This is very far from being my favourite Springsteen song; I don’t have much time for that Eighties period at all. But Nashville duo The Harmaleighs breathe new life into it.

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Hank Williams would have been 100 years old on Sunday. Instead he died, on New Year’s Day 1953, at the age of 29.

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You’ve got to feel sorry for Fred Neil. The obscure Canadian folkie recorded definitive versions of three great songs that went on to become standards – and all three were made famous in better versions by three other artists.

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Last night I went to see these guys, Dead Writers, at a goth-filled Camden pub with the apt name The Black Heart, on my way back from cricket at Lord’s. And I had a very good time.

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There was no escaping this song in the summer of ’77, though I was far more interested in the Pistols and the Clash than chart-topping disco tunes.

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I don’t know how I forgot this one when I was trawling through the songs of my childhood. It wasn’t a big hit but back in 1974 it seemed to be everywhere.

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Four white men in black suits and white shirts. One black man in a shiny gold suit. And two classic Northern Soul tunes. That’s The Epitome Of Sound.

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The mysterious Rubin only recorded a single side in his obscure music career – but it became a Northern Soul classic. (more…)

I don’t know how you can make a song sound this funky with little more than a bunch of drums from Africa and Asia. But dammit, Nina Simone can. And she did.

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I’ve always loved soukous music, with its lively rhythms and circular electric guitar melodies. And if this doesn’t get you dancing then your feet must have fallen off. Either that or you’re dead. 

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