1970

I credit this year with being the time I got serious in my record collecting. I was at school. 13 years old, at the beginning of the year. Being a teenager is the time a lot of your opinions on pretty much everything, are put into place. Some stronger than others. My favourite music, apart from the Beatles, of course, is set in the first 6 years of the seventies.

The first top three of the year was, a holdover from the sixties, naturally. I remember we had those 3 records and they indicated some of the diversity that the seventies was going to contain. The Archies:Sugar, Sugar; Kenny Rogers: Ruby, Don`t Take Your Love To Town;Rolf Harris:Two Little Boys. So, a cartoon group, a country music legend and a, now disgraced, kid`s entertainer. The rest of that first chart is full of 60`s icons. The Beatles, Cliff Richard, Englebert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Dave Clark Five, Creedence Clearwater Revival. No sign, yet, of glam rock or heavy metal or punk. Some sign of classic reggae, though. The wonderful sound that is The Liquidator by Harry J. Allstars. Played at every football match in the UK. Every band of supporters could shoehorn their team`s name into it.  Speaking of football, or should that be writing of football?

This was World Cup year. England were defending champions. They still had a lot of the world cup winning team of 1966. Mexico was calling. Colour TV had settled in since the last tournament. It was looking like it would be a glamorous occasion. The scene was set for one of the first football recordings. Still one of the best, Back Home was huge. It was uplifting and gave hope for the future. It was not to be. A poor half time substitution against West Germany, let them back in the game. I couldn`t watch the final minutes and went out in the back yard, fuming with Alf Ramsey. Sir Alf by then. I don`t think I`ve ever been that passionate about the game since. I still get a buzz, hearing the record, but when it comes to the 1970 competition, I concentrate on the glorious Brazil, showing the world how it should be done. I even had a super 8 reel of film of the final. Brazil 4:1 Italy.
A few weeks into the year came one of the biggest bubble gum records ever. Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes] by Edison Lighthouse. A fake band put together by the writers to back Tony Burrows, a legendary session singer and lead vocalist on a whole bunch of one hit wonder non-bands. So this was the first real number one of the seventies
A whole bunch of my music listening was done on Sunday afternoons, at my nan and grandad`s house on the Beechdale Estate, Walsall. They had an old red transistor radio and we would have the chart show on every Sunday tea time. Alan "Fluff" Freeman was the presenter and the voice of the charts back then. Very warm feelings from that small living room on Gurney Road. Very happy days. A small English salad for tea. That`s where my dislike of celery, radishes and salad cream came from. I did not enjoy those salads, but the music was wonderful. Nan and Grandad were both heavy smokers and that smell stays with me when I think of that time. Nan got my first guitar by saving Embassy coupons from the cigarette packets. I have no memory of what happened to that guitar. How great was it that they let us listen to the charts? They were real old school, but so loving and a lot of fun.

The big worldwide hit of this year was Mungo Jerry`s In The Summertime. A starting point for me collecting all Ray Dorset`s music. I can still remember that track blaring out of the school 6th form common room, on a hot sunny day, while playing coats-for-goalposts football [soccer], on the grass outside. There were no official goalposts at Queen Mary`s, Walsall. It was, and still is, a cricket and rugby school, primarily. The record was unusual, in that it had a picture sleeve and was played at 33 1/3 rpm, to allow extra tracks. Mungo Jerry did this a lot, back then. They called them mini albums. Not EPs. Later in the year, I found one of my other favourites.
Although I had several records of my own already, I Hear You Knocking is when I became a real 70`s fanboy. Dave Edmunds` incredible cover of an old Smiley Lewis track started me off collecting Dave `s stuff amongst many others. Such an atmospheric production, great guitar, amazing echo, wonderful vocals. I had no idea for a long time, that it was a cover version. Although I loved music, I was not that well informed. It puts a picture in my mind of the living room at number 9, mum and dad`s place.
The Beatles had broken up. Paul officially announced it, early on in the year. John had already had a couple of singles out and when he blasted into the chart at number 7, in its first week, Instant Karma was an instant success [groan]. It would be 1971 before the rest of the boys got their acts together [or, more precisely, apart] in the singles charts. I would continue to buy their product, singles, albums, whatever. Still doing it now.

