An anti-racist anti-sexist anthem by a quartet of schoolgirls, performed in a public library, this song broke the internet on its release in May 2021 – and no wonder. (more…)

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

A hit from way back in the year I was born, this timeless doo wop ballad features two of the greats of soul music – Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler. (more…)

If this doesn’t get your feet moving, you might want to check they’re still attached to your legs. As infectious as an Indian variant, it’s arguably the first disco hit. (more…)

Sylvia Robinson is one of the most important figures in music history. She’s been called the Mother of Hip-Hop for her key role in the birth of rap, founding Sugar Hill Records in the late Seventies. But before that she was a one-hit wonder with this saucy disco hit. (more…)

If the marketing arm of the British musical instrument manufacturers Vox wanted one song to sell their electric organs, then they would surely give their donor card to 96 Tears. (more…)

The exhilarating melody of this tune has stayed with me since childhood.
I had not heard of Jr Walker & The All Stars when it was a modest hit in the summer of 1972 and I’m not sure I even thought of them as a soul group. (more…)

The first time I heard or saw Cliff Richard was when he sang Congratulations in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest. But he had been having hit singles since the year I was born. This one was top of the Hit Parade on my third birthday. (more…)

Here’s a summery reverb-drenched slice of Sixties psychedelia to send the mind spinning back to San Francisco in the Summer of Love. (more…)

This is the song that was number one on my first birthday. Obviously I don’t remember it, though I do remember the song from Glen Campbell’s version in 1970. (more…)