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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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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Diana Ross will always enjoy a special place in my affections – the Queen of Motown sang the first song on the first album I ever bought.

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This is such a sad and shocking song. The confessional domestic drama that unfolds over its two minutes is nothing less than heartbreaking. Especially if you listen all the way through to the abrupt surprise ending.

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Here’s a funny thing: I’ve never heard of Ray Agee, or heard his 1971 recording. But I’ve heard the song before – when it was recorded by The Cowboy Junkies.

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What a tune this is! Brilliant by The Rolling Stones, it’s equally brilliant by Jagger’s co-shrieker Merry Clayton, and perhaps even more brilliant in this funked-up version.

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In my early teens I was a big fan of The Allman Brothers’ 1971 live album At Fillmore East. And this 13-minute instrumental was my favourite track.

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This funky tale of a vengeful black god coming to fix the injustices of the world comes from another of those lost masterpieces – an obscure album of jazz-funk matched to black-consciousness lyrics called Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse.

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Wishbone Ash were rock dinosaurs during the punk wars but they played the tiny Marquee Club one night in 1977, prior to playing Wembley Arena two days later.

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Funny old time, the late 1960s. The British blues boom was coming to an end and bands were turning those 12-bar tunes into heavy rock.

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