I’ve loved Mexican music for a long time and the first time I heard it was on Ry Cooder’s 1976 album Chicken Skin Music. And the songs that stood out were the ones featuring the accordion of Flaco Jimenez.
Back to my childhood again for Pickettywitch singing That Same Old Feeling – one of two different versions in the charts.
This song’s lyrics could not be more pertinent today – half a century after it was recorded by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.
This catchy slice of cheese transports me immediately back to being a small boy sitting in front of the telly in early 1970 watching Top of the Pops.
Up The Junction did not just give Squeeze a hit single: it cemented Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as one of the greatest songwriting partnerships of all time.
Husband-and-wife schlager duo Cindy & Bert made arguably the best rock cover of all time with their reimagined version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid… in German.
Here’s another of those reggae deep cuts that passed me by at the time – and once again it’s by a female artist who flew under the radar. (more…)
This was probably the first Springsteen song I ever heard: it’s the opening track of his breakthrough album Born To Run. And still one of his best.
Michael Rose recorded a solo version of his song before joining Black Uhuru and re-recording it with the band, becoming one of their signature songs. (more…)
Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar, with an unusual “single note” style of playing.