As The Beatles, they still had one success up their sleeve. Let It Be got to number one as an album but not the
single. The single was kept at number two by one of those quirky hits that make me love the seventies so much. Lee Marvin`s wonderful Wand`rin` Star. Not the last material they made, but it was the last official album released. I was too young to be aware that there was little love for the album. I loved it and still do. Most bands would give anything for their 11th proper album release to be anywhere near as good as that.
One of the great things about the singles chart in the seventies, was the distinct sounds of so many recordings. That red transistor radio, at nan`s house, was behind the distinctiveness of so much 70` music. If your record didn`t play well on a tatty little radio, it would not be successful. You really had to make your record stand out. So many one-offs with memorable production, lyrics and melodies. One such beast snuck in low on the charts, in its first week. That`s how things were done back then. You got on to the chart and worked your way up. Spirit In The Sky by Norman Greenbaum was another one hit wonder, but such an anthem for the early seventies. It seemed to be everywhere and still plays well today. How did people make such great records, then no others?
Creedence Clearwater Revival were still having
hits. Another fanboy thing. I still listen to John Fogerty.
I had my first real crush on Clodagh Rogers, pictured left. Hot pants and cheekbones. And she could pump out a decent pop song too. Another of my long term favourites are Status Quo and they had stuff out this year. Down The Dustpipe was a great pop song and showed some signs of their rockier boogie sound that they would use later on. A band called Hotlegs released a weird sounding single, called Neanderthal Man. I loved it, but thought these guys won`t do much. Technically it was a one hit wonder as Hotlegs did not have another hit. They changed their name and became 10CC one of the greatest pop bands ever. That was to be a couple of years later, though.
I started out on a Sunday job, selling stretch covers for 3 piece suites. Warwick market. I learned about Simon and Garfunkel from the guy who drove the van. Bridge Over Troubled Water was my first album purchase. I got it for 32 shillings off Walsall

market. Later on, I worked on Bilston market every Saturday and eventually the main stall on Walsall market every Saturday. The boss got me in to Cat Stevens, just by having his albums playing whenever I was at their house. Music was coming at me from all angles. I keep going back to the Beechdale and nan and grandad`s house and the little red transistor. There were times when I would have to take it upstairs and listen in the tiny back bedroom. Usually other people had turned up. Some aunt or uncle, so the adults would want to talk. It`s funny how some records make you think of different rooms. Tears of A Clown by Smokey Robinson and Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix both put me in that back bedroom. Just enough room for a single bed and a sideboard. On the sideboard were two toy soldiers, I made, from kits, with a little help from mum. The smell of the paint, glue and plastic, oh my.

So many long standing artists I cottoned on to this year. Some new , some old, some cool, some not. I became a fan of Andy Williams because of his fantastic TV show. I loved the cookie bear. "No cookies. Not now, not ever, NEVER!" Then he releases one of the best singles of the decade. Home Lovin` Man stood out from the crowd. Andy`s angelic voice with a great song and such a great production. So atmospheric. His show was so good. I loved that you were never sure if something funny was going to happen during one of his songs. He was so straight, which made it even funnier. But that voice was wonderful.


It was in this year that some of the great seventies bands started to make a dent. Marmalade and Deep Purple, both synonymous with this decade. Two completely different styles. Marmalade`s biggest hit was in the sixties, but they made some great stuff in the 70`s and that`s how I think of them. Deep Purple were much heavier, but that was the beauty of the singles charts then. Everyone had a chance. One of the greatest singles of all time is Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Ozzy`s voice is one of the greatest rock voices. Paranoid flows along so smoothly. Sabbath and Purple released some great singles but were really album and live bands. I didn`t get into the album stuff until much later. In the same week as Paranoid you have Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom, a reggae style number. Band of Gold by Freda Payne was another huge number one record.

I have a very vivid memory of being at nan and grandad`s. The old black and white TV was still in use. A young man sat at a piano, wearing shorts and a flat cap. Looking very odd and singing a strange hypnotic little song. Nothing Rhymed by Gilbert O`Sullivan is a wonderful example of seventies` records being so different from anything else. I bought everything he released, enjoyed all the B sides and he was the first artist, whose albums I bought, the week they came out.
When it came to Christmas, the craze for Christmas records had not yet taken hold. The closest to a seasonal release, this year, was The Man From Nazareth by John Paul Joans. If you play that after playing Neanderthal Man, you may notice similarities. It`s pretty much the same crew and almost stops Hotlegs from being one-hit wonders.
So many other wonderful singles this year. The Carpenters got Close To You. Gasoline Alley Bred by The Hollies, showed them moving on from the 60`s. The Witch by The Rattles. A huge European hit. I could just list a whole bunch of records, but I won`t. For many weeks of 1970, I would have all the top ten singles in my room. I loved pretty much everything, although, when I look back, I had not heard of a lot of stuff. I kept going back and finding other gems. 1970. So young. So innocent.

