MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have – so far – defined their journey and their existence. Taking her turn this time round is Warner Music UK‘s Chief Operating Officer (and former head of the legendary Abbey Road Studios), Isabel Garvey. The Key Songs… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.

Isabel Garvey is at pains to point out (twice, in fact) that she is “not an A&R person”.

And it’s true, she isn’t. She is Chief Operating Officer at Warner Music UK.

She joined the major in May 2023, having previously been the Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios for the best part of a decade.

Her insistence on clarity re. the absence of A&R responsibilities isn’t, however, in case of any job title confusion, it’s because she’s worried that her choice of Key Songs is “too mainstream” due to the fact that “I’m essentially a Top 40 fan”.

She needn’t worry, of course. Chiefly because, frankly, what the hell’s wrong with that? But also because her selections are what they should be: a reflection on her life and a soundtrack to her career. Or, as she puts it: “I picked songs that took me back to moments, either in my personal life or my working life. The problem came when I started second guessing myself: ‘Is the right list to put in front of the industry?’

“I’m also surrounded by music every day, so there’s so much to choose from, which is why I kept coming back to that guidance of associating my final choices with important memories.”

The end result goes from jazz to consummate dance pop via the greatest group to ever pick up guitars. From Brubek to bangers via The Beatles. And no one, not even the snootiest A&R, is going to have a problem with that…

1) Dave Brubek, Take 5 (1959)

I’m one of four girls, and when I was growing up my dad used to take himself off on a Sunday to listen to jazz on vinyl, it was quite religious for him. Jazz was very much part of the soundtrack to my very earliest days, hearing trumpets and piano coming out of his room while he escaped for a couple of hours!

It brought a kind of calm to the house – which wasn’t always there thanks to there being four girls. I associate it with the smell of print from the Sunday papers, and it’s just a very warm memory for me.

“I still love jazz to this day, to the extent that I’m currently trying desperately to force my eight-year-old to learn the trumpet.”

It also clearly seeped in, because I still love jazz to this day, to the extent that I’m currently trying desperately to force my eight-year-old to learn the trumpet.

There was a lot of music in the house generally. My mum actually grew up in a very classical music environment. And, like I say, my dad was really into his jazz. But then whenever we’d go on car journeys we’d force him to put musical soundtracks on while all four of us sang our heads off.

I think that’s why he needed his Sundays.

2) Aha, Take On Me (1985)

I’m a pop girl at heart, with quite mainstream tastes, and this is just great pop music that viscerally takes me back to my teens.

It’s also probably to do with my first crush, because it coincided with a time where you’ve previously just been listening to the Top 40 on radio, then you start to connect the songs with the videos. This was a particularly clever video of course, and it didn’t hurt that Morten Harket was such a handsome frontman.

I remember going to buy the vinyl and playing it to death.  It was the era of Top of the Pops,  which was like a religious experience, and recording the Top 40 on my cassette recorder despartately trying to make sure I pressed pause play in the right sequence to avoid the DJ voice over!

3) Corona, Rhythm of the Night (1993)

This takes me back to night clubs, growing up in Dublin and being with all my childhood friends.

This was our song, it was the one where you put your bag down and you went onto the dance floor.

I struggled to pick just one track from that era of dance music, because there was so much of it that we loved.

There was Haddaway, there was Daft Punk, there was Darude… they’re all tracks that take me back to a real time and place and bring me such a lot of joy, still to this day.

“I was at a birthday party recently, this came on and I couldn’t have been happier! It’s amazing the impact one track can have.”

In fact, I was at a birthday party recently and this came on and I couldn’t have been happier! It’s amazing the impact one track can have.

It was a great time to be going out in Dublin, whether to bars that hosted live gigs with DJs coming on after. or the clubs on Leeson Street.

4) U2, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (1987)

Being Irish, I can’t go through this list without having a U2 track – it’s the law. So I’ve gone with I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.

I came to The Joshua Tree quite late, actually. I mean obviously U2 were everywhere in Ireland, especially Dublin, when I was growing up, but I came to the storytelling aspect of this era a while after it first came out. It’s now an album and a song that I go back to time and time again.

I think it just hit me more than the early stuff and it’s probably more my musical style. There are some pretty hard hitting political lyrics in there, but with this one, on a personal level, you’re in your twenties and you’re like, so where is this bloody knight in shining armor?!

I’ve seen them live a lot of times, but the one I remember most was from their Elevation tour when they played Earl’s Court. I got in really early and I was right at the front. It was just such a moment.

“they couldn’t believe an Irish woman runs Abbey Road! They loved that.”

