Linda Lewis was a one-off. Not just for her extraordinary five-octave-spanning voice, nor her blissful smile, but just as a black girl with a guitar. (more…)

It’s easy to forget that The Bee Gees had pretty much disappeared from view by the mid-Seventies. So much so that this comeback single was sent to DJs in a plain white sleeve with no band name. (more…)

When you think of Glam’s hitmaking duo Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, you think of the songwriters behind a string of stomping bangers by The Sweet, Suzi Quatro and Mud. (more…)

Even as a kid, I remember thinking this novelty single was inauthentic. Inauthentic but catchy enough to top the charts. (more…)

This tribute to the falsetto singers of the doo-wop era lived up to its name by entering the American charts at No.18… with a bullet. (more…)

Here’s another of those songs that’s perfectly conceived and created – yet also massively irritating due to overexposure for the past 45 years. At least for me. (more…)

He’s only really remembered for The Hustle but Van McCoy enjoyed a long and distinguished music career before that 1975 disco classic, right up to his death just four years later at the age of only 39. (more…)

This song is an important piece of pop history. Emile Ford was the first black Briton to sell a millon copies of a single. Almost as historically, it topped the charts on my second birthday.

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The Average White Band never had a number one hit single but two of them – drummer Robbie McIntosh and guitarist Onnie McIntyre – did… with Chuck Berry. (more…)

Cultural historians may have you believe Kurtis Blow gave birth to the hip hop genre in 1979 with Christmas Rappin’. But I put it to you, ladies and gentlemen of the musical jury, that rapping began five years before that. (more…)