Shawn Mendes performs at Poptopia at SAP Center in San Jose on Dec. 1, 2018. He’s nominated for Song of the Year for “In My Blood” at the Grammys, held Feb. 10. Photo: Alessio Neri. Tomorrow night is the 61st annual Grammy Awards. The music world is supposedly buzzing,…

If I’ve gotten one complaint more than any other about this column, it’s literally all of 1979. But aside from that it’s definitely snubbing Pink Floyd. But other than that…OK, there’s a lot of stuff, you all hate me. For the purposes of today’s edition, though, the complaint I’m talking…

So you know how when I started this endeavor I set rules? Five songs per year, one song per band, qualifies in year of release, listed in chronological order? Pretty straightforward, right? For 1970 I’m breaking that first one. I didn’t realize it until this exercise but 1970 was…

Ah, 1968. So long ago, so different. Back then tensions were rising with North Korea, the United States was losing more and more troops in an unwinnable war, and black athletes were taking a controversial stand at major athletic events. Wait…huh… Anyway, the music was definitely better. Like last week’s…

Welcome to RIFF Rewind! Every week of 2018, we’ll highlight the top five songs of a different year as selected by our expert panel of tastemakers, by which, of course, I mean me (with help from my friends Robin St. Clare and Ash McGonigal, plus other contributors and RIFF…