It wasn’t till I started researching this that I realised this distinctive song (particularly the cracked vocal) was part written by Jackie DeShannon. See here and here. It is Kim Carnes’s version that is most familiar to people in the UK, though. The song remains Carnes’s only hit here.

One of the sounds of the nineties. Except for the strings, of course, which were sampled from a 1960s orchestral recording of The Rolling Stones’ The Last Time (which itself draws on This May be the Last Time by The Staple Singers) and were subject to a lawsuit.

Sadly, another death. The second such post in a row. This time it was B J Thomas, best known for singing the song below which was used in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The song was actually released in 1969 but didn’t become a hi until 1970 (though even then only a minor one in the UK, and his only one.)

Still remembered fondly.

This is how the song was used in the film:-

Billy Joe Thomas; 7/8/1942–29/5/2021. So it goes.

I saw in the Guardian during the week that Barry Mason died last month.

Songs to his credit include Delilah, The Last Waltz and Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes.

Many of his songs were written in collaboration with Les Reed whose Death I noted here.

Earlier than those songs he had written this hit for The Fortunes.

The video is clearly the recording played over TV footage.

John Barry Mason: 12/7/1935 – 16/4/ 2021. So it goes.

I’ve always liked the drum fills on this, the Foundations’ first hit.

Their lead singer on the Top of the Pops appearance couldn’t quite reach the high note on ‘Baby’. (Yes; acts did used to sing live on TOTP sometimes.) He’d left by the time of Build Me Up Buttercup, now forever known to me as the xylophone song.

That TOTP performance is here.

You can’t mistake vocalist Roger Chapman’s distinctive voice. A Family signature.

Well this is appropriately titled for today.

A nice piece 1992 of jingle-jangle jauntiness from The Cure.

I feel like I should preface this with the warning, “Contains flashing images.”

The man who wrote Bat out of Hell and so was partly responsible for thrusting Meatloaf onto the world has died.

Despite not having much success on his own account Steinman had a few strings to his bow. As well as composing he was also a record producer and contributed not only to Meatloaf’s career but also to Bonnie Tyler’s, producing her two highest charting UK albums and writing her two biggest hits in the UK, Total Eclipse of the Heart and this one, Holding out for a Hero.

James Richard (Jim) Steinman: November 1/11/1947 –19/4/2021. So it goes.

The source of that “glorious age of Camelot” quote I linked to in Tuesday’s review post of Lavie Tidhar’s “King Arthur” book By Force Alone.

The song is from The Moody Blues album On the Threshold of a Dream released in April 1969. A languid, ethereal, atmospheric track. Quite unlike the book I might add.

This was most people’s introduction to the voice of Linda Ronstadt as she was the lead singer in the Stone Poneys. The song had been released before by the Greenbriar Boys but wasn’t a hit. (Nor was the Stone Poneys’ version a hit in the UK.)

Its writer though was Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. He offered the song to them but the show’s producers turned it down. He recorded it himself in 1972 and his version has a much more ‘country’ feel.