Mor-Than-Words

Copperhead Road – Steve Earle For me Steve Earle was the 80s version of Johnny Cash , great Country artist but singing songs with a purpose and a conscious. This song is epic, the way it starts so slowly and simply, then bit by bit it builds. Then suddenly there's an explosion of sound and the whole thing takes off. The use of bagpipes is amazing, so atmospheric. The guitar sound on this is so heavy and it rocks. I love the story telling in the words, you can just picture all the characters and almost taste the moonshine. The reference to Vietnam, again is Steve bringing in subjects other artists would run a mile from. I heard this song on a number of Country compilations we had, always thought it was a bit out of place, more of a rock song than pure Country. But I've a couple of other memories of it, I did a tour of New Zealand as a part of a Contiki holiday. This was for young single travels, I met a bunch of strangers from all around the globe and set off on a two week coac

Dirty Diana – Michael Jackson I’ve been going for a daily walk during lockdown, it’s been amazing to see the amount of houses with skips outside where the stuck at homers have been having huge clear outs. There’s been all manner of stuff sticking out of these skips, but I’m fascinated by the amount of CDs, cassettes and VHS tapes I’ve seen just slug in with all the other rubbish. One skip had what must have been someone’s once pride and joy entire CD collection. Floating at the top of a huge pile was Michael Jackson 's Bad album. This was an iconic album in 1987 and sort of represents the culture of the time. This was Jackson going Pop, he was moving away from his roots and starting to break musical barriers using the latest technology. There are some amazing songs on Bad, I was never the biggest of Jackson fans, but totally got his genius and innovation, for all the controversy that his legacy created he definitely changed the musical landscape. I picked this track Dirty Diana ju

 Streets of London – Ralph McTell I first became aware of this song at school, but I can’t remember if we just sang it in assembly or supposedly learnt to play it in our music lessons. I guess it’s a perfect song for kids, totally non offensive with a powerful social message about homelessness and life not being fair for everyone. It’s a funny song for its time, not exactly glam rock, lots of well crafted story lyrics with each verse telling a sorry tale. It was also one of the first songs I learnt to play on the guitar and only then did I associate it with Ralph McTell . I knew him from my childhood, he present the oddly named Tickle On The Tum kids TV show. Ralph used to sit on a stool just singing songs and telling stories. I can recall be enchanted by the program, it probably helped my love of storytelling without me even knowing it. This song came into my mind the other day on a songwriting co-write, my fellow musician was finger picking his way through a lovely melody and his vo

Son of a Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield I share a surname with Dusty . Her real name was Mary O’Brien, she had some amazing songs over the years. There used to be best of album in our house on LP or cassette, always loved songs like ' You Don't Have to Say You Love Me ' and ' I Only Want To Be With You ' . Then as I got more into music I realised how amazing songs like ' Goin' Back ' are, real deep and meaningful stuff.  This song got stuck in my head when it was used as part of the 1994 Pulp Fiction movie soundtrack. A random collection of songs that Quentin Tarantino 's selected for his mad film. I think Dusty's song is amazing, it’s such a story song, you can tell it’s going to be a sad tale from the first few bars. Sounds to me like she really liked this guy.  The backing is so smooth, her voice is so clear and expressive, all together it’s a very sophisticated sound. Such a strange thing that such a British singer could conjure up such a

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine – Laurel & Hardy The film ' Stan and Ollie ' is on TV tonight. It tells the tale of when Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the brilliant vintage comedy duo did a tour of Ireland and the UK in their later years. It's actually a very poignant film showing the usual anti climax of all the big stars of yesterday careers, they fall out of favour and are often cast adrift. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly performances as the comedy legends are remarkable. I love the real Laurel and Hardy , they make me laugh, their slap stick antics are my sense of humour. The great expressions and banter between them is perfection, even as a kid I loved watching their black and white short films which used to be shown on TV during the kids school holidays. Then there is this song, randomly featured in their movie, ' Way Out West '. It's part of the plot that our heroes end up in a bar where a bunch of cowboys start singing this tune. Laurel and Hardy

