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In 1985, the British rock quartet Prefab Sprout released its second album Steve McQueen. Influenced as much by Tin Pan Alley as new wave, the record was both hailed and panned by British and American critics alike. Twenty-two years later, age — and a deluxe re-release — has served it well.

Rock legend Ray Davies joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss his career with the '60s British band The Kinks, and as a solo artist. He also describes a harrowing incident in New Orleans that nearly cost him his life.

From the late '70s to the early '90s, the zany dance-rock outfit did the "Rock Lobster," had its own "Private Idaho" and got together at the "Love Shack." Now, the band has produced Funplex — its first new album in 16 years.

Olivia Newton-John was one of the biggest pop stars in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the movie musical Grease, she starred as good girl Sandy Olson, who falls for a bad boy played by John Travolta.

As winter nears, we look for ways to be warm and comfortable. One of the best ways to do that, says food writer Nigella Lawson, is to indulge in rich, tasty foods that some might call guilty pleasures. For instance: Why not make French toast that tastes like a doughnut?

In the early 1960s, writer Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feiffer created The Phantom Tollbooth, which quickly became a kid-lit classic. Now, 50 years later, the two have finally collaborated once more — this time, on a picture book called The Odious Ogre. They speak to NPR's Liane Hansen about their partnership and their new project.

Garden writer Bonnie Blodgett didn't know what her sense of smell meant to her — until she lost it. Her new book, Remembering Smell, describes what it's like to live in the world without being able to smell it — from the sweet aromas of springtime to the stench of sour milk.

English rose from humble beginnings to become a language that's spoken by people from every corner of the Earth. In Globish, Robert McCrum tells the story of how a mongrel language slowly took the world by storm.

Sportswriter Frank Deford's historical novel, Bliss Remembered, tells the story of a young American swimmer at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Deford explains why he was drawn to this particular historical setting — and what it's like to write a novel from the perspective of a woman.

In their new book, Annoying: The Science Of What Bugs Us, NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca and Science Friday's Flora Lichtman set out to examine why certain things — and people — drive us bananas.