guns Of Navarone/ Marcus Garvey (1967) One of the foremost pioneers of Jamaican music, The Skatalites were together for just over a year, but in that time they invented ska; a bold, boisterous mix of R&B, bebop, big band swing and Latin rhythms, courtesy of trombonist Don Drummond. They backed a who's who of reggae stars, including...

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CULT RECORD: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: "THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO" (1967)

It's not just that the Velvets redefined rock as bohemian underground rather than youth culture. It's that their underground sound proved nearly as big, as spacious and fertile, as rock. As all aboveground rock. One band's sound. Now, when punk is your image of  rock you prize rebellion above sound: Iggy Pop or Johnny Rotten's ability to freeze...

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CULT MOVIE: "WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY" (1971)

Dahl's work has a streak of cruelty in it which children familiar with such fairy tales as Hansel and Gretel quickly latch on to. Most of the children who win a tour of a chocolate factory come to decidedly sticky ends. Wilder plays Wonka superbly, at times seeming firm but fair and at others downright perverse. Keep an eye out for the scene where...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

40. LOU CHRISTIE: I'm Gonna Make You Mine/ I'm Gonna Get Married (1969) Lou's bubblegum smash was the perfect accompaniment to days bunked off school in the corner cafe. The falsetto washed the tea down, the harpsichord and bicycle bell percussion sound-tracked the daydreams. The A-side was penned by Tony Romeo, then of The Trout, later to rackup hits...

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CULT RECORD: THE CARS: "CANDY-O" (1979)

The Cars defined the wing of American synth-pop that wanted to brush your rock'n'roll hair. They were Lou Reed fans who cheerfully mixed glossy keyboards with rockist guitar hooks. Ric Ocasek tried laughably hard to sound jaded and ironic (" alienation is the craze," eh?), but that only made his songs of adolescent yearning sound gawkier, and therefore...

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CULT MOVIE: BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952)

In the course of this curious movie, Lugosi ( a mad scientist on- hey!- a jungle- covered Pacific island) injects a de-evolution serum into " entertainer" Duke Mitchell, turning him into a single gorilla. After watching 74 minutes of this film, the only rational conclusion is that a similar serum must have been used on Beaudine and scriptwriter Tim...

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THE 100 SINGLES YOU MUST OWN

42. FRANKIE VALLI AND THE SEASONS:The Night/ When The Morning Comes (1972) Recorded during a brief spell at Motown, The Night is an unusual blend of the group's early harmony pop and their Valli-less disco hits. It opens with a touch of menace: a creepy bass-line over a church organ, and the guys breathing: "Beware of his promise..." Suddenly, the...

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CULT RECORD: ROXY MUSIC: "SIREN" (1975)

Nobody really knows where Bryan Ferry came from. All you can tell from Roxy Music's records is that at a tender age, Bryan suffered a vision of beauty too intense for mortal eye. Ever since, he's been condemned to wander the earth in exile, haunted by its memory, changing wardrobes every twenty minutes and mixing great martinis. Not a bad trick, coming...

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CULT MOVIE: BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)

Despite Warner Bros giving the film only a limited release and the critical slaughtering at the hands of New York Times critic Bosley Crowther ( he later changed his review and subsequently left the newspaper), the film became an unprecedented success with the public and created ( or so it seemed at the time) a new Hollywood. The old Hollywood wasn't...

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