Sam Moore of US Soul duo Sam and Dave died last Saturday.

Perhaps their most is Hold On, I’m Comin’ (a 1966 US no 21 and R&B no 1) but their first UK top thirty hit was Soul Man in 1967. Their highest UK chart placing came at no 15 in 1969 with Soul Sister, Brown Sugar.

Sam and Dave: Hold On, I’m Comin’

Sam and Dave: Soul Man

Sam and Dave: Soul Sister, Brown Sugar

Samuel David (Sam) Moore: 12/10/1935 – 10/1/2025. So it goes

I heard Brenton Wood’s death reported on the radio on 3/1/2025. The piece referred to a song of his I couldn’t remember ever hearing, The Oogum Boogum Song, which apparently became famous after being used in various films and TV shows.

What I remember Woods for is his 1967 hit Gimme Little Sign, a UK no 8. Here’s a Top of the Pops clip from February 1968.

Brenton Wood: Gimme Little Sign

Alfred Jesse Smith (Brenton Wood,) 26/7/1941 – 3/1/2025. So it goes.

A bit of a change this week. Two for the price of one; both adapted from Dance of the Hours from the opera La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli.

First a straightforward use of the tune with love song lyrics. I did not know until I looked this up that it had first been recorded by Nancy Sinatra in 1962. In the UK Maureen Evans had a hit with it a year later.

Maureen Evans: Like I Do

Also in 1963 comic Allan Sherman released a novelty single setting the tune to his own lyrics, a satirising of the US summer camp experience after receiving letters from his son about Camp Champlain in New York. This is I believe a colourised clip.

Allan Sherman: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)

Lyricist Pete Sinfield died last month.

His most famous work was done with King Crimson for whom he came up with the name and wrote most of the lyrics for the first four albums though he didn’t play on them.

I have featured his work before since he wrote the English language lyrics for Italian group Premiata, Forneria, Marconi (PFM.) The World Became the World is a prime example of Sinfield’s art.

He was also responsible for the words of Greg Lake’s great Christmas hit I Believe in Father Christmas.

Later in Sinfield’s career he moved more to pop and wrote songs for, among others, Leo Sayer, Cher, and even Think Twice for Celine Dion.

This is a haunting piece from King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King.

King Crimson: I Talk to the Wind

Peter John (Pete) Sinfield: 27/12/1943 – 14/11/2024

Another of the most successful songwriters of the 60s, Ken Howard, has died. Together with his songwriting partner Alan Blaikley (whose death I noted here) he wrote hits for The Honeycombs, The Herd and, most notably, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Their songwriting list is impressive.

This was a no 4 for the latter band in 1965.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: Hold Tight!

Later in their career Howard and Blaikley went into writing TV Themes and musicals.

This is perhaps the most familiar of those tunes.

Vejle Symfoniorkester: Miss Marple TV Theme

Kenneth Charles (Ken) Howard: 26/12/1939 – 24/12/2024. So it goes.

I have referred to this song before but never actually posted it here.

From the sublimely named LP Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake (don’t take up smoking kids). As I recall it came in a circular cardboard sleeve (and when released as a CD years later in a cylindrical tin resembling those tobacco  was once sold in.)*

The Small Faces: Song of a Baker

*Looking it up it seems that the very first release was also in a tin but quickly replaced by the circular cardboard as the tin was too expensive and rolled off record shelves!

I saw in Tuesday’s Guardian that Zoot Money has died.  He was one of the most celebrated performers of Rhythm and Blues in the early to mid 60s and a staple of the music press at the time.

His band had only the one real hit, though, Big Time Operator, which I featured here.

This is Zoot and his band playing what was in effect his signature tune

Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band: Barefootin’

George Bruno (Zoot) Money: 17/7 1942 – 8/10/2024. So it goes.

Sérgio Mendes, who popularised Bossa Nova in the 1960s, has died.

I remember this very familiar tune as getting a lot of airplay at the time but it wasn’t a hit in the UK. (Only Never Gonna Let You Go was, and it only got to no. 45 in 1983.) It is however probably the one for which he will be most remembered.

Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66: Mas Que Nada

Sérgio Santos Mendes: 11/2/1941 – 5/9/2024. So it goes.

The first copy of the Guardian I opened after returning from the Netherlands contained the obituary of French songstress Françoise Hardy.

In the 60s French artists didn’t usually reach the British charts. The yé-yé generation was kind of looked down on as I recall.

Françoise Hardy was an exception. (So too was The Singing Nun, but she was Belgian and really a novelty act.)

Hardy actually managed a minor hit in the UK in 1962, with her first recording, Tous les garçons et les filles. It reached no 36. The reason it sticks in my mind is because it was occasionally played during French lessons when I was in Secondary School.

Hardy, who had a sweet vocie, had three other ‘hits’ in the UK.  Et même reached no 31 in 1964,  All Over the World no 16 in 1965 and Autumn Rendezvous no 51 in 1966.

Françoise Hardy: Tous les garçons et les filles

Françoise Hardy: All Over the World

Françoise Madeleine Hardy: 17/1/1944 – 11/6/2024. So it goes.

And they keep coming. (Or should I say keep going.)

Mid May saw the death of Frank Ifield.

His yodelling style was not really to my taste but he certainly sounded distinctive.

In a commemoration like this, for this particular singer, there is only one song which is appropriate. The first of three consecutive UK No. 1s for him.

Frank Ifield: I Remember You

Frank (Francis Edward) Ifield: 30/11/1937 – 18/5/2024. So it goes.