Heyday Cliff Richard was before my time but he still had some songs I could appreciate.

Written by The Shadows’ Hank Marvin, this is one of them.

One of Fleetwood Mac’s early singles from the Peter Green era, revived by Santana in 1970.

It was just after I got back from my holiday that I saw the obituary of Joe Messina, one of the Funk Brothers, the session musicians behind the success of the Tamla-Motown record label.

Messina’s rhythm guitar was a potent driving force in the groove of those records. This is only one of the hits he played on.

Joseph Lucian (Joe) Messina: 13/12/1928 – April 4/4/2022. So it goes.

Spanish pop groups were an unusual presence in the UK charts in the 60s. Los Bravos, though, managed to get to no 2 with their first single release in Britain in 1966.

I can’t say I remember they had another ‘hit’ but Wikipedia begs to differ. I’ve listened to both the singles listed in that link as UK hits and absolutely no bells rang.

I’ll count them as one-hit wonders.

Bobby Rydell was one of those seemingly never ending succession of singers named Bobby (others include Bobbies Vee and Darin) who materialised out of the US at the back end of the 1950s into the 1960s.) I think it’s fair to say his style was that of the popular entertainer.

Sadly he died last week.

I chose to feature this one of his songs because it was one of my elder brother’s records and so familiar to me from my youth. Also because I quite like the Latin style swing it has. It was written as ¿Quién será? by Mexican composers Luis Demetrio and Pablo Beltrán Ruiz.

Roberto Louis (Bobby) Ridarelli: 26/4/1942 – 5/4/2022. So it goes.

One of Ray Davies’s more understated compositions. A no 12 for The Kinks in 1968 and also a no 12 for Kirsty MacColl in 1989.

Hedgehoppers Anonymous was a band formed from RAF personnel. Hedgehoppers was RAF slang for aircraft flying low.

I must confess I thought they were one hit wonders but their Wikipedia page says they had a no 58 with a song called Daytime. Not that no 58 really constitutes a hit. It’s Good News Week reached no 5.

It was one of those protest songs which were so prevalent in the 1960s.

I saw in the Guardian that Gary Brooker, the voice (and more besides) of Procol Harum has died.

His voice was certainly distinctive, as was Procol Harum’s output: a rock band , yes, but more. And of course one of the progenitors of Prog Rock.

This was Procol Harum’s fourth hit, if that description can be applied to a song that reached no 44. Despite its downbeat sound and slow pace I’ve always thought it one of their best.

This video contains a very good live version – with accompaniment – and an added bonus of An Old English Dream. (On this occasion I’ll ignore his comment about the Euro.)

Gary Brooker: 29/5/1945 – 19/2 /2022. So it goes.

This wasn’t the first single Eric Burdon released after the original Animals broke up (that would be Help Me Girl) nor was it the most successful, barely scraping the UK top 40. There’s a touch of psychedelia in it, though.

This video is of a performance on US TV.

I heard on the radio yesterday morning that Ronnie Spector, lead singer of The Ronettes, has died.

The Ronettes early success came under the production of Phil Spector – the quintessential US sound of the early 1960s.

Their first hit Be My Baby also featured the wonderful drumming of Hal Blaine.

This was their second.

Veronica Greenfield (Veronica Yvette Bennett, aka Ronnie Spector:) 10/8/1943 –12/1/2022. So it goes.