I’d had this catchy song lodged in my memory for about 40 years without remembering who or what it was until one day it popped up on a reggae compilation I’dbought. (more…)

Harmony greats The Heptones helped put Coxsone Dodd’s legendary Studio One on the map as the home of Jamaican rocksteady and reggae. (more…)

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The loose ramshackle sound of this song can be attributed to one thing – they had never played it before the day they recorded it. And this was only the second take. (more…)

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This is the song that made Elton a superstar. Sure, he’d had hits before – Your Song, Rocketman, Honky Cat – but this took him to another level and gave him his first US chart topper. (more…)

It’s embarrassing to admit I discovered Chuck Berry through this dismal double entendre-strewn novelty song. And dreadful that something so execrable gave Chuck – one of the most influential musicians of all time and the man who invented rock’n’roll almost single-handedly – his only number one record.
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Alice Cooper’s second big hit seems like the perfect soundtrack for what was about to happen in the USA in November 2020. (more…)