Let Me Be Your Fantasy – Baby D This one's straight out of my clubbing days. It was a huge tune back in it's day, Baby D appeared at a club we were at one night, they turned up mimed along to the track and then moved onto the next club. Clever stuff, but I have to say I always thought it was a banging song. All be it I was obsessed with singing "let me be your four by three' instead of fantasy, why I'm not sure. I used to have some windmill dance moves and always seemed to make space on the dance floor, I think the other dancers were scared of getting a black eye or similar. It's a wanna be love song wrapped up in serious beats, the intro makes me think were in some sort of ice palace, then the whispering draws you in. Then it's the best ringtone going until the beat kicks in and were off. Just the right tempo to dance to, positive messages as the lyric starts. Clever simple rhythms and a great song title, everyone has a fantasy. The way the energy drops d

The One and Only – Chesney Hawkes This is another one of those songs. To everyone else it’s that Saturday night sing along one hit wonder. Brilliant song, very catchy, simple title and message. Bit of self promotion never did anyone any harm. The sliding intro is very odd, then to be honest the whole song is a cliche of a 60's meets the 90's, but can't argue with the guitar solo. For me when I hear it, I’m back sat in the cinema watching the movie it was the theme of. A film called Buddy’s Song , Chesney Hawks played the lead character, a young lad who wanted his music to make him famous. His dad was played by The Who ’s Roger Daltry , so this film had some traction in the music world, it was called Buddy’s Song as the dad was obsessed by Buddy Holly . It was the usual boy meets girl she messes him around and all that goes with it. It sadly never really launched Chesney onto global stardom, it seems only into one hit wonder wonderland. Also the movie didn't win any Osc

Wild Horses – Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers Five years ago this week I was working at a London design agency, I'd been there fourteen years, then suddenly I was told it was going into liquidation. Never went back to even clear my desk, very abrupt end, I look back now and think of all the things I gained from the experience. The biggest of which was I met some brilliant friends, and many of them helped me expand to my musical tastes. One of these came from Anna, she added another step in my musical journey. I was a big fan of bands like The Byrds and The Eagles , all that Southern Rock era, but I was also a huge Rolling Stones fan, seen as Rock gods. But at that point I couldn't draw a link between them, Anna asked do you like ' Gram Parsons ', never heard of him I said. She told me about this guy who was basically seen as a Country music ghost, another one of those artists that only musical historians have heard of, but he joined the dots between so

Stop! In The Name of Love – The Supremes We lost Mary Wilson this week, she was one of the founders of the Motown hit group The Supremes . Diane Ross probably being the most famous of the three members. They were huge in the 1960s and had some monster hits, I could have picked any of their songs, but this one is a big favourite. The 'Stop!' is such a strong hook, once heard it ain't leaving your brain. And how long is the 'ooovveerr', that's how you write catchy songs. The backing is so simple, it's like a kid clinking a coke bottle. The backing vocals keep the whole lyric rounded out throughout, three voices blending and contradicting  each other adds so much texture. The clever rhythms make the whole song so catchy and you don't get tripped up until suddenly your told to 'Stop!' The message of the song is a cry for help, please don't break my heart. Think twice before you cheat on me. I don't deserve to be treated like this, talk abou

  Take On Me – a-ha Recently saw Morten Harket, lead singer of a-ha on the UK version of the Masked Singer . He even sang his own song and still the judges didn't guess him.  I hadn't heard this song in a while, I suddenly remembered it was another one that had a big impact on me. Well the truth is, it was more the video than the song itself, the video is very iconic. It starts off with static drawings featuring the band, we cut to a girl in a cafe and rather weirdly a hand pops out of the comic she's reading and pulls her into the drawn world. The band then appear inside and outside a drawn mirror while a strange plot unfolds. Real Alice Through The Looking Glass stuff, the pencil drawings of the action were amazing. There's even a sinister twist as two baddies try to kill off our leading man, all rather odd but very clever stuff for it's time. The a-ha video was crazy and so well executed, maybe it was as simple as a filter was used over the real action footage t

     Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream When I was at secondary school some of my friends decided to start a band as there was an end of year talent show coming up. It just so happened one of the guys called Dylan had always played lead guitar, another Dylan learnt to play the drums in boys brigade and Simon had started to learn bass guitar. Perfect combination apart from none of them wanted to be the singer. I still think it’s strange I had two Dylan’s in my class, both you’d have to guess were named after the great man himself, and I’ve not met another Dylan since. Anyway the band asked the music teacher if they could borrow the music room at lunchtimes to rehearse a few songs. The drum kit and amps were set up and I used to tag along at lunch break to hear them fumble their way through a few guitar classics. To be fair it didn’t take them long to get really good and the show was fast approaching. At one point they even asked if I would sing with them but I told them I didn’t want to get

    Real Gone Kid – Deacon Blue Now we're in the 80's, the musical decade that should have defined my youth, my teenage years, but instead I was discovering the 50's and 60's music of my parents. There were exceptions, I did listen to the Top 40 and watched Top Of The Tops every week. Like most kids then, I recorded songs off the radio, certain songs from those tapes broke through and have stayed in my head ever since. This being one such song, it's so full of energy it's just infectious. The intro is just a build up to an explosion of sound, the chanting and shouting starts us off. The piano riff keeps going like a train in the background, the song jumps about to keep us interested. It's clever, it starts, it stops, the guitars kick in and take us somewhere else, always pounding along. The male and female vocals dance around one another. The words are so expressive, I'm guessing it's a bit like me listening to those old 45s. Then as I grew up and d

I Left My Heart in San Francisco – Tony Bennett I’ve been to San Francisco a couple of times, it’s a very vibrant city. I can completely see why this song was written, it’s one of those places you feel at home as soon as you arrive. Not sure if I left my heart there but have great memories of that city. The steep hills and odd layout make it an interesting place to explore. The cable cars add that bit of Hollywood magic, then the Golden Gate Bridge is just iconic set in the beautiful harbor. We all know the images so it's easy to picture what the singer is trying to tell us. Add all that feeling into a song, it's starts by comparing San Francisco to other supposed lovely cities, but no where else lives up to his home town. Love the way they've worked the landmarks into the words, it’s like taking a city tour. Tony Bennett ’s voice just sets the mood, talk about laid back, what a singer. The orchestral backing is so majestic, it sounds like twinkling lights. The lovely pian

    Walk This Way – RUN DMC ft. Aerosmith This was another turning point. Rap came into my life. Loved Aerosmith and then they ran into Run DMC , the iconic start to this tune changed our music landscape again. The scratching of the record was such a strange thing to hear, we had all been so careful not to scratch our vinyl all those years, now these dudes were making music doing it. The way the different elements and instruments get brought in then dropped makes this song so dramatic. It's so angry sounding but some how non threatening, the guitar riff keeps me going throughout. The beat is so constant, it's the start of songs being created over repetitive loops. The lyrics are very clever, pretty simple but perfect for what is basically a duet, all be it between two whole bands rather than the normal two singers. It's a song aimed at the teenage boy audience who is trying to be cool through school. Adopt a walk and be noticed. The whole new style of 'rapping' ly

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) – Don McLean I knew of this song, but hadn’t really listened or understood it’s message until one day in art college. We had a visiting tutor who did a presentation all about Vincent Van Gogh . I was doing a graphics course and the history part of art was my least favorite lesson, really wasn't to sure how these old masterpieces were meant to help us with our logo and brand design. But this guy started off his lesson by telling us he was a friend of John Lennon ’s back in his Liverpool youth and that got my attention. He went on to say how misunderstood and under rated Van Gogh's art was in his own lifetime and how Vincent had never believed people took him seriously. I was sort of following his point, the poor artist with his own troubles trying to get his paintings appreciated, and it playing heavy on his mindset. Then at the end of the lecture he played a montage of Van Gogh's work with this song playing as its soundtrack. The song is name

    You're the First, the Last, My Everything – Barry White I've recently been learning about music syncing, which is where songs are placed into TV shows and movies. There is a big market for this now with so many more TV channels and streaming services, as well as big Hollywood movies. Each placement can earn good money depending on where it's being used and factors such as how much of the song is used. It got me thinking about TV shows I can remember that used music most effectively. There was a series on Channel 4 in the UK back in the late 90's called Ally McBeal , it was the story of a young lawyer that had moved to Boston. She was having lots of life issues at the time, for example her ex boyfriend happened to work at the same law practice, as did his wife. The funny thing about this show was music was almost one of the characters, there was the usual background incidental music of course, but each of the main characters also had a theme song that played in their

