On Air Now Martin Emery 11:00am - 3:00pm
Now Playing One 2 Many Downtown

The Show That Time Forgot ~ Sunday 24/10/2021

FIRST HOUR

Ha! Ha! Said The Clown (Manfred Mann) 
(1967) ...  with an instantly catchy 'hook line', a punchy lead vocal by Mike d'Abo and a foot-stomping beat behind it, Ha! Ha! was a dead cert for the Top 10.  It was one of the first chart hits to feature a mellotron, which is probably best described as as a 'clever' keyboard, heard on several other well known songs of the same era.  The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever is a classic example

Love Of The Common People (Nicky Thomas)
(1970) ... reggae crossover hit ~ hard to believe it started out as a folky, country ballad.  Fast forward a dozen years or so, the song was successfully revived, again in a different style, by Paul Young

Sun Street (Katrina & The Waves)
... from the first of today's featured years ~ a year on from Walking On Sunshine, Katrina was back with another feelgood summer hit, which surprisingly just missed out on the Top 20


Different singers, different styles... same writers

A tribute to one of the 20th Century's greatest songwriters  Leslie Bricusse who has died aged 90.  He worked closely with Anthony Newley (1931-1999), who was also a popular singer and actor with a string of hit songs in the early '60s which influenced the young David Bowie

Feeling Good (Nina Simone)
(1965)... written by Newley and Bricusse for the stage musical The Roar of The Greasepaint, The Smell of The Crowd which had premiered in the UK in '64. The following year, the show opened on Broadway and legendary jazz-blues singer Nina Simone recorded what is widely regarded as the definitive version for her album I Put A Spell On You. Feeling Good seems to have become increasingly popular in more recent decades, thanks in no small measure to the power of TV advertising. In 1994, Simone's  original '65 recording was used in a TV ad for Volkswagen, Released for the first time as a single, it reached # 40 on the UK chart. The song has been heard in at least one other TV commercial since the mid '90s and has also featured in several films and TV shows

On A Wonderful Day Like Today (Matt Monro)
(1965)...   from the same Newley-Bricusse musical, one of the all-time Cheeriest Tunes. Matt Monro recorded several of their songs including one of his earliest and biggest hits My Kind of Girl (1961, UK # 5, US # 18)

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Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs)
(1977) ...  Top 20 follow-up to his highest placed UK hit (# 10) What Can I Say. Around the same time, he also enjoyed major success as a writer ~ We're All Alone, covered by  Rita Coolidge (US # 7, UK # 6)

Newsround Tameside: 35 years ago ~ 1986

Don't Get Me Wrong (The Pretenders) 
... first single taken from the group's 1986 album, Get Close....Chrissie Hynde said she was inspired to write the song for her friend John McEnroe.... The music video is a tribute to the 1960s' British TV spy series The Avengers, with Chrissie playing Emma Peel searching for John Steed (actor Patrick Macnee appears in the original series' footage, with Hynde superimposed) while being diverted by body doubles and rival agents. [W]

Thorn in My Side (Eurythmics 
... the video, directed by Chris Ashbrook and Dave Stewart sees the band adorned in their black and leather Revenge tour costumes, in a studio set bar with a gang of Hell's  Angels in the audience. Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who was recording and touring with Eurythmics during '86 makes a guest appearance  [W]

Under African Skies (Paul Simon)
...  featuring guest vocals by Linda Ronstadt, Under African Skies originated in the later recording sessions for the album Graceland. Several South African musicians were flown to New York to complete the record three months after the original sessions in Johannesburg, They were paid triple union rates in order to persaude them to record, as Paul Simon.was unknown to many of them. [W]

We're Not Deep (The Housemartins)
...  pacy, upbeat song, one of almost a dozen written by band members Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore for the Housemartins' debut album London 0 Hull 4

My Favourite Waste Of Time (Owen Paul)
...one hit wonder, with a highest chart position  of # 3 ~ taking its place among the year's most played songs

