When you think of Glam’s hitmaking duo Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, you think of the songwriters behind a string of stomping bangers by The Sweet, Suzi Quatro and Mud. (more…)

Even as a kid, I remember thinking this novelty single was inauthentic. Inauthentic but catchy enough to top the charts. (more…)

This tribute to the falsetto singers of the doo-wop era lived up to its name by entering the American charts at No.18… with a bullet. (more…)

Here’s another of those songs that’s perfectly conceived and created – yet also massively irritating due to overexposure for the past 45 years. At least for me. (more…)

He’s only really remembered for The Hustle but Van McCoy enjoyed a long and distinguished music career before that 1975 disco classic, right up to his death just four years later at the age of only 39. (more…)

The Average White Band never had a number one hit single but two of them – drummer Robbie McIntosh and guitarist Onnie McIntyre – did… with Chuck Berry. (more…)

Cultural historians may have you believe Kurtis Blow gave birth to the hip hop genre in 1979 with Christmas Rappin’. But I put it to you, ladies and gentlemen of the musical jury, that rapping began five years before that. (more…)

Sometimes a song’s so good that it doesn’t matter who covers it.
I’m not sure which is my favourite take on It Hurts So Good, though the one I first heard was Susan Cadogan’s sweet reggae take, produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. (more…)

My memory of this song relates almost entirely to the impossibly high vocal in the bridge. So much so that I failed to appreciate there’s much more to it than mere vocal gymnastics. (more…)

This was the 14th single by The Sweet – or ‘Sweet’ as they had just become – and the first to be written by the band themselves. (more…)