Me and The Beatles

She Loves You was the track, that got me started. I don`t know if I was aware of Love Me Do, but everybody, everywhere became aware of She Loves You. I`m pretty sure that it was my mum that bought the records in our house. Never had my dad pegged as a music lover. In later years, he showed a liking for country music, but very much the old style C&W, not the new fangled stuff. It was always mum and also my grandparents` little red transistor radio that provided the music in my life. I have no memory of who decided I would have Beatles` wallpaper on one wall of the bedroom, I shared with my baby sister. I assume it was my idea. It would have also been my idea to have a plastic wig, a jacket without lapels and a red, plastic Beatles` guitar. Oh, if only I still had those things. Not for sentimental reasons, but for the cash they would induce. Yes, that`s right, I would sell them. Aren`t I terrible?

I can`t remember wearing the wig outside the house, but I definitely wore the jacket to Saturday morning ABC Minor`s Club at the ABC cinema in Walsall town centre. I probably also wore it on my first "date". I was 9 and went to see Hard Day`s Night with a girl from school. I say "date", we just happened to be going in the Odeon cinema at the same time, by ourselves. You could still do that in 1965, as a 9 year old. We noticed each other, in the queue, and decided to sit next to each other. She screamed a lot. A lot of girls did. But it was The Beatles that caused it, not me!
When the boys were going to appear on Sunday

Night at the London Palladium, it was a big deal. The show was a hugely popular variety show. It was October 1963 and I was desperate to see it, but it was after my bed time and, wouldn`t you know it, dad was going to be home from work. He was a train driver and had very strange hours. I have no idea how mum and I managed it, but I saw the show from under the dining table, in the living room. Quietly eating a cheese sandwich. Dad must have known. He must have.
In 1967, I went to Grammar school, got more into records. I started to siphon off the house collection over to my burgeoning box of delights. Around 1970, I had a job on the Sunday market in Warwick. Followed, later on by Bilston  market on Saturdays. Just weekends of course, I was still at school. I finally ended up working the foam rubber stall at the top of Walsall market on Saturdays. That was when the world came to an end or, rather, The Beatles as a group came to an end. I was 14 in 1970, the age when the music you like is the music that you will always like. I don`t remember it being a huge deal, as their music persisted.

One memory I have from those school days is not being able to go on the ski trip with my mates. I had a Grammar school education, but my parents did not have grammar school income. When my mates came back, they told tales of apres-ski, listening to Don`t Let Me Down over and over again. I was jealous of the shared memory they had. While still at school, I bought two Beatles albums off a kid, for ten bob. Ten bob was a popular price for everything. We hadn`t quite got into decimal then. They had no sleeves, but it still seemed a bargain and I immersed myself in With The Beatles and A Hard Day`s Night. I still have them, although I replaced them, later on in the 70`s, with really nice copies from a guy who ran a second hand shop in Smethwick High Street. They were out of his personal collection, so he said. No idea why he would part with them. I have not parted with them. I started to buy singles in abundance and the occasional album. The first Beatles related record I remember actually buying for myself was

Paul McCartney`s Another Day, still one of my favorites of the disbanded boys. I very soon had a complete set of the original albums on vinyl. I also have a copy of The Early Years with Tony Sheridan. Some interesting pieces on that. Especially a Harrison/Lennon instrumental track called Cry For A Shadow. When the full album collection was released in a box set, 1978, I bought the Rarities disc. It was released separately. One track on there was a slightly different mix of Across The Universe. That was one track I already owned, courtesy of a World Wildlife fund LP. Much later, I picked up an old copy of A Collection Of Beatles Oldies. An interesting mix of tracks. Somewhere along the line I got a copy of an album called Let It Be and one called Beatles Ballads. Since moving to the States a few years ago, I have picked up a couple of American releases. Copies of Sgt. Pepper and Help which are the same as everyone else`s apart from this weird thing with a lot of American albums. They seem to be blank sleeves with 12" x 12" stickers on the front and back. I also got Meet The Beatles and The Beatles Yesterday and Today. Actual American releases with track listings not found anywhere else. All 4 of those were found in a tatty box of old albums at a yard sale for 50c each. Yes, that`s right 50c each!!!

