In the pantheon of soul greats, Major Lance never got the name recognition of Curtis Mayfield, his mentor and collaborator on the Chicago soul scene in the Sixties.

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Another weather-appropriate tune today, to mark the onset of brass monkeys and taters. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the only cover version by New Order.

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As winter draws in, what better to chase away that chilly wind than a sunny slice of reggae from Jamaica. 
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It’s funny to recall how much I hated disco at the time because this is another of those songs that just puts a smile on your face the minute you hear it.

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The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.

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Here’s a confession. I only really knew Kool & The Gang for their party tunes and schmaltzy ballads in the Eighties.

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Terence Wilson, universally known as Astro, was the percussionist and part-time toaster in UB40, the unfairly maligned kings of UK reggae.

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Ernest Tubb once remarked that whenever one of his songs came on a jukebox, men in bars would turn to their girlfriends and say: “Heck, I can sing better than that.” And, agreed Ernest, “They’d be right.”

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Hank Williams once said that when it came to pulling power for the famously devout music fans of the Deep South: “It was Roy Acuff – then God.”

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