Variety Bandbox
AS we have seen many times in this series, the Second World War produced a great number of talented performers who honed their skills entertaining the troops. One of the … Continue readingVariety Bandbox
Author: Margaret Ashworth
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Ashton, Gardner and Dyke: Resurrection Shuffle
This got to No 3 in Britain and No 40 in America in 1971. It was the period of ‘supergroups’ combining the talents of top bands often using their surnames, … Continue readingAshton, Gardner and Dyke: Resurrection Shuffle
The Beatles: Ain’t She Sweet
This was recorded in Hamburg in 1961, when Pete Best was still the drummer. The song, by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, was published in 1927. I think you can … Continue readingThe Beatles: Ain’t She Sweet
The Old Rugged Cross
IAM beginning to suspect that the more popular a hymn is, the more it is disliked by the self-appointed ‘hymn police’. A case in point is The Old Rugged Cross, one … Continue readingThe Old Rugged Cross
Dion: A Teenager in Love
The archetypal teenage angst. Written by Pomus and Shuman, it was released in 1959 by Dion and the Belmonts and got to No 5 in America. In Britain it had … Continue readingDion: A Teenager in Love
Patsy Cline: Crazy
Patsy did several songs which are so complex melodically that almost no one else attempted them – another is I Fall to Pieces. https://am-records.com/2019/05/15/patsy-cline-i-fall-to-pieces/ Crazy was written by Willie Nelson in 1961. … Continue readingPatsy Cline: Crazy
Bruce Channel: Hey! Baby
Bruce Channel wrote this with Margaret Cobb in 1959, when he was 19, but it was not recorded until 1961, and then only for a local record label in Fort … Continue readingBruce Channel: Hey! Baby
Lee Dorsey: Working in the Coalmine
This was written by American record producer Allen Toussaint (1938-2015), though he had never been anywhere near a coalmine. It was recorded by Lee Dorsey in New Orleans in 1966 … Continue readingLee Dorsey: Working in the Coalmine
The authentic voice of the BBC
COULD anything more clearly illuminate the self-centredness of the BBC’s apparatchiks than this pensée from Radio 4 Today host Justin Webb in yesterday’s i newspaper: ‘I have been walking in Camberwell in South … Continue readingThe authentic voice of the BBC
Henry Hall
A MAJOR figure on the BBC between the wars and and helping to keep up morale during the second was the multi-talented, understated and urbane bandleader Henry Hall. Hall was … Continue readingHenry Hall