It’s hard to say exactly what makes a good, cooking band into a smash. There’s fine music everywhere, but it’s not just laying it out, it’s that little something extra that buzzes you when you hear it, on record or live, and flashes you when you see the group working out, that pushes their efforts one stomp over the line into instant relatability and persists in memory.

It’s magic.

All the obvious examples have it: Rod Stewart, the Stones, the Doors. The MC5 certainly have had it, and may still, and the Stooges exuded it (and will again). Grand Funk is the classic example of magic avalanching form to make all the difference. And when you do possess it, somebody somewhere is bound to notice sooner or later.