Mick Ralphs, guitarist with Mott the Hoople and Bad Company among others, died last week. He apparently left Mott the Hoople as the songs he was writing were not suited to singer Ian Hunter’s voice.
They found a compatible home with Paul Rodgers, though, when they formed Bad Company along with Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell.
This is a live version of their first hit, which Ralphs wrote.
Bad Company: Can’t Get Enough
Michael Geoffrey (Mick) Ralphs: 31/3/1944 – 23/6/2025. So it goes.
Moloko’s first hit (from 1999.) This song only made no. 45 on first release but after a remix it reached the dizzy heights of no. 4. Not as high as the follow up The Time Is Now; but that was in 2000.
The only Beach Boys single I actually bought was Darlin’ from 1967. God Only Knows and Good Vibrations were before my singles-buying days.
The Beach Boys: Darlin’
Their Wiki singles discography page says its B-side was a song called Here Today from Pet Sounds. Well not in the UK it wasn’t, as I remember it very well. That was instead Country Air from the later album Wild Honey. As this video displaying the record label shows. (The murky sound quality was apparently due to a problem with the master tape.)
The Beach Boys: Country Air
Still brilliant as always.
Brian Douglas Wilson: 20/6/1942 – 11/6/2025. So it goes.
I was very much saddened by the news of Brian Wilson’s death. As the musical driving force behind the Beach Boys he was one of the most influential figures in popular music of the mid to late twentieth century: right up there with Lennon and McCartney.
But there are so many more. Too many to be confined to one post.
This track was the main follow up to Good Vibrations (the release of Then I Kissed Her was a stopgap.) Many people were disappointed with it but it has all the Wilson hallmarks.
The Beach Boys: Heroes and Villains
Then there’s this track, striking a more melancholy note. The title song from the Surf’s Up album.
The Beach Boys: Surf’s Up
Brian Wilson’s star continues to shine long after his heyday. His songs leave a legacy to be revered.
Brian Douglas Wilson: 20/6/1942 – 11/6/2025. So it goes.
I know it’s not Friday but tomorrow’s post will be taken up by another sad loss.
But Sly Stone left us earlier this week. Sly’s influence was more felt in the US than the UK but his 1960s and 1970s work with Sly and the Family Stone was memorable.
Sly and the Family Stone’s first UK hit – out of four – was their biggest.
Sly and the Family Stone: Dance to the Music
Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone): 15/31943 – 9/6/2025. So it goes.
I’ve said before that writing love songs, good love songs, is not easy but that David Gates seemed to do it effortlessly. (That last word is doing him a disservice I’m sure.)
The lyric of this song again has issues with grammar but that’s popular music for you.
Irish songstress Clodagh Rodgers died last month. She is perhaps best remembered for representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971, singing Jack In The Box (a rather too obvious attempt to repeat the success of Puppet on a String. I also recall Monty Python’s Flying Circus lampooning the song.) As a result of her agreeing to sing the UK entry she apparently received death threats from the IRA.
Prior to that she had had UK hits in 1969 with Come Back and Shake Me (a no 3) and this song, which made no 4 in the charts.
Clodagh Rodgers: Goodnight Midnight
Clodagh Rodgers: 5/3/1947 – 18/4/2025. So it goes.
The Guardian only printed the obituary of Joey Molland, guitarist with Badfinger on Wednesday 7/5/25 but it must have been on its website for over a month.
