This is one of those emanations of 1960s “swinging London” that never really resonated with anyone who lived hundreds of miles away from the place. It’s a pleasant enough ditty I suppose but I don’t recall it troubling the charts.

The Spectrum: Portobello Road

During the week came the news that Denny Laine, first singer with The Moody Blues, the voice of number 1 hit Go Now, has gone.

The Moody Blues: Go Now

Laine later became a founder member of Wings,  As co-writer of Mull of Kintyre (with Paul McCartney) he had a bigger selling single than any the Beatles had.

In between The Moody Blues and his stint with Wings he was briefly in various other bands and found time to release two singles under his own name of which the song below was one I liked from first hearing his version. It wasn’t a hit for Denny but in 1972 became one for Colin Blunstone.

Denny Laine: Say You Don’t Mind

Brian Frederick Arthur Hines (Denny Laine)  29/10/ 1944 – 5/12/2023. So it goes.

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

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.

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.

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

I got home late last night just after hearing of the death of Burt Bacharach on the radio in the car.

Burt Bacharach’s roster of hit songs is just superb. Far too many to list here.

I noted his collaboration with lyricist Hal David in 2012.

It is fair to say that the 1960s would not have been the 1960s without their songs to help soundtrack the decade. Most of their songs have become standards.

In memoriam I present perhaps one of their lesser known compositions. Like many of theirs it was a hit in the US for Dionne Warwick (albeit with a slightly altered title) but in the UK it became Adam Faith’s last top twenty success.

Adam Faith: Message to Martha

Scottish band Deacon Blue covered it – along with three other Bacharach/David compositions – in 1990.

Deacon Blue: Message to Michael

Burt Freeman Bacharach: 12/5/1928 – 8/2/2023. So it goes.

Last week, David Crosby of The Byrds, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young plus various solo offerings died.

Another to add to the long list of 60s and 70s rock greats who have left us recently.

Crosby first came to attention in the UK as a member of US group The Byrds, pioneers of folk rock and a distinctive jangly guitar style

This video features a US TV appearance with a song which is a contender for the first psychedelic recording.

The Byrds: Eight Miles High

In 1968 he teamed up with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash to form one of the best close harmony groups of their time. One of my favourites of theirs is Suite: Judy Blue Eyes which I posted here.

That group became even more potent with the addition of Neil Young a year later. I featured CSNY’s great protest song Ohio in 2010.

This though is from that first eponymous CSN album; a slower, acoustic piece which Crosby wrote.

Crosby, Stills and Nash: Guinnevere

David Van Cortlandt Crosby: 14/8/1941 – 18/1/2023. So it goes.