Fifty years ago, the Doors released, L.A. Woman, now widely regarded as a masterpiece. But L.A. Woman almost died in the recording studio. In December 1970, the Doors were floundering as they attempted to make the album at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Lead singer Jim Morrison, lost in the grip of alcoholism, had run out of songs to write, and the band played so poorly that producer Paul Rothchild quit. So how did the Doors manage to turn things around? …

“Being in the room where Sinatra was performing could make a man feel, if not immortal, at least wholly alive.” — Charles Champlin

What was it like to watch Frank Sinatra perform at the height of his creative powers in Las Vegas, the place where the gods of entertainment descended to rub shoulders with mere mortals amid garish neon and the eternal whirl of slot machines? Sinatra at the Sands, recorded in 1966 at one of Frank’s favorite places to swing, offers a glimpse.

It’s been said that during Sinatra’s glory years, men especially loved him because Sinatra lived a…

When I first heard of Clubhouse from technology writers on Twitter, I thought the invitation-only social app with a waiting list to join was a toy for elite Silicon Valley bros. But after making my way past the velvet rope (thank you Jeremiah Owyang), I quickly learned how wrong I was.

Clubhouse is a social audio app, meaning that people communicate exclusively via audio chat. What’s different about Clubhouse from other social apps is that members communicate only through talking with each other, which adds a completely different dimension to social interaction online. You cannot see the other people you…

How does a business say farewell? Family Video is showing us how: with grace, humanity, and gratitude. On January 5, Family Video went out of business. All its brick-and-mortar stores closed. But the brand is still alive — ironically in the digital world that helped usher in the company’s demise.

Family Video’s corporate Facebook page is something to behold. On Facebook, Family Video continues to share tributes from customers and ex-employees saying farewell. Keeping the digital lights on and letting letting the Family video community comment openly on social media is a branding masterstroke. Here are some sample posts:

• “I’ll…

Bruce Springsteen is catching some flak for appearing in a Jeep ad. He does not need the money. So why would the Boss do a commercial? Here’s the answer: he wants to keep his personal brand relevant and visible. And that’s a lesson everyone should heed, no matter who you are or what you do for a living.

Bruce Springsteen broke through during the album-oriented era when heavy radio airplay, touring, and mass-media PR helped his music find an audience. When MTV came along, Springsteen adapted to the video format by learning how tell stories visually. His career became…

On my first week on the job at Lord of Vinyl, a middle-aged woman who looked to be about my age walked into the store holding a stack of weathered record albums, placed them on the counter, and left without saying a word. There were some good albums on the top of that stack, including Black Sabbath, Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic, and Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies.

“Check this out,” I said to Scott, the owner, as he walked on to the floor from his tiny office in back, his eyes focused on his mobile phone screen. …

When I was a kid growing up in the shag-carpet ’70s, my dad was on the road all the time. The rest of us lived in a ranch home on the midwestern tundra near Battle Creek, Michigan. One way Dad showed his love was to occasionally bring home a gift. Dad knew I loved baseball. After one of his lengthy road trips, he presented me with a 1959 Topps Hank Aaron baseball card.

I was stunned.

Hank Aaron was one of my heroes. And although hero worship can be dangerous — heroes can disappoint you as much as they can…

The Covid-19 pandemic unleashed suffering on a global scale not seen in our lifetimes. As if waves of sicknesses and death were not bad enough, businesses everywhere were rocked to the core, resulting in job loss and economic hardship. And it’s not over. But amid the turmoil, some businesses fought hard to emerge from 2020 as strong or even stronger than they were before the pandemic changed everything. Here are their stories, and the lessons we may learn from them.

1 Take Care of Your People: Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers Rallies through a Hard Times

Todd Graves saw the storm coming. Graves, the co-founder and CEO of fast-food chain Raising Caine’s Chicken Fingers, followed the…