Here’s a list of the songs that I performed in public for the first time during August 2025. Each month I aim to play at least one new song from each of the following repertoires:

• Songs that reached #1 in the UK.
• Songs that reached #1 somewhere else.
• Songs that have not reached #1 anywhere.

Songs that reached #1 in the UK

Date	Song (Artist, Year it reached #1)	Notes
Sun 10-Aug-2025	Return to Sender (Elvis Presley, 1962)	Elvis’s only Christmas #1 in the UK
Sun 10-Aug-2025	Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum, 1967)	From a ring-bound songbook, “Classic Acoustic Playlist”, only 70 songs in there but they come up all the time

Songs that reached #1 somewhere else

Date	Song (Artist, Year it reached #1)	Notes
Sun 10-Aug-2025	Honey (Bobby Goldsboro, 1968)	#1 in the USA, the best-selling record in the world in 1968. Previously mentioned in this piece, “Patches”
Sun 10-Aug-2025	Itchycoo Park (Small Faces, 1968)	#1 in Canada. Also in the ring-bound songbook, “Classic Acoustic Playlist”, only 70 songs in there but they come up all the time
Sun 17-Aug-2025	Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) (Temptations, 1971)	#1 in the USA, a rare Motown #1 that only uses 3 chords

Songs that have not reached #1 anywhere

Date	Song (Artist, Year it reached #1)	Notes
Sun 10-Aug-2025	A Boy Named Sue (Johnny Cash, n/a)	This song has been part of my life for over 50 years, the words are embedded deep in my mind
Sun 17-Aug-2025	I Second That Emotion (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, n/a)	Never a #1, and a #9 UK hit for Japan around this time in 1982. Like “Just My Imagination” it’s that rare thing, a Motown song with only 3 chords
Sun 31-Aug-2025	Back in the USSR (Beatles, n/a)	Lyrically one of my favourite Beatles songs. It’s been something of an Earworm recently, possibly because of those photos of Sergei Lavrov (Russian Foreign Minister) wearing a CCCP sweatshirt in Alaska this month