Excuse the sentimentality but Patti Smith wrote this song as an elegy for a previous Pope, so it seems a suitable epitaph for Francis, who died today.

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The Three Degrees teamed up with Philly’s house band MFSB for the joyous soul anthem T.S.O.P. aka The Sound Of Philadephia.

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Mambo Sun is the first track on the first side of the first proper T. Rex album Electric Warrior, released in 1971.

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Here is a sultry slice of funk, driven by a killer bassline, with the sweet sibling vocals of The Pointer Sisters from their third album Steppin’ back in 1975.

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The Jones Girls may have come from Detroit but their sweet harmonies made them synonymous with the Philly Sound. And their big breakthrough came after almost a decade when they teamed up with Philly Soul titans Gamble and Huff.

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I was too young to see the New York Dolls in their heyday, though I saw Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers on numerous occasions. The closest I got to David Johansen in those early days was that historically fabulous OGWT in 1973.

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Erasmo Carlos is a legendary musical figure in his native Brazil and this is the closing song in the Oscar-nominated film I’m Still Here. If you’re anything like me, and half the rest of the audience, you’ll be hearing through a veil of tears.

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The Melodians sealed their place in music history with their biblical anthem Rivers Of Babylon – even though most people know it best by Boney M. I’d rather listen to this song, Sweet Sensation, than either version.

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This cute sibling duet from 1975 slipped my mind completely. But it’s peak Seventies in all its faintly emetic glory.

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