The Chambers Brothers blended their gospel roots with folk and West Coast rock to create a unique take on psychedelic soul in the first Summer of Love. (more…)

What a strange and compelling song The Letter is. And how strange to realise that husky blue-eyed soul voice comes from a 16-year-old boy. (more…)

Leonard Cohen’s song So Long Marianne reminds me of my first job, and the time I left home and moved to London when I was 17. (more…)

If anyone were to tell me this is the greatest single song of all time, I would not dare to disagree. (more…)

I’m not normally a fan of mixing music and comedy – quite the reverse – but in this particular case it seems to work. At least it did at the time. (more…)

Alton Ellis sings the original rocksteady version of the song that grew into multiple hits for artists from Althea & Donna to Sean Paul, way back in 1967. (more…)

Another rocksteady classic from Studio One. Dawn Penn was only 15 when she recorded this in 1967 – and in her 40s when it became a UK hit (as No, No, No) in 1994. (more…)

This is one of the signature songs of the Rocksteady era – the brief bridging period in the mid-Sixties between the bouncy urgency of Ska and the laid-back drum’n’bass grooves and conscious lyrics of Reggae. (more…)