‘POP ROT! CALL A HALT NOW!’ screamed the Melody Maker on November 8th. Of course it was too late. It had probably been too late for years, but by June 1958 the game was absolutely up ‘ ITV launched its music show Oh Boy! and pop in […]

When your heart is breaking, wise words are the last thing you want to hear and false hopes the first. In this ballad Tommy Edwards offers a bit of both ‘ a knowing shake of the head that turns into a sly nod, just as the music stops and the ba[…]

“Stupid Cupid” on the other hand deploys its gimmicks with confidence and humour. That –tzoinng!– guitar sound; the sassy handclaps; the cute voicebreaks – but these things wouldn’t work if the song itself wasn&#82[…]

Hal and Herb Kalin’s only UK hit is a breezy little thing, floor-friendly and with enough quirky touches to suggest that something a bit more demented is trying to break the pop surface. It never quite does – the castanets are mere emphas[…]

The version of “‘Dream” I know best is Glen Campbell’s. It always seemed a sad song to me; lonesome and woozy. The Everlys’ recording is bittersweet at worst. The key line in the song is the ‘gee whiz’ one &#[…]

This was on our University bar jukebox and was a favourite with the rugby boys. They probably liked that massive bellowing erupting chorus: certainly “On The Street’ muscles in hard on your ears. It’s ridiculous but effective &#8211[…]

At first I thought it ran out of steam early – 90 seconds in, she’d made her point, why did she have to reprise it in high-kicking swing-vamp style? I was completely wrong of course – the last 45 seconds of “Who’s Sorry […]

Lusty rockabilly stomper with super-basic big-dick lyrics – though not so basic that the tune doesn’t keep breaking off, so the beat can restate the pelvic point. Solid, dumb, foot-tapping stuff – deadly effective in ’58 (why […]

Hard to imagine a kindlier record than this – Perry’s cosy armchair voice, the clip-clop rhythm, the profoundly tender lyrics, and that instant, innocent melody. The first time I heard it, a few years ago now, I loathed it at once: it see[…]

Hiding in here somewhere is a gentle love ballad that Holliday decides to ignore. Instead the song goes uptempo and the singer is joined by a rogues’ gallery of backing singers who trill, hum, b-dum and doodle-doo whenever he so much as draws b[…]