A friendly advice-to-lovers number that politely refuses to distinguish itself in almost any way – except that Kitty Kallen seems hooked on rolling her ‘r’s, and as soon as you notice this you spend the whole song listening out for […]

The other day I went out to buy some clothes. I am useless at buying clothes and have little confidence in my own tastes, so in Marks And Spencers hunting for a jumper I found myself drifting to the rack with the reassuring sign ‘ITALIAN’[…]

“Such A Night” stands out because it gets its content over via beat and flow rather than melody. The backing singers kick the song off on a do-be-do-be pattern with a drum kick at the end and this hardly varies through the whole track. Ra[…]

A gay reading of “Secret Love” is fairly hard for a current listener to avoid. But to suggest that any credibility that lends the song is undeserved would be wrong: it adds some extra depth to a record that was powerful already. The ingre[…]

They don’t make ’em like this any more, thank Christ. A 1954 British comedy record: either jokes were still rationed or they hadn’t been invented yet, so standing in we have musical pratfalls, on-purpose bad singing and noxious come[…]

If I was being crass (never!) I’d say this was a dance record – steady beat, cycling melody, simple repeated lyrical hook. And it is a dance record: a lazy, slow, respectable sort of dance record. The entry of the organ at 1’30&#822[…]

Frankie’s version brushes David Whitfield’s aside with embarrassing ease. More than just a difference in technique, there’s an immense gap in class between the two men, with Laine’s third No.1 of the year again taking a differ[…]

Do you remember those rubber face puppets you could buy whereby you would put your fingers in and then make the face contort into all sorts of gurning shapes? David Whitfield’s singing is like that. I can barely think of anyone whose mannerisms[…]

The horns equal MAN ON THE PROWL thing gets further reinforced as Frankie Laine follows up a mega-hit by throwing everything he can at “Hey Joe” – brass all over the shop, a guitar solo (again!) (a much better one than Guy Mitchell&[…]

Guy goes goggle-eyed over some broad (the swaggering horns seem to demand she’s called a broad) and when he thinks he’s got your tongue wagging in time he hits you with the punchline – he’s screwing her already! You dog, Guy! […]