Novelty pop songs don’t come much more annoying than this, at least without children and bagpipes. Except they do – because Convoy prompted an even worse “parody” version. (more…)

The first time I heard Scott Walker’s distinctive baritone was when No Regrets came out early in 1976. (more…)

When I was 18 I hated disco. I thought it had nothing to do with “proper” music involving men with electric guitars. But there was something about Tina Charles and this infectious earworm that broke through my snobbery.

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I Feel Love is so obviously the greatest disco song of all time that no others need apply for the title. But spare a moment for the song that gave Donna Summer her first international hit a couple of years earlier. (more…)

Roy Ayers’s song Everybody Loves The Sunshine is the quintessential summer groove, guaranteed to brighten any day. (more…)

A mash-up before mash-ups were invented, this finds the great/bonkers Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, taking two classic reggae tunes, pulling them apart and putting them back together. (more…)

Midge Ure had his first taste of fame fronting boy band Slik, long before Ultravox, Live Aid and Do They Know It’s Christmas? (more…)

Lou Reed has probably loomed larger in my musical life than anyone else. Both as a solo artist and in his band The Velvet Underground. (more…)

It’s a sad irony that it typically takes a pop star to die before you start delving through their back catalogue. (more…)

John Holt is one of my favourite singers and Police In Helicopter is a song that would probably be one of my Desert Island Discs. (more…)