I still collect Beatles stuff. Several vinyl re-releases , including Let It Be Naked. A CD box special edition of Sgt Pepper`s 50th Anniversary. Vinyl editions of the Live at the BBC albums, Mono Masters and Live at the Hollywood Bowl. My step-son got me the box set of Christmas fan club releases. A very odd collection of sketches and music with varying degrees of quality. A more recent addition to my collection is a birthday gift, also from my step-son. It is a 10" vinyl recording of the New Musical Express poll winners concerts. These shows were massively influential in my life. The only place I would see this amount of talent in one show, all playing live. Freddie and the Dreamers, Rocking Berries, The Searchers, Rolling Stones and many more. They were great shows. They loom large in my memory. Event television it would be called now.
I bought most of my records during the 70`s and they became even more popular, so it seemed, as each individual release came out. The Beatles inform all of my musical tastes. They didn`t seem to care about pigeonholes and took influence from all forms. That became the way I listen to everything. Don`t want to know what the style is. Is it any good? The boys were always good. Always. I have no preference in early, mid or late Beatles. I love it all.

It`s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know, I know. It`s not even Thanksgiving yet. 
Christmas music is with us again, in the stores, on the radio and, yes, in my house. Of course, some people have already been listening to it for some time. Hello daughter! Christmas for a lot of Brits, does not start until Noddy Holder says so. See picture, left.
There`s always a discussion on how early you can play Christmas music. My answer? As early as you like. There`s a lot of it to listen to and not really that much time to do so.
I have a large collection of Christmas cds and a few vinyl albums. I never intend to buy more, but yard sales yield some great bargains. Among this year`s stash I got Joe Diffie, James Taylor, Mannheim Steamroller, Pentatonix and Lady Antebellum cds plus yet another various country artists disc. All for a dollar each or less. Country music, especially, leans towards themed albums at this time of year.
When it comes to new releases, this year, there are quite a few to go round. John Legend, Englebert Humperdinck, Jessie J, Diana Ross. Even Captain Kirk in his alter-ego of William Shatner. I have bought three new releases. Eric Clapton, The Monkees and The Mavericks.

I have always been a Monkees fan. I had two second hand albums in the early 70`s. Their first, eponymous, one and the third one, Headquarters. I bought them  from the guy that lived in the house at the bottom of our garden. Not in our garden, people, but joined to our garden. I was still at school, just starting to build my collection. 15 Albums for ten bob [ten shillings or 50 pence]. A great bargain. Wish I still had all of those. I once had to give an occasional 10 minute talk, in a music lesson, at school. I chose The Monkees for one of those talks. I only had the information on those albums. How I managed to make it last 10 minutes, I don`t remember. This was, of course, well before the internet.
The Monkees Christmas Party has a few original tracks, written by some interesting people. Andy

Partridge is a particular favorite of mine, from his days with XTC. His track, Unwrap You At Christmas, starts the album off energetically. It sounds like it`s going to be a Spector style cover, but turns into a double entendre track about unwrapping someone for Christmas. It is better than that makes it sound. Of course, time will tell if any of the original tracks, on here, will become standards, played on the radio, year after year. The best tracks on here, just happen to be the original ones, written for this album. Rivers Cuomo, from Weezer and Peter Buck, from REM,  contributed. There are a couple of decent versions of classics, like Mele Kalikimaka and Silver Bells, both using vocals from the late, lamented Davy Jones. They also have a stab at a couple of more modern classics. No-one will ever beat Roy Wood`s original with Wizzard, but the boys do a decent, standard pop version of  I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. Also a very nice version of Paul McCartney`s Wonderful Christmastime. There`s even a cover of an old song about Jesus written by Alex Chilton. That doesn`t happen a lot on mainstream Christmas albums. The instrumentation, all the way through, is fairly basic, but sounds pretty good for all that. Adam Schlesinger produced and mixed most of the album. A couple of the tracks sung by Michael Nesmith, were produced by Michael`s sons.
Adam Schlesinger is no stranger to Christmas, having been heavily involved with Stephen Colberts`s Christmas album, ten years ago. My favorite song of Schlesinger`s has to be Masters of the Sea from Ice Age, Continental Drift. Lots of ice, but no Christmas. Overall, a pretty good contribution to the long, long list of Christmas albums. Every now and then it actually sounds like The Monkees of old, especially the Davy Jones` tracks. He was always the most distinctive of the voices. I will be using a few tracks for a future Christmas mix CD for the car.

