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.

I have already featured his masterpiece God Only Knows. Also Wild Honey and Do it Again.

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.

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.

Petula Clark was one of the most prominent female singers of the 1960s but had a reputation as being a bit old-fashioned – perhaps because her show business career had actually started in the 1940s.

However, this track always sounded to me like it had a touch of the Beach Boys about it.

This clip seems to be from a German – or Austrian – TV show.

Petula Clark: Don’t Sleep in the Subway

A piece of 1967 psychedelia which also has echoes of The Herd. Member Jeff Christie went on to form the band Christie of Yellow River fame.

The Outer Limits: Just One More Chance

I saw Marianne Faithfull’s death announced last night.

She first came to prominence in 1964 due to her association with The Rolling Stones (Jagger and Richards wrote her first hit.) She had a sweet but almost insubstantial voice suited to soft pop songs but by the mid 60s her singing career had stalled, in part due to a drugs scandal. She took up acting with some success though but mostly fell out of public consciousness.

Here’s Faithfull’s version of a Jackie DeShannon song that gave her her highest UK chart placing (no 4 in 1965 as compared to the no 9 achieved by As Tears Go By the year before.)

Marianne Faithfull: Come and Stay with Me

The song below is from her 1980 “comeback”* album of the same title, which is widely regarded as her best, not least by herself.

*Even if Dreamin’ my Dreams had intervened in 1976

Marianne Faithfull: Broken English

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull: 29/12/1946 – 30/1/2025. So it goes.

And this week, Garth Hudson, keyboard player, and the last surviving member, of the Band went to the great rehearsal room in the sky.

This Bob Dylan song, from their first album Music From Big Pink, was also the B-side to The Weight, so I know it well.

The Band: I Shall Be Released

Eric Garth Hudson: 2/8/1937 – 21/1/2025. So it goes.

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)