Everyone in Dublin has a story about Bono. There’s a pub they hang out in Dalkey, which is the area they live in. I’d seen them in there a couple of times and said hello. And then in true Irish style you spend the rest of the evening pretending they’re not famous.

And then at Abbey Road I had a lovely moment. They did a Christmas special in Studio One and I got to stand in the room while they recorded. To stand two feet away from U2 doing all the hits was just incredible.

And they are so lovely, so nice. I remember them saying they couldn’t believe an Irish woman runs Abbey Road! They loved that.

5) Coldplay, Speed of Sound (2005)

This isn’t actually my favorite Coldplay song, but the reason I picked it is because it has a really special place in my memory bank.

I joined EMI Music, which was my first job in the music industry, in late 2004, just as X&Y was about to come out. It was obviously a hugely important album for the band and for EMI.

The build-up to it contained one of my most surreal moments of being an executive in recorded music. I was in a boardroom as part of a group who were all men, apart from me. It was the Parlophone gang and all of the leadership of EMI, listening to the record to try and decide the lead single.

They played three songs and eventually decided on Speed of Sound. So, first of all, how exciting is it to be one of the first people in the world to hear this? But, more bizarrely, in a boardroom full of music men, when this song started, everyone started doing something: air guitar, air drums, standing up and properly swaying around and dancing.

I was like, what the hell… I didn’t realise you had to do something? Can I get away with just tapping a pencil?

It was an amazing era for EMI. Coldplay were seriously established at that stage, plus there was Gorillaz, there was Corinne Bailey Raye, there was KT Tunstall. We were on a real run, and it was all really resonating in the US as well.

More recently, I saw Coldplay at Glastonbury last year and they were just amazing. The way they can get 100,000 people to experience something that is truly unqiue and moving… I actually took my kids to that and at one point my seven-year-old son said, ‘Are all gigs like this?’ If only!

6) Ed Sheeran, The A Team (2011)

Another lovely human, and being just a small part of his career is another privilege of working in this industry, which we can sometimes take for granted.

Ed was newly signed to Atlantic when I joined Warner first time around. He came into an international meeting and played A Team, just him and a ukelele. Even as a non-A&R person, I knew he was amazing straight away – to see such raw talent at that proximity was incredible.

“he becomes one of the biggest artists in the world. And I’m left thinking, I saw him in a boardroom!”

It’s part of the magic of this business that we have A&R people like Ed Howard and Max Lousada, who found Ed and understood completely his creative vision and the success he wanted to achieve, plus marketing teams who understood how to position everything and get behind it – and from there he becomes one of the biggest artists in the world. And I’m left thinking, I saw him in a boardroom!

Ed has an absolute magic formula: an amazingly talented artist, an exceptional songwriter, a phenomenal performer, a fabulous character who can win over the media and fans – and who can do it all with good grace.

7) The Beatles, Come Together (1969)

Obviously I had to have at least one track with an Abbey Road connection, and this one just seemed perfect.

Running Abbey Road for eight years has been one of the absolute privileges of my life. It’s just a phenomenal place, steeped in history. You still get the goosebumps going up the steps.

Of course its story is so interwoven with the Beatles, and this particular song is from Abbey Road, which is the album that named the studio. Until then, it had always been known as EMI Studios.

The connection between the two is magical, and when you bring people to the studio, the first thing they want to see is Studio Two, the Lady Madonna piano, etc.

These are the fables that the studio is built on, but they’re not fables; they are part of the reality of that building, they’re the result of how the Fab Four – along with Sir George Martin – worked with that studio.

We did a lot of playbacks of Beatles songs, and this is one that we used quite a lot, so it’s ingrained in me as a track that represents my time there.

My time at Abbey Road was full of very surreal moments: I’m in Abbey Road, which is mad enough, I’m running Abbey Road, which is crazy – and now I’m just casually saying hello to Paul McCartney in the corridor!

8) Dua Lipa, Levitating (2020)

I actually feel like I owe a lot to Dua Lipa, for this song and this album. It came out in lockdown when we were all in the depths of depression, a lot of us struggling quite a bit with this unprecedented situation, and then there’s this irresistibly joyful and uplifting album reminding us that we will be back out there at some time in the future.

One thing I did to preserve my sanity in lockdown was go for a run along the Thames, and I would make sure I planted this song halfway through my playlists to lift me and keep me going.

It was the album we all needed. It was kind of a throw back to the eighties, and to the days of disco, so it was both familiar and new – all made even better by a phenomenal voice. It was my salvation.

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