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Reelin’