Mick Ralphs, guitarist with Mott the Hoople and Bad Company among others, died last week. He apparently left Mott the Hoople as the songs he was writing were not suited to singer Ian Hunter’s voice.

They found a compatible home with Paul Rodgers, though, when they formed Bad Company along with Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell.

This is a live version of their first hit, which Ralphs wrote.

Bad Company: Can’t Get Enough

Michael Geoffrey (Mick) Ralphs: 31/3/1944 – 23/6/2025. So it goes.

Brian James, founder member of punk rock band The Damned, died on 3/3/2025. Punk rock wasn’t really my thing but it was undeniably a significant part of the late 1970s musically.

This song, written by James, wasn’t a hit in the UK but is very familiar from radio play in the years since.

Brian Robertson (aka Brian James ) 18/2/1955 – 6/3/2025. So it goes.

Singer Roberta Flack died earlier this week.  Her signature style was reserve, not flamboyance or over-indulgence, and her records were the better for it.

Not her biggest UK hit (that would be Killing Me Softly With His Song) but her first.  An all-but perfect rendering of a song Kirsty’s dad Ewan McColl wrote for Peggy Seeger.

Roberta Flack: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Roberta Cleopatra Flack: 10/2/1937 – 24/2/2025. So it goes.

I was reminded of this by a piece in the Guardian during last week, so I thought I’d use it here.

The Only Ones: Another Girl, Another Planet

Renowned record producer Quincy Jones died during the week.

His CV is beyond compare. He seems to have worked with just about everybody in the music business over the past sixty plus years.

He only had a few hits under his own name, of which this is one.

Quincy Jones (with Dune): Ai No Corrida

Quincy Delight Jones: 14/3/1933 – 3/11/2024. So it goes.

Also lost to us last week was bass player Herbie Flowers. His CV is second to none.

Perhaps his most distinctive performance was his double bass line for Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side but that could be matched by the innovation on David Essex’s Rock On.

Lou Reed: Walk on the Wild Side

David Essex: Rock On

Brian Keith (Herbie) Flowers: 19/5/1938 – 5/9/2024. So it goes.

Stealers Wheel weren’t just Gerry Rafferty’s backing band. Joe Egan, who has died, was his fellow front man and wrote many of their songs himself as well as co-writing their most famous hit Stuck in the Middle With You with Rafferty.

I have featured their work before with Benediction and Late Again.

This is one he wrote himself.

Stealers Wheel: I Get By

Joseph (Joe) Egan: 18/10/1946 – 6/7/2024. So it goes.

Another from Elkie Brooks. A bit different from Pearl’s a Singer.

On reflection this one’s a bit overproduced.

Elkie Brooks: Lilac Wine

This Top of the Pops performance seems a little more restrained.

I mentioned Richard Tandy’s passing a couple of weeks ago.

He was a mainstay of The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) being Jeff Lynne’s right hand man in the group.

I note that the lyrics scrolling along the bottom of this video misrepresent the last vocoded words (which apparently Tandy voiced.) They are not “Mr Blue Sky” but instead “Please turn me over.”  Mr Blue Sky was the last track on side three of the album Out of the Blue.

Electric Light Orchestra: Mr Blue Sky

Richard Tandy: 26/3/1948 –  1/5/2024. So it goes.

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band has died.

Among other songs he wrote perhaps the band’s most famous track, Jessica, used as the signature tune for the TV programme Top Gear.

Despite that tune’s lasting appeal the band never had a hit in the UK.

This, another of his compositions, was their biggest in the US.

The Allman Brothers Band: Ramblin’ Man

Forrest Richard (Dickey) Betts: 12/12/1943 – 18/4/2024. So it goes.