Scot Jim Diamond wasn’t perhaps the best known singer latterly. Still I wouldn’t have thought it easy to confuse him with the USian Neil of that ilk as someone of my acquaintance did when talking about his death this week.

Jim first came to prominence as part of trio Ph D with I Won’t Let You Down.The video is frankly, creepy.

Ph D: I Won’t Let You Down

Jim’s biggest hit as a solo artist was I Should Have Known Better in the year of Band Aid. Diamond’s song hit no 1 the week before the release of Do They Know It’s Christmas? Apparently Diamond said that people should buy the charity single rather than his. Good on him.
Jim Diamond: I Should Have Known Better

His best song though was probably Hi Ho Silver, theme song to the TV series Boon.

Jim Diamond: Hi Ho Silver

James “Jim” Diamond: 28/9/1951–8/10/2015. So it goes.

I was sad to hear that former Monkee Davy Jones has died, apparently from a heart attack.

Though Davy was nominally the Monkees lead singer, that duty frequently fell to fellow actor Micky Dolenz, leaving Davy to flail away somewhat unconvincingly with a pair of maraccas.

They were probably the first manufactured band, brought together to reproduce the Beatles films’ format on TV, but had some of the best pop songwriters of the day composing for them. This – I chose it because it actually features Davy on lead vocals – was written by Neil Diamond.

The Monkees: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You was the only Monkees single I bought back in the day and I came to love the B-side The Girl I Knew Somewhere, written by group member Mike Nesmith. So much so I referenced its title in a line of A Son of the Rock.

David Thomas Jones, 30/12/1945 – 29/2/2012. So it goes.