  Eternal Flame – The Bangles This is such a sweet tune, huge song from my teenage years, melted my heart. There weren't that many all girl groups around then, so The Bangles were a big hit with us teenage boys. I didn't understand the power of the lyric back then, I just thought it was another slushy song to have a slow dance to. When you look at the words they are very moving and powerful. The early backing sounds like a music box, just imagine winding it up with a little key and watch it spin round. The lovely soothing backing vocals fill the song out, then when it lifts up it takes you with it. The guitar versus the string backing takes this above the usual 1980's power ballad. Susanna Hoffs ' voice is so achy, you feel what's she's going through. For gods sake put her out her misery, do you feel the same or is she just dreaming. The Eternal Flame image is very symbolic. Apparently it was inspired by the flame that burns at Elvis 's graveside in Gracela

    Are You Gonna Go My Way – Lenny Kravitz I wasn't really aware of Lenny Kravitz before this song, he's a huge artist in his own genre, but after this song he went main stream. Love the guitar and feeling of this tune, let's put it this way 'It Rocks!' This song starts with a roar and it just don't let up the whole way through. Back in 1993, I remember hearing this and being really grateful thinking that Rock music was still alive after all the random music left over from the 1980's (not my favourite decade). Back then there were still music shows on main channel TV, seeing Lenny rocking out with his guitar made that cool again, he's a dude. Indie music was gaining ground, guitar bands were happening again but songs like this just still jumped out. This song appeared on a compilation cassette I had, most of the other tracks on there were the worthy 'trendy' tunes, then this explosion. It's one of those songs where the words and message are

    Running Bear – Johnny Preston I love this song. It's another one from my childhood, it sounds like a kids song, lots of chanting and takes a bit of imagination to get what's going on. It's actually a love song about two Indian's from different warring tribes, they're not allowed to be together.  This is a proper story song, loads of words, total tongue twister. Songs like this were big in the 50's, it's not an obvious setting to write a song about, I guess Westerns were very popular around the time and Cowboys and Indians were a real hit with the public. All sounding very exotic to us over here in the U.K. anything that shouted American was fantasy. Even as a kid listening to this song as a 45 single on a record player 30 years later, it really caught my ear. It was like listening to a bedtime story in three minutes. Running Bear is a cool Indian name, it gives such a strong image of a powerful fast huge guy and Little White Dove gives the impression of

    Wherever You Will Go – The Calling  No idea where this one came from, total American power ballad, it's well chessey but I love it. I'm a sucker for sentimental songs like this, all about always being with the one you love. But it's not really a happy song, apparently it was written about a husband who had lost his wife of over 50 years. The songwriter, Aaron Kamin , was at his grandmother's best friends funeral and the idea for the song came to him. How the husband who was left behind would have followed his beloved if only he could have. Can he now exist without her? The words almost say that they would come back to haunt you if that was possible, love that strong can't be broken. The need to be together is so strong. But like all good songs, you can take it's message in so many different ways. Also most listeners don't delve to deep into the meanings of songs, they just catch onto the suggested obvious tone of the chorus. The general understanding of

     These Boots Are Made for Walkin' – Nancy Sinatra You ready? Love the sliding guitar on the intro to this song, it’s like your heart pounding, you know it's all about to go South. The whole tone and the message are so well matched, you know she means what’s she saying. It’s such a clever, simple way of spinning the ‘leaving’ song idea, mistreat me and you'll get it. When this was a big hit for Nancy Sinatra back in the sixties I expect this was quite racy for it’s time. The words are so well crafted, keep plugging the same message, with some fantastic visual references. The backing is also so dramatic, you get the urgency of the situation. You better start behaving yourself or I’m off. Really like the use of the horns in this, it’s one of those really sparse sounding songs, but when you break it down there’s lots going on in there. It takes some doing but this song is so sexy sounding at the same time as actually saying I'm in control here. In fact it was written b

  Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus  This whole song hangs on one line from the lyric, ' Man, I feel like mold '. When I heard this blasting out my stereo in 2000 from yet another mix tape, I thought what a great phrase and it sums up being a teenager perfectly. Proper rock guitars and sing along chorus, I think we can all relate to this one even through we'd probably forget all about that side of being young. The words of this are so American, especially referencing bringing a gun to school, but are still very clever and speak directly to their target audience. Leaving the rest of us to be both jealous of their youth and secretly delighted we don't have to live through all that embarrassment again. How hard was it for any teenage boy to get the attention of the one girl you were helplessly in love with and she just didn't even know you existed. This song came from a real place, that feeling of being an outsider, as always with these silly songs there's usually a dark

  Footloose – Kenny Loggins From the distinctive drumming intro, then that dramatic guitar riff, were off on three minutes of fun. What a great tune to get the ole foot tapping, certainly makes you feel footloose. While the 1984 movie of the same name might not be quite my cup of tea, this title track from Kenny Loggins is a masterpiece of 80's rock. Can't ever get tired of that guitar sound, the rest of the backing is so up beat it's nuts. The lyrics aren't exactly complicated, but they are positive and capture that feeling of wanting to break out the working week and go enjoy yourself. Don't let your life just pass you by, get out there and have fun. Lose your blues. Wise words. As with lots of these successful 80's movie, working on the assumption they made a lot of money once, let's remake them. There's a 2011 second version of this movie, using the same theme music but this time with a more Country twist by an artist I really like, Blake Shelton

    Castle On The Hill – Ed Sheeran I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Sheeran , it just so happened that one of his school friends was working with us at the time. He casually asked if we would like to go with him to meet some of his mates, a few of us from the office tagged along to a Cuban bar behind Waterloo station in London for Friday drinks. As we were chatting away Ed popped up, he'd had a few big hits by then, but he wasn't recognisable enough to cause an issue. We had a pleasant chat with him and left the friends to enjoy the evening. I wasn't a big fan at the time but came away thinking what a nice guy he was and very grounded. Soon after he blew up into a global superstar, Taylor Swift duets and all. Then role on a few years, my niece managed to win a competition to see Ed live at Wembley Stadium . She asked would I take her and being the 'cool' uncle, I said of course. As they were winning tickets we had a great view, near the front. I have to say he blew

    Feed The Birds – Mary Poppins ( Julie Andrews ) I was watching a documentary on PL Travis , the author of Mary Poppins , and her relationship with Walt Disney who took her stories and made them into the iconic movie starring Julie Andrews . It seems there is always a sub plot to all these most famous stories, PL Travis was a complicated character and her books much darker than the animated film. The story of their relationship and PL Travis attempts to stop Walt Disney making his masterpiece has also been turned into a movie, Saving Mr. Banks . Personally I prefer that film even more than Mary Poppins itself as it gives you a glimpse into how they made the amazing Disney films back in the day. The storytelling and settings were as clever as the game changing animation techniques they developed, but the part that fascinates me personally is how the Sherman Brothers came up with the amazing music that's featured throughout the film. Taking the plot and dialogue and crafting t

    Space Oddity – David Bowie Today would have been David Bowie 's 74th birthday, and it's the 5th anniversary of him passing on the 10th. I remember my dad was taking me to the train station when news of his sudden death came on the radio, it shocked the music world especially as he had only just released a new album. David Bowie was yet another of the 70's artists that I never quite got, really liked some of his songs but couldn't ever see the musical genius that most other music lovers could. This is an amazing song, it so sums up the space race around the time of it's release 1969. Bowie really did move with the times, I like a song of his, ' Love You Till Tuesday ' which was released in the swinging sixties. Glam Rock then had a strange effect on his appearance and song subject matter. His later life stuff went well above my head, to conceptual for me. My main image of Bowie is dancing his way through one of the campest videos ever with Mr. Moves Like

