If you learn to play guitar or piano you will probably end up with a repertoire, a set of songs that you can play for your own amusement, or to entertain others. It might consist of just two or three songs but it’s still a repertoire. If you can only play one song, then you… Continue reading Word of the week: repertoire
It’s a while since a line from a song prompted me to write one of these occasional pieces about lyrics. It has happened again this month, with a performance by Rudimental on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. Zoe Ball took over the morning slot from Chris Evans at the start of… Continue reading “How you gonna win when you ain’t right within?”
Rest in peace Dean Ford, who has died in the last few days. He was lead singer of Marmalade, the first Scottish band to reach the top of the UK charts. Their cover of the Beatles song “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” was #1 exactly 50 years ago, in the first week of 1969. In the days before… Continue reading “Reflections of my life”
Sometimes you hear two or three songs in succession that include the same word, not an obvious one like “love” or “baby”, but something unexpected. The first four songs in an episode of “Top of the Pops” shown on BBC4 last weekend all featured the word “fight”. The episode first aired on 6 November 1986,… Continue reading Word of the week: fight
Yesterday, Paul Gambaccini’s “Pick of the Pops” show on BBC Radio 2 featured the charts from this week in 1971 and 1988. Can you recall the Christmas #1s from those years? The answers appear below. It’s the kind of information that people of my generation (those of us who followed the charts closely) might retain… Continue reading Christmas #1s, and biting the dust at 52
Last week, on his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, Chris Evans played “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” by The Beatles, a German-language version of their 1963 #1 “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. I remember enough of my O Level German to know that the title is not a direct translation. “Komm, Gib Mir Deine… Continue reading “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”
On this date in 1971 the UK #1 was “Hey girl, don’t bother me” by the Tams. Treat yourself to this performance of a great chart-topper. Rod Stewart was at #2 with “Maggie May”, listed in some charts as a double A side with “Reason to Believe”, another pair of great songs. Here’s the classic… Continue reading “It’s late September, and …”
Early in 2016 I wrote my first listicle, a rather long one containing 57 songs that rhyme “heart” with “part” or “apart”. It’s here, on the Lyrics Menu. As it says, “There’s nothing wrong with rhyming the word “heart” with either “part” or “apart”. Shakespeare did it, Hal David did it, Bob Dylan has done… Continue reading 100 songs that rhyme “heart” with “part” or “apart”
Here’s something we learnt earlier today. Which automobile company took its name from the Frenchman who founded the city of Detroit, Michigan? Was it Chrysler, Chevrolet or Cadillac? The answer appears at the end of the following paragraph. Channel 4 have revived their old primetime quiz show “The Million Pound Drop”, but it now has… Continue reading Word of the week: Cadillac
Here’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. Try it, if you’re into such things. What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? We’re dealing here, respectively, with Roxy Music’s debut hit, which reached #4… Continue reading More pop trivia: What do “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” have in common?
The Compartments 