Eric has done a Clapton on his disc. Full of the usual easy, relaxed blues sound and Eric`s laid-back

vocal style. That`s really what I`m looking for from a Christmas album, music that fits in with the usual sound of whatever artist it is. An Eric Clapton album is always welcome. I came late to the Eric Clapton is God party. I remember going to a record store, in my hometown, Walsall. It was the 70`s. I had spotted a second hand copy of All Things Must Pass by George Harrison in there. My kind of price too. It was a triple vinyl album. The hippie behind the counter [that`s what I thought at the time] took each of the records out and checked both sides. When he pulled the last one out, he said "now, this is the one that matters, right?" I nodded. I had no idea what he was talking about. Eric was what he was talking about. Slowhand Clapton. Years later, I got into Clapton through his version of I Shot The Sheriff. Now I`m buying a Christmas album by this guitar god.
How would his relaxed blues style transfer to a Christmas album? Very well, it turns out. Starting out with THE Christmas song, White Christmas. I usually do not like it when vocalists mess with a tune, but this version seems to work very well. Next up, I did not know that Away In A Manger was a blues tune. Fantastic. The rest of the album is filled with a mix of Christmas classics and blues/soul tracks. For Love On Christmas Day is a self-penned track, along with Simon Climie [co-producer] and Dennis Morgan. His version of Jingle Bells is an, almost totally, instrumental gem. The whole album makes for a gentle evening of Christmas music. A great alternative to the Bing, Spector, Country and Buble albums that dominate so much, here in the States. Nothing wrong with that stuff, I have those in my collection and they will be listened to. If you want some Christmas on the stereo, but without a lot of jingly jangly stuff, this is your choice. Some of it would not look out of place alongside Nat and Dean and Frank. Very cool. His Silent Night is one of the best I have heard. A "heavenly choir" backing and Eric`s soulful vocal chipping in. Also the collector in me is happy with the free flexi-disc I got when I bought the album.

The third new Christmas album I bought, this year, is The Mavericks` Hey! Merry Christmas!. A Christmas classic in the making. Somehow, their distinctive sound, especially Raul Malo`s voice, lends itself to Christmas music very easily. In the UK, I got turned on to these guys by a DJ called Nick Barrowclough who had a nice turn of humour and presented a weekly show of, what was then called, New Country. They became huge in the UK, for a while, with Dance The Night Away, which gave them a solid fan base. We saw them live once. They did not disappoint. Like most country artists, they can play. The album starts off at a cracking pace, sounding familiar but not quite. These are songs that may get covered. Should get covered. Standard Christmas themes like Christmas is coming, Santa knows what you do, I want you for Christmas, it`s for me and you, more Santa, Christmas without you, that kind of thing. Of the 10 tracks, on the standard issue, 8 are Mavericks penned songs, with a couple of classics. Baby, Please Come Home and Happy Holidays sound like original Mavericks tracks, so natural is their feel for them. It slows down a little in the middle, but comes back with Hey! Merry Christmas, a track I am confident will be played on Christmas radio for many years to come. They should be made to do this every Christmas.
All in all, I am very pleased with these new additions to my collection. They will be coming out to play, for many Christmases to come.
Just as a side note, why is there so little music for Thanksgiving? It`s as big a holiday as Christmas for a lot of people.

Before The Beatles

I honestly do not remember my introduction to music. Probably traditional nursery rhymes about monster eggs falling off walls or babies falling out of trees on a windy day. Simple stuff. However, I do know that I loved music of all kinds from an early age. I was born in 1956, long before The Beatles came along and changed the world forever. The number one record in England, on the day I was born, was the ballad, No Other Love by Ronnie Hilton. He was known as a housewive`s favorite. A very old term, thankfully, no longer in use. It describes a "safe" easy listening, middle-of-the-road, personality. In the USA, it was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson. He starred in my favorite Western movie, Rio Bravo. Neither of those records left a lasting mark on me. However, I do recognize the Ricky Nelson one if it comes on a jukebox or radio somewhere. That`s not because I heard it on my birth day, of course. However, they are both very middle of the road, mildly pleasant, recordings, which were never going to change the world.
My abiding memory of those years probably comes at the start of the sixties. My nan and  granddad Aldridge had a large collection of 78 rpm records. They had a huge stereo-gram, a dinosaur of music playing equipment in both size and age. Mind you, we had more fun on the Decca portable record player, that we took there from our house.