  Come Away With Me – Norah Jones Need to relax and de-stress, listen to this lady's voice, it'll make you feel sleepy just hearing her sing. Norah Jones has an amazing relaxed style, this track is so soothing and tranquil. Love the subtle texture and slightly up and down movement of the melody, you could almost be on a boat drifting on the ocean. The bass player is like a clock in the background and the gentle guitar adds to the mood. This one is from 2002, it's the title track from Norah's debut album. It's quite Jazzy for my usual tastes, could be considered a slow blues, but it's quality production and arrangement makes it so listenable. The song itself wasn't much of a hit in the UK. The album of the same name on the other hand has sold over 26 million copies and falls bang in the middle of what used to be called Easy Listening, in other worlds it has global appeal. Even to those people who say they are not music lovers, it's the sort of music that

You'll Never Walk Alone – Gerry & The Pacemakers We lost Gerry Marsden yesterday, this song of his with his band The Pacemakers has played a big part in my life. My Dad is a Liverpool supporter and I associate this song very much with him. The lyrics are so powerful, the message is so supportive, it's a wonderful concept that you'll never be alone. You need to keep going, walk on and keep the hope. The song was iconic amongst football fans, to see the entire Kop stand at Anfield sing this as one sends chills up your spine and puts fear into the opposition. It went to another level when they sang it in tribute to all the 96 fans that died in the Hillsborough tragedy . I'm sure when Gerry searched this song out he could never thought how iconic it would become. The song is from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and the words make perfect sense as part of the story, but it takes a bit of belief to take such a song away from it's setting and release

  Happy – Pharrell Williams Happy New Year, here we are in 2021. Thought I'd try and cheer myself up with this joyous number, HAPPY. We could all do with a bit of this after the year we have just gone through. It's not my usual sort of thing, but it's a very positive, catchy song and I love that. It's like a more modern version of Stevie Wonder 's Happy Birthday song. I associate this song with a holiday I had a few years ago, it was at a family owned holiday camp and the entertainment team used to start each evening's show with this song banging out the speakers. We had a lot of fun that week and it brings it all back hearing this song. There's nothing complicated about this song, the lyrics are fun and a simple statement that bad news can do one. Reading up on this, as well as being a huge No.1 in the US, apparently this was the best selling song in the UK in 2014. It was No.1 here on three different occasions and is the eighth best selling single ever,

    Don’t Look Back In Anger – Oasis Oasis were another turning point in my musical journey. Matt from work brought in a cassette tape of their first album and my ears pricked up straight away, suddenly my generation had it's own guitar band, proper sing along lyrics and attitude. Brilliant. I had always been envious of other eras in music, when the crooners were out run by the rock 'n' rollers, leading to glam rock and punk, dance and hip hop. The movement that became called 'Indie', all these independent record labels fighting the big labels for better chart positions. This is back in the day before you could release tracks from computers in your bedroom, never mind streaming. We even had chart battles with the likes of Oasis vs Blur , I should have been on Blur's side, I'm an Essex boy after all. I did like them and bought their albums on CD, but Oasis won out for me, cooler and nearer to my idols like the Stones and the Beatles . Bands with four or fiv

Free Fallin' – Tom Petty  This song sums up just how I'm feeling right now, not sure what's above or below me. There's a massive release when you're not sure what's coming next, but it's also scary as hell. I feel like I'm free falling at the moment and I don't want to hit the ground, this song seems to keep popping up. It gets referenced a lot within the songwriting groups I'm part of as a masterpiece of melody. I'm not a huge Tom Petty fan, but I do like lots of his hits, plus he was a big part of the Traveling Wilburys with a collection of my other favourite artists. I've also a massive soft spot for ' I Won't Back Down ." This was from Tom Petty 's first solo album which he wrote with Jeff Lynee of ELO fame. My guess would be he had the fact he was free of the confinement he had felt being in his band The Heartbreakers in his mind, suddenly he didn't have to please the others anymore. Lots of artists that come

    Hole In The Bottle – Kelsea Ballerini Been hearing this song on the Country radio, I think it's a great fun song. Tis the season to get sozzeled after all. Kelsea Ballerini has become a beacon in the new generation of great Country artists. She has had some very thought provoking songs like Homecoming Queen , even the most popular of kids still have their issues. Peter Pan , about never growing up, I certainly relate to that one. Then other big hits that just make you want to have a good time, Yeah Boy for example, aimed bang at the young Country girls. I've seen her perform on the Opry on YouTube and think she is amazingly talented. She also seems like a totally genuine person, but that does she to be true of a lot of Country stars, they do seem to be more grounded and able to look after their fans maybe more than other genres. These newer stars seem to have a great way of releasing songs that portray their lives and what they are currently going through, then as they ma

Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl I always used to say this was my favourite Christmas song, but not so sure now. I still really love it, it's one of the things I look forward to when this comes on the radio each year. But when my generation were always referencing Maria , Wham or East 17 , this was my Christmas song. They didn't like it then as it was a miserable anti Christmas song, I'm not anti Christmas, far from it, but I always knew this was a special song. But as with all things this has now become main stream, even traditional, but because of that it has to be dumbed down even to the point they are now censusing it's lyrics. Doesn't seem a lot of point to me, it was always an edgy Christmas song about a drunk bloke and his misses having a barney on Christmas Eve and ending up in jail. It's never going to be Silent Night is it. There is a real magic feeling built up round the song, probably to do with the tragic accident that killed

Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West) – Benny Hill This was Christmas No.1 from 1971. Benny Hill is no way PC these days, but he was a comedy king of the 1970s and this song is genius from whenever it was produced. Such a silly story, but so well told. Benny's TV show was a series of funny sketches and songs, this one stood out and so it was released as a single. Apparently it was inspired by Benny's own experiences as a real life milkman. You sort of guess that from the full extent of the lyric, it's to well informed not to have come from a real place. Ernie's big rival is Ted the bread man, with both men trying to grab the affections of widow Sue. The battle fought between them with bakery and dairy produce is so well scripted. Love the fact it's references come from that era, to think of a milk float being pulled by a horse takes you back to bygone days. His horse being called Trigger is a brilliant nod towards the Roy Rogers , the singing cowboy. My Dad had a

Johnny B. Goode and Earth Angel – Marty McFly   For my 100th post, I thought I'd go a little off piste and feature my favourite scene from my favourite movie. 'Something that really cooks'.  One of the best songs ever created, Johnny B. Goode , of all the massive songs throughout the history of music this one must be up there with the most important and it probably is the best Rock 'n' Roll record there is. Of course I should have posted the Chuck Berry version but watching this film as a teenager probably made me want to play guitar even more than being a huge music fan and loving all those great bands. Totally love Chuck Berry and he's one of my biggest musical influences, but fair play to Michael J. Fox , he totally nails this. I'd guess the writer of the Back To The Future trilogy settled on the characters going back to 1955 just so it could be this song that Marty McFly could preform. They liked it that much they even wrote in back into the second fil

  99 Red Balloons – Nena As it's my 99th post, thought of this little tune. Totally 80's this one, plenty of synths, processed instruments and vocals. Just a full on Euro Pop song, supposed it would be a pop song with balloons involved.  It was a big German hit that they translated for the British market, apparently the English version carries a different meaning to the German one, it was the German version that made the US charts. It was all inspired by the releasing of balloons at a Rolling Stones gig, the lyrics tell a story of the balloons being mistaken for a UFO and causing a major indecent, that leads to war breaking out between nations which in turn nearly destroys the world. The English version is a bit more light hearten but you wouldn't have taken this as an anti war song by the nature of the vocal performance and the pulsing beat of the song. The English version tells us how toy shop balloons get released and get mistaken for something sinister sent by a foreig

2 Become 1 – Spice Girls This was the first of three consecutive Christmas number ones for the Spice Girls , this one was 1996, Too Much 1997 and Goodbye 1998. This is probably my favourite Spice Girls song, love the gentleness of it, it's a long way from Wannabe . Viva Forever was done in a similar soft style and I really like that one as well. I had a strange relationship with this band, I remember taking Wannabe to Australia with me on a Now album, playing it for my brother who was living over there and telling him that they were the next big thing back home. They then exploded the music scene, but I often thought their music wasn't as polished as it could be. There personalities and the media created characters almost over shadowed the songs they put out, it was more about who was your favourite girl than your favourite song. Baby Spice, Emma Bunton just in case you were wondering. There's no denying they were one of the best groups of a generation. Their managemen