The title hints at exotica, and The Shadows’ instrumental fantasies are escapism of a kind, but the Kon-Tiki expedition wasn’t celebrating the mysteries of the Other, just solving them. Thor Heyerdahl’s exploits would have been fami[…]

John Barry obviously liked this – he lifted the twirling string intro for one Bond theme and the singer for several others. But after those first five seconds the song – another family-friendly export from the German hit factories –[…]

I can’t take any of Joe Meek’s futurist cred away, and I wouldn’t want to try. But with forty-years of hindsight it’s also obvious how bound some of his records are to the past. “Johnny Remember Me” comes at us, bo[…]

Polished as a pebble in a pocket, but there’s something about this I can’t warm to, a pall of drabness around it. Maybe it’s the arrangement, stately with prissy chirrups of strings. Maybe it’s Helen’s mopey sultriness: […]

The more you learn about Eden Kane, the more you’re convinced that his whole existence was the twinkling imaginings of some later sixties satirist. He’s simply too fruity to be true. For a start there’s the name – Eden Kane, s[…]

Another tense, riddling song – everything in the tune is pitching and yawing, rising and falling, the brothers howling and sea-tossed in the middle of it, spun around by a whirlpool whose name is woman. “Give me your heart, I’m your[…]

The spaceman came to England at the start of July. Any reluctance that might have been felt over allowing Yuri Gagarin, the world’s most famous Soviet, to tour his propaganda triumph was surely outweighed by the simple wonder of meeting a man w[…]

For once an Elvis record isn’t scuppered by the choice of song – this nervy Latin pop is a welcome step up from the catastrophic “Wooden Heart”. Rather it’s Presley’s own performance that feels misjudged. He sings […]

Next time you find yourself cursing the radio as another band winds back the decades and nests cosily in music’s past, spare a thought for the Temperance Seven, who were retro before most of pop was even original. “You’re Driving Me[…]

Cute country instrumental keeps Cramer’s high-grade piano work front-and-centre while throwing in enough variety to stave off boredom for two minutes – I particularly like the bass-and-handclaps breakdown at about 1’10”. Does […]