As we waited for the thing to warm up and it started to quietly hum, I would get to choose which records we would put on. 6, 7, 8 at a time. These machines were made to take the punishment. A 10" 78 dropping onto the turntable and whizzing round at super-speed, is a wondrous sight to behold. They would be spinning round so much faster than the music seemed to indicate. It played ballads, waltzes, comedy and, very occasionally, a rock `n` roll record. We would make an evening of it, playing both sides of every record. Mostly, we didn`t know which one was the `a` side and we didn`t really care.
I remember the Sandy Powell comedy routines. The Marrow Song by Billy Cotton, which,  at the time, I did not know was kinda naughty.  Other tracks were by people like Brenda Lee, Tommy Steele. All the family friendly style rock `n` roll stuff. Then other older stuff by artists long dead, even then.

Later on, these evenings would be held at our house rather than at my grandparents`. I remember a couple of my Uncle John`s 78`s joined our collection. Be Bop A Lula by Gene Vincent was one of those. My sister, Jane, broke it, as I recall. He was not happy. That was always a worry with the very brittle 78`s. There was also Bird Dog by The Everly Brothers. Then there was a family favorite, The Donkey Serenade by Allan Jones. Father of Jack and star of a couple of Marx Brothers movies.
Eventually, of course, the 7" 45 rpm single started to make its way into our homes. Smaller, less breakable, it seemed like a huge leap in technology. At the start, for me at least, the music did not change much. No Elvis, no Little Richard, no Chuck Berry. I do remember Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino being in there somewhere. It is still one of my all time favorite recordings.
Little Christine by Dick Jordan got played a lot, because my cousin`s name was Christine, which

I thought was great. I was only 4 years old after all. It was 1960.
Dreamin` by Johnny Burnette is another one from that time, that I still get a kick out of hearing today. Then came Cathy`s Clown by the Everlys, not sounding like anything else that came out around then. It has an other-worldly feel to it and, of course, marvelous harmonies. It still sends shivers up my spine when I hear it. They wrote it themselves, which seems extraordinary in the pre-Beatles era.
Cliff Richard and The Shadows loomed large at this time. I still prefer that early Cliff stuff like Apron Strings, A Voice in the Wilderness, Please Don`t Tease. The Shadows guitar sound is, to me, the sound of the early sixties. Possibly the first two bits of music trivia I ever learned were that Cliff had changed his name from Harry Webb and that The Shadows were previously called The Drifters. The Shads changed their name to avoid clashing with the American vocal group.
However, possibly my favorite from those times would be from 1959. Running Bear by Johnny Preston. I had no idea, as a kid, that it was about native Americans. Nowadays, it would probably not get made. The sound takes me back all the way to my childhood. Again it`s partly how much it stood out from the other musical offerings that endeared me to it. And, of course it`s as catchy as hell.
There would be classical music around. Usually when I stayed with my Aunty Viv and Uncle Les. He seemed to know everything about all classical music. Although I don`t particularly remember most pieces from then, I know he introduced me to

The Sleigh Ride from Prokofiev`s Lieutenant Kije. Now he is no longer with us, I have his original copy of that beautiful piece of music. Same goes for The Karelia Suite by Sibelius. That was also familiar as the theme tune to a tv show called This Week. However, the most influential piece of music that he introduced me to, was The Ying Tong Song by The Goons. By that time I had not yet heard Spike Milligan`s masterpiece on the radio. Uncle Les`s 78 of that song and then the television version of the Goons changed my life forever. I also have his copy of the Telegoons theme tune. Priceless.
There was no music that I did not enjoy in those years. When you are a kid, you have no hang-ups over whether or not something is cool or schmaltzy. You either like it or you don`t.

I carried that lack of bias right into the seventies and my teenage years. But then, teenagers are a breed apart from the rest of humanity. The music I love the most is from when I was a teenager, but some of that stuff from the early 60`s and late 50`s still stays with me, even now.
My musical tastes are still ridiculously broad and I will listen to anything.
Then those other guys arrived on the scene. At first, Love Me Do barely made an impression on me but then She Loves You exploded all over the country. More on that at another time.