FIRST HOUR
There She Goes (The La's)
(1990) ... re-mixed by top producer Steve Lillywhite, the Liverpool band's best known song is a timeless classic with echoes of the '60s beat groups. Two years on from its original release, The La's finally got the hit that they deserved
Da Doo Ron Ron (The Crystals)
(1963).... having debuted the previous year with He's A Rebel (# 19) this was the first of two UK Top 10-ers within a few months
Stop, Look, Listen To Your Heart (Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye)
... from the first of today's featured years ~ Top 30 follow-up to their recent coming together You Are Everything (same year, # 5)
Yours for 'keeps'
Keep On (Bruce Channel)
(1968) ... a second taste of chart success, six years after his only other UK hit, Hey Baby (1962, # 2)
Keep On Dancing (The Gentrys)
(1965) ... # 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100, later successfully covered in the UK by The Bay City Rollers ~ their debut hit in '71
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Is That Love (Squeeze)
(1981) ... a punchier and pacier two and a half minutes you would be hard pressed to find ~ but despite the immediate impact, not the massive hit you might have imagined, #35 was its highest placing
Newsround Tameside: 47 years ago ~ 1974
When Will I See You Again (Three Degrees)
... two weeks at the top for one of the biggest hits under the banner of the Philadelphia 'Philly' sound. After several changes of line-up, the Degrees are still performing live and have popped up at fairly modest venues in recent years
I've Got The Music In Me (Kiki Dee Band)
... having finally achieved her breakthrough hit in '73 with Amoureuse, keyboard player Tobias 'Bias' Boshell came up with a potential single which could hardly have been more different. Kiki rose magnificently to the challenge of switching from a beautiful love song to a rocking power ballad
Hello Summertime (Bobby Goldsboro)
... one of several hits over the years which have started life as a jingle in a Coca Cola TV ad ~ I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (New Seekers, 1972) set the benchmark for others to follow
Another Saturday Night (Cat Stevens)
... a rare cover version by an artist whose singles and albums tended to be self penned. Another Saturday Night had been a hit for Sam Cooke in '63
Life Is A Rock (Reunion)
... rapid-fire roll call of groups, singers, song titles, record labels and more, which picked up plenty of airplay and made the Top 40
Pinball (Brian Protheroe)
... the only chart hit for the singer-songwriter who would become much better known as an actor. In '73, he was playing the part of a pop singer in the play Death on Demand, when a representative from Chrysalis Records heard a song he had written for the show. His first single, Pinball was released in August 1974 and reached # 22 (Source: Wikipedia)
Then Came You (Dionne Warwick with the Detroit Spinners)
... essentially it's Dionne duetting with Bobby Smith of The Spinners ~ at a time when her career had been at a low ebb, Then Came You certainly turned things around, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the US
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SECOND HOUR
You Can't Hurry Love (Phil Collins)
... side one, track one on the original Now That's What I Call Music album ~ a massive change of style from the kind of music he had made with Genesis over many years, staying true to the spirit of The Supremes' original. It was that unlikely combination of singer and song that made it such a dead cert chart-topper
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My World (Secret Affair)
(1980)... continuing the mod revival started by The Jam. Secret Affair had already charted with Time For Action the previous year
Son Of A Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield)
(1968) .. teaser track for our second featured year ~ a Top 10-er for Dusty here and in the US which would be her last to reach the upper echelons of the chart for nearly 20 years
Absolutely Lyricless ~ the instrumental break
... plentiful piano playing with a switch of styles between tracks
Nut Rocker (B Bumble & The Stingers)
(1962) .... .. rocking and rolling their way to the top of the chart with some fast and frantic piano and just a hint of a famous classical tune, the march from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. One of the biggest ever instrumental hits, a # 1 in '62, returning to the Top 20 exactly 10 years later
Bad Penny Blues (Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band)
(1956) ... piano based jazz tune which apparently inspired Paul McCartney a dozen years later when he was working on the intro for The Beatles' Lady Madonna (1968, # 1)
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Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic (Shawn Colvin)
(1994) ... gently reworking The Police hit, slightly changing Sting's original lyrics to give a female-to-male perspective
Things Just Come And Go (Alex Spencer)
(2021) ... Alex, from Droylsden, is just 14 years old and has been steadily building up a huge following online over the past 18 months. Influenced by the music of The Beatles, Oasis, The La’s, The Coral and Blossoms, he started learning the guitar at and early age and writes his own songs - Things Just Come and Go is his recent debut single, sharing his thoughts on how the pandemic and lockdown have affected him and those closest to him. As Tameside Radio's Manchester music specialist Dave Sweetmore says: "He is years ahead of his age, in his style, his playing, his song-writing, and yet true to his Northern music roots" For latest news of Alex and his forthcoming live dates, check out his Facebook page Alex Spencer Music - he's also on Twitter @alexspencerUK
Newsround pre-Tameside: 53 years ago ~ 1968
Gotta See Jane (R Dean Taylor)
... story in a song with loads of 'atmos' and stand-out lyrics: "windscreen wipers, splishing, splashing... driving through the pounding rain..."
Hold Me Tight (Johnny Nash)
... debut hit by the American singer-songwriter ~ one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record reggae music in Kingston (the Jamaican capital)
I Say A Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin)
... the Queen of Soul stamped her own personality on the song which Burt Bacharach and Hal David had originally written for Dionne Warwick
Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Anita Harris)
... one of two versions on the September 1968 chart of a familiar old song dating back to 1931 which had been recorded by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Doris Day. In '68, Anita Harris peaked at # 33 while Mama Cass climbed to # 11
Days (The Kinks)
... the original version of the Ray Davies song ~ its # 12 highest placing would be equalled by Kirsty MacColl more than 20 years later
If I Were A Carpenter (The Four Tops)
... an interesting choice for a soul/R&B group, given that it was written by folk singer Tim Hardin and had previously been recorded, each in his or her own style, by such diverse talents as Bobby Darin and Joan Baez
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SHOW THEME:
Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)
written by George Gershwin, arranged by Tony Visconti
from the album Rhapsodies (A&M Records, 1979
Please bear in mind: it's a live show and so, occasionally I might need to change the running order, leave a song out, or
play an unplanned extra song which will not be shown in this weekly music blog.
- MW
