Hank Williams was the first superstar of country music and the architect of rock’n’roll. This was the last song he recorded, in 1952. (more…)

Jackson Browne was not the first to record Stay, still the shortest single ever to top the charts, but he made it his own when he covered the doo-wop oldie in 1977.

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The exuberant brass motif that drives this swinging soul number sounds instantly familiar, perhaps because of the many lives this song has had since it was written by The Chi-Lites’ lead singer Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders.

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No one would pretend Nick Lowe was a punk – he had almost a decade in music behind him by 1976. But he plays a key role in punk pre-history.

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Here’s another Deep Soul deep cut from back in the Summer of Love, 1967 – the only hit for Helena Ferguson. And here’s a piece of pop trivia – the backing band is The Ohio Players.

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Here’s another of those not-quite-punk-but-nearly records that came out in the musical hinterland between pub rock and punk in 1976.

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(I’m) Stranded is just fantastic. It’s a perfect storm of Ed Kuepper’s buzzsaw guitar and Chris Bailey’s sneering vocal, anchored by the whirlwind of Kym Bradshaw on bass and Ivor Hay’s drums.

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Delving further into the roots of punk, I discover The Hollywood Brats, whose 1973 song Sick Of You is arguably the earliest example of the genre

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Not a single song, but a handful of them – from the four-track EP that made a little bit of punk history. Released in late 1975, Speedball was the first record put out by Chiswick Records, the UK’s first real indie label.

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RIP Julz Sale, the singer in proto-feminist post-punk band Delta 5 – a vital part of the soundtrack of my youth.

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