The name of JD Souther, who has just died, might not mean a lot to most music fans. But his legacy surely will when you hear his songs.

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Who remembers Los Angeles rockabilly band The Red Devils? Certainly not me. I didn’t even know there was a thriving cowpunk scene, fusing rockabilly and country, in early-Eighties LA.

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This is the first song I heard by Blancmange when it was included on the Some Bizarre Album compilation in 1981.

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And then they were three… Tito Jackson’s death, at the age of 70, leaves the Jackson 5 down to a trio of Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon.

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If I believed in guilty pleasures I’d list one of mine as cod reggae. Especially electro-reggae like this. But I don’t, so I’m very happy to own my love of this.

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The Blue Aeroplanes, led by the Langley brothers from Bristol, emerged in the early 1980s and are still going strong four decades later.

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It’s funny, looking back now, to recall that The Motels were sold as a “New Wave” band. This is the only song I remember – and it’s an epic ballad.

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Zoot Money was one of those Zelig-like characters who turned up as a sideman, playing keyboards on hundreds of records from the early Sixties. But he actually started out as a front man.

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Beautiful song, beautiful voice, beautiful boy… Ricky Nelson was only 17 when he sang this back in 1958. (more…)

I was sad when The Specials fell apart: they had been such a part of my life for what they represented as much as their music. But it didn’t take long to fall in love again with the Fun Boy Three.

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