This was always going to be a hit: it just has so many hooks. Once heard never forgotten.

The band’s name (apparently an abbreviation of Epsom Mad Funkers) always made me think of voltage (emf, or electromotive force, is measured in the same unit – volts. Oh, the joys of a scientific training.)

Not that you would necessarily have thought that Tom Jones would have taken it up for his own shows.

Here’s the man himself singing with the band (after a wee chat with two of them.)

There’s something about this I just like. Perhaps it’s the mandolin. Or maybe the lyric. Or that it actually ends.

Whatever, it’s a great pop song.

James formed in the 1980s but didn’t trouble the upper reaches of the UK charts till the 1990s.

This was one of the good lady’s favourites from that time.

A bit of “Hey Nonny Nonny” this week. Not from the middle ages but from 1994.

(The oboe is a wee bit reminiscent of Jethro Tull’s Coronach.)

A two-for-one offer today as these songs were released as a double A-side to become Pulp’s second number two hit in a row (after Common People.)

This first song caused a rumpus, with press comment claiming it was pro-drugs, which lead singer Jarvis Cocker said was a misinterpretation. I must say I agree with him. Even on first hearing the song the claim seemed to me to be ludicrous.

Mis-Shapes wasn’t so controversial. There’s a James Bond film chord sequence in the refrain though.

The one that broke Gray in the UK as far as singles were concerned. I remember watching him playing his set (I think at Glastonbury) that year and introducing this by saying, “I suppose it’s time we played our hit.”

Another band from Sweden. Odd choice of name though.

This song had an old-fashioned feel even in 1998 when it was a big hit in the UK but it has such a good Latin-tinged upbeat swing to it you can’t help but be drawn in.

And, rather than fading out, it actually ends. What more could you ask?

A bit of all-out guitar rock from 1998.

The band’s third (equal) biggest UK hit at no 9.

Marie Fredriksson, half of Swedish pop/rock duo Roxette, died earlier this week after a long illness occasioned by a brain tumour from which she had seemed to recover but which unfortunately recurred.

Roxette’s œuvre was one of those which you recognise when you hear them but maybe can’t quite put your finger on fully. Or is that just my age? Their songs tended however to be accomplished and reasonably well-polished.

This one was a no 1 all over the rest of Europe but reached only no 4 in the UK.

Gun-Marie Fredriksson: 30/5/1958–9/12/2019. So it goes.