Mambo Sun is the first track on the first side of the first proper T. Rex album Electric Warrior, released in 1971.

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Marty Robbins topped the US charts and had a UK Top 20 hit with this classic country and western tune, El Paso, back in 1959.

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Hackney girls Mel & Kim followed Britain’s first house single with the global chart-topper Respectable in 1987.

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Air came to fame with Sexy Boy in 1998 but made their debut three years earlier with this inventive piece of electronica on a compilation album for Source.

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Miles Davis’s quartet of albums recorded with his quintet in 1956 is regarded among the highlights of his stellar career. This comes from the final one, Steamin’.

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Retro soul duo Charles & Eddie followed up their chart-topping hit Would I Lie To You with this story of how they first met on the New York subway.

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South London girl Joy Crookes channels the ghost of Amy Winehouse in her infectious summer song When You Were Mine, with its video shot in Brixton Market.

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Listening to this doo wop oldie by The Plants, it’s easy to be transported to a street corner in The Bronx in the early 1950s.

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The thing about soul – soul in the musical sense – is that you’ve either got it or you haven’t. You only have to listen for a moment to know that Jerry Butler, who died this week, had soul.

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