Ask (The Smiths)                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ...  written by Morrissey and Johnny Marr as an intentionally more lighthearted song than Panic, the single which preceded it. Kirsty MacColl sings backing vocals. Following a similar style to previous Smiths releases, the record sleeve has a photo of actress Yootha Joyce -  best known for playing Mildred Roper in the sitcoms Man About The House and George & Mildred - on the set of the 1965 film Catch Us If You Can [W]
 

Montego Bay (Amazulu) 
...  their second '70s throwback on the chart in '86, having recently breathed new life into the old Chi-Lites song Too Good To Be Forgotten. Montego Bay had previously been a 1970 Top 10-er for Bobby Bloom

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SECOND HOUR

Message Understood (Sandie Shaw) 
(1965)... a Top 10-er, but one which has often been overlooked by radio station playlisters in favour of some of her other hits, in particular the chart-topping Long Live Love and Always Something There To Remind Me

Dreams (The Corrs)
(1998) ... first time on the UK chart for the Irish siblings ~  sisters Sharon, Andrea and Caroline and their brother Jim ~ the breakthrough single from  their mega successful album Small Corners. The Corrs' cover of the Fleetwood Mac song is now as familiar as the original on the 1977 classic LP, Rumours

Suzanne Beware Of The Devil (Dandy Livingstone) 
... teaser track for our second featured year ~ first of two crossover hits for the reggae artist who also wrote the original Rudy a Message to You  -  later covered by The Specials as A Message To You Rudy 

Absolutely Lyricless ~ the instrumental break   
... from opposite ends of the '60s 

FBI (The Shadows)
(1961) ... one of the earliest hits for The Shads whose line-up at that time was Hank Marvin – lead guitar, Bruce Welch – rhythm guitar, Jet Harris – bass and Tony Meehan – drums and percussion

Classical Gas (Mason Williams)
(1968) ... not only a classical guitarist and composer of this bright and breezy pop crossover, but also a writer, poet and comedian who regularly appeared on American TV

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All You Need Is Love (Jamie Payet)
(2021) ... fab new version of The Beatles '67 classic by a 'soul rock' singer-songwriter from Melbourrne, Australia

The Morning Times (Alex Spencer)
(2021) ...   it's great to hear The Beatles continuing to influence the young musicians of today. At just 14 years old, Alex has previously listed the Fab Four along with Oasis, The La’s, The Coral and  Blossoms as some of the bands who have so far inspired him. The Morning Times #  takes his music to a whole new dimension. Think indie, funk with hip hop undertones but with 'that signature Alex Spencer sound'. If you remember his previous single Things Just Come And Go - much played on Tameside Radio earlier this year - that description will  certainly ring true.  For latest news of Alex and his forthcoming live dates, check out his Facebook page Alex Spencer Music - he's also on Twitter @alexspencerUK 

 # The Morning Times, his new single is available from Tuesday 26th October. Pre-save on Spotify or pre-order on iTunes/Amazon

Newsround pre-Tameside: 49  years ago ~ 1972

Take Me Bak 'Ome (Slade)
... second of six chart-toppers for one of the decade's toppermost bands, continuing a run of infamously, deliberately mis-spelled song titles

Storm In A Teacup (Lynsey de Paul)
... Lynsey's original version of the song which was a Top 10 hit early in '72 for The Fortunes ( B side of Sugar Me, her debut hit in the same year)

Journey (Duncan Browne)
...heartfelt lyrics, stunningly beautiful acoustic guitar, superb vocal - need I go on?!  An exquisite, faultless performance from a singer songwriter who never received the recognition he deserved and sadly died from cancer, at the age of 46, in 1993. Journey was his one and only Top 30 single.


.Virginia Plain (Roxy Music)
...  breakthrough Top 10-er for Bryan Ferry and co, sounding fresh, exciting and completely different to everything else around at the time

You Came, You Saw, You Conquered (The Pearls)
...  Liverpool duo Lynn Cornell and Ann Simmons peaked at  # 32 - a modest UK hit but much more successful than The Ronettes' 1969 original which stalled at # 100 in the US Hot 100 

Wig Wam Bam (The Sweet)
... '72 was the year they started to move away from the out and out pop of their earlier hits to a harder edged sound. Wig Wam Bam continued the smooth transition, peaking at # 4

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[W]: Source: Wikipedia

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

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