Here’s a ’60s band I’ve never heard of before, a female-fronted outfit with the disappointingly humdrum name of Smith, with their solitary hit single – a cover of Baby It’s You.

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Dobie Gray’s stomper Out On The Floor has been called the best Northern Soul record of all time, though I remember Dobie Gray for two other songs – Drift Away and The In-Crowd.

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It’s impossible to forget this tune once you’ve heard it because it lives inside your head for ever and will pop back whenever you hear the word Milkshake for the rest of your life.

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Like everyone else I know* I discovered Bob Marley when the live version of No Woman, No Cry became a huge hit in the summer of 1975. Then I dug deeper and discovered this tune from five years earlier.

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You can’t see him in this footage but this is the moment keyboard player Barry Goldberg – who died in January -became part of one of the most historic gigs in musical history.

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Sparks return with what might be their best video yet for the opening song of their 28th studio album.

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Susan Alcorn played my favourite musical instrument – the pedal steel guitar – and took it to new places with her experimental approach.

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The Saints, who formed in Australia in 1973, were arguably the first punk band of all – but they always claimed not to be punks. Whatever they were, they were fantastic.

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Here’s my January playlist, kicking off and ending with something familiar, including some old blues-rock (Thin Lizzy, Jethro Tull), some old soul (Sam & Dave, Irma Thomas), some new stuff (Mogwai, Jim Jones) and some strange Irish folk (John Francis Flynn) that you’ve probably never heard. Plus some Iggy, some Neil Young, some Bowie and a banging tune by Leftfield… something for everyone there, I hope.

French vocal trio Belle Epoque had their biggest (and possibly only) hit single in 1977 with disco classic Black Is Black.

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