A rather typical mid-1960s piece this. The Parade were one of those harmony based US groups so abundant in the mid-1960s. Sunshine Girl was their only notable success.

The Parade: Sunshine Girl

This Sunshine Girl is not to be confused with the song of the same title which was a no 8 hit in the UK for Herman’s Hermits in 1968.

Herman’s Hermits: Sunshine Girl

Another week another remembrance. Rudolph Isley of the Isley Brothers died last week.

My favourite song of theirs will always be Behind a Painted Smile (no 5 in 1969) but their first UK hit reached no 3 in 1966.

The Isley Brothers: This Old Heart of Mine

Rudolph Bernard Isley: 1/4/1939 – 11/10/2023. So it goes.

I saw this week that Katherine Anderson of The Marvelettes who recorded the first ever Motown release to reach the US no 1, (Please Mr Postman) has died.

The Marvelettes perhaps exemplified the Motown sound but only ever had the one hit in the UK, the untypical When You’re Young and in Love.

This is one of their US hits.

The Marvelettes: Too Many Fish in the Sea

Katherine Elaine Anderson Schaffner; 16/1/1944 – September 20/9/2023. So it goes.

I don’t normally feature jazz-tinted recordings but this is an unusual treatment from 1966 of a Gershwin song from Porgy and Bess. It’s effective though.

Billy Stewart: Summertime

While I was in the Netherlands in June, Astrud Gilberto died.  She is most famous for being the singer who popularised the song The Girl From Ipanema. It only made no 29 in the UK charts though but has jad a long afterlife. It is said to be the second-most recorded song in history (after Yesterday) but it seems she was paid more or less nothing for it.

Astrud Gilberto: The Girl from Ipanema

Astrud Evangelina Weinert Gilberto: 29/3/1940 – 5/6/2023. So it goes.

It’s been some week, though, rivalling 2016 in that regard.

First Tony Bennett, then Vince Hill and and lately Trevor Francis have all also left us.

I knew that Bennett’s signature song I Left My Heart in San Francisco hadn’t been a big hit in the UK but was still surprised to see it had only reached no 25 and also that he had so few hits here.

Vince Hill of course had a no 2 with Edelweiss, riding on the back of the success of the film of The Sound of Music with a song whose title my young self had no idea how to spell until I finally saw it written down.

Trevor Francis was simply one of the most talented footballers of his generation.

Anthony Dominick Benedetto (Tony Bennett;) 3/8/1926 – 21/7/2023. So it goes.

Vincent (Vince) Hill; 16/4/1934 – 22/7/2023. So it goes.

Trevor John Francis; 19/4/1954 – 24/7/2023. So it goes.

You could hardly have missed the news that Jane Birkin has died.  She was most famous in the UK for the Succès de scandale that was the song by which she will be most remembered – despite her long list of recordings, films  and connection with the Hermès Birkin handbag.

The song was of course Je t’aime …. moi non plus, first released in the UK by the Fontana record label but the fuss that arose after its banning by the BBC – and the Pope – made them withdraw it. Major Minor then immediately rushed into the gap: a commercially shrewd decision. It was the first banned single to reach No 1 and also the first non-English language record to do so.

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg: Je t’aime …. moi non plus

Jane Mallory Birkin; 14/12/1946 – 16/7/2023. So it goes.

I Feel Free was the first Cream song I ever heard. I was immediately impressed. Like quite a few of Cream’s early songs its lyric was written by Pete Brown who died recently.

Cream: I Feel Free

I remember Brown more though for his perhaps unforgettably named band Pete Brown and Piblokto! who were responsible for one of the longest album titles in pop history, their first, Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever  (though it wasn’t quite as long as this one.)

This is the B-side of Piblokto!’s second single.

Pete Brown and Piblokto!: Broken Magic

Peter Ronald (Pete) Brown: 25/12/1940 – 19/5/2023. So it goes.

And Cynthia Weil, too, has left us.

With her husband Barry Mann she wrote some of the most well-known songs of the 1960s. I featured one of them here. So apparently simple, yet so effective.

However, the song of theirs people are most familiar with is probably You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling as performed by The Righteous Brothers.

To celebrate her skills I’ve chosen this recording by a British band, though.

The Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place

Cynthia Weil: October 18/10/1940 – 1/6/2023. So it goes.

The song that brought Tina Turner to prominence in the UK. And perhaps Phil Spector’s finest production achievement. Helped in no small degree by Turner’s vocal – possibly her best.

Spector told her husband Ike to stay away from the recording studio for this. She only had the one unpleasant man to deal with at a time, then.

Ike and Tina Turner: River Deep, Mountain High