Calvin Harris Essentials

In 2007, 23-year-old Calvin Harris released I Created Disco, a cheeky shot across dance music’s bow that presented him as Scotland’s brow-arched answer to LCD Soundsystem. Fast forward a few years, and Harris (born Adam Richard Wiles in 1984) had developed some of the best studio chops in the business with deep-house rollers like 2013’s “Thinking About You”, and helped spark EDM’s pop crossover with hits for Rihanna, Florence Welch and others. Along the way, he became one of the 2010s’ first DJ/producer/songwriter polymaths to earn top billing even on the songs in which he didn’t sing. On 2017’s Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1, he lays down a set of slinky R&B jams such as “Slide”, with Frank Ocean and Migos, and “Feels” with Katy Perry and Pharrell, while 2018’s “Promises”, with Sam Smith, and “One Kiss”, with Dua Lipa, proved just how versatile his vision of pop can be. And for anyone needing more proof, look no further than Harris’ 2023 and 2024 Ellie Goulding collabs—“Miracle” and “Free”—which revel in ’90s trance and breakbeat hardcore vibes.