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The Future Is Now
Happy Friday, my friends, a happy New Year to you too, and a big welcome to the world of New York-based outsider musician Neil Dick. I first heard of Neil through his inclusion on one of Irwin Chusid’s...
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Ol' Blue Eyes's Bark
Frank Sinatra is one of those singers who always gets a pass, the commonly-held belief that he was a great singer makes him seemingly untouchable when it comes to the kind of folk – like me – who write...
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Toy Boy Tunes
Born on 9 October 1947 – John Lennon’s seventh birthday - Sir Roderic Victor Llewellyn (better known as ‘Roddy’) is a British baronet, garden designer, journalist, author, and television presenter...
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Charlie Barlow Sings!
Alan Stratford Johns (born 22 September 1925) first came to prominence, here in the UK at least, in the mid-1950s, in a string of small parts in movies and theatre, before hitting the big time as...
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Chou-Chou-be-doo, Where Are You?
In the mid-1980s, a young Belgian singer, known only as Baby Chou-Chou (occasionally credited as Baby Chouchou), released a half dozen singles in their own country – all of them awful and all worthy of...
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Beyer Than Die Beatles
It's been a while... my apologies for the (quite literal) radio silence of late. It's been a busy few months, with a new book about to be published and a house move taking place, so I hope you'll...
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The Greatest Record Buy in the History of the Business, Apparently
According to whoever wrote the Discogs blurb, ‘Hit Parader was a music magazine. Which also sometimes produced rare EP's and 7" vinyls [I could stab them just for using that utterly unnecessary ‘s’]....
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Here Come the Mad Hatters
One of those albums that is forever turning up in ‘bad album cover art’ lists, for years I had assumed that the sole album by the Mad Hatters (or the Mad-Hatters, as they appear on the disc’s labels)...
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Like a Pig in Mud
Now, I realise it has been quite some time since I last posted on the blog, but I have been rather busy! We're currently in the middle of our second house move in less than six months, and hopefully by...
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Christmas Cavalcade 2023 - Part One
You will have to forgive me for the paucity of posts this year, it's been a busy one. One of the unfortunate byproducts of aging is having to deal with health issues (in others as well as myself), the...
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Christmas Cavalcade 2023 - Part Two
A bunch of random, Christmassy nonsense for you today, brought together simply because these singles are seasonal and have not featured on the blog before. Make of this lot what you will. First up,...
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Christmas cavalcade 2023 - Part Three
Well, with just a day to go before we all get to fill our faces with turkey (or whatever your chosen alternative might be), there’s just enough time for one last installment in this year’s Christmas...
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Ode to Billie Joe
A recent discovery, one I was completely unaware of until I started looking around for a few new tracks to include in what turned out to be the last episode of the World’s Worst Records Radio Show, is...
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I Like My Stew
A little oddity for you today from 1968, and Radio One DJ Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart, accompanied by a 40-strong choir of pre-pubescent boys and girls. Edward Stewart Mainwaring (23 April 1941 – 9 January...
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My Yummy, Yummy Love Note Tree
A couple of tracks from a wonderful and rare song-poem album that I’ve owned for a number of years but have not blogged before, the wonderfully-titled Delick Records Invites You to Pick a Delick Record...
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Close the Hearse Curtains, Please!
A record that was recently brought to my attention by blog follower Melody Loves Books, here for your enjoyment is the utterly mad May 1968 single Requiem (For a Girl Born of the Wrong Times). Requiem...
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The Now Sounds of the Rave-Ons
Full disclosure: I have written about some of the tracks on this album before, but that was back in 2010, and the links to the two tracks are long dead. Over their many years in the song-poem field,...
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In Praise of Older Women
Todd Andrews is one of my absolute favourite song-poem stylists: his thin, warbly voice is at odds with the country-western songs he regularly performed for Nashville outfit Nu-Sound Records and, as a...
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Superspiked
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you brought two titans of comedy together for a disco single? Well, wonder no more! Credited on the label to Bill Oddie And The Superspike Squad (Featuring...
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What's in a Name?
It has been several years since I last wrote about song-poem outfit Tin Pan Alley, but I don’t believe I’ve ever gone into much detail about their subsidiary labels, Pageant and TPA. First, here’s a...
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Rodd Keith Lives!
I can’t believe that it’s been two months since I last posted here but I have been finishing what will be my next book, due out next April, so hopefully you’ll forgive me. A song-poem obscurity for you...
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All You Need is a Furtive Shake
Another song-poem coupling for you today, and a pair of absolute classics of the genre from the great Gene Marshall who, of course, also worked under the names Gene Merlino and John Muir amongst...
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Oddly Shaped Balls
My command of the Welsh language is pretty much non-existent, as my many Welsh friends will attest to. But I do love Wales: I lived there for several years, have holidayed there extensively and we...
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More Oddly-Shaped Balls
Following on from my previous post, I am indebted to my friend Huw Spink, curator of the Teatles Book– a magazine about the Beatles and their love for tea. Huw saw that post and kindly sent me a copy...
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Casting Out Demons Again
It staggers me to realise that, after penning this blog for almost 17 years now, I have only featured A. A. Allen’s incredible output once, seven years ago when I posted Crying Demons (now updated), a...
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