McGuinness Flint revived the rootsy sound of jug bands and skiffle on the first of their only two hits, When I’m Dead And Gone, in 1970. (more…)
Dave Edmunds had his second hit in a year, topping the 1970 charts for six weeks with this lovingly crafted cover of a vintage 1950s rhythm’n’blues standard, I Hear You Knocking. (more…)
This is the first reggae tune I ever heard and probably the song that instilled a lifelong love of dub production. (more…)
U-Roy is one of the great toasters of Jamaican music, prefiguring the rappers who came along more than 20 years later. Here’s The Originator teaming up with John Holt. (more…)
Freda Payne was one of the greatest of all one-hit wonders, topping the chart with the stone-cold classic Band Of Gold at the end of 1970. (more…)
This is another of those songs that never fails to lift my spirits the moment I hear the exuberant opening notes on that rarest of pop instruments, the calliope. (more…)