I’m not the world’s biggest fan but there are at least a handful of essential Elton John songs lurking amid his vast catalogue, Including this rarity from the archives. (more…)

When it comes to Marvin Gaye, I have to confess that if I had to choose, I’m more of a What’s Going On guy than a Let’s Get It on guy. I’ll take social realism over romance and seduction every time. (more…)

New York vocal group The Persauders had their only UK hit with Thin Line Between Love And Hate long before before The Pretenders. (more…)

Undiscovered for decades, here is the full 33-minute version of Isaac Hayes’s psychedelic jam Do Your Thing. (more…)

Once in a while you come across an old tune you’ve never heard before by a musician you’ve never heard before and it’s so great you can’t believe you didn’t know it. Like this slice of psychedelic soul. (more…)

Heard on its own, this melancholy ten-minute guitar apocalypse by Funkadlic would be impossible to categorise. (more…)

Everything about this sleazy song by Serge Gainsbourg is fantastic. Except its problematic subject matter – paedophilia. (more…)

If you’re going to be known for just one song, then you might as well make it a great one. Like King Floyd’s solitary hit Groove Me. (more…)

Big lady, big voice, big hair – Jean Knight had it all. Mr Big Stuff was her takedown of that guy all women know, the one who thinks he’s God’s gift. He’s begging to be taken down, and Jean did the job for us all in this stone-cold funk and soul classic. (more…)

I knew Joan Baez more by reputation than her music when I was growing up – as a folk singer, and a protester, and for her Bob Dylan connection. But I do have fond memories of this song, which gave Joan her only hit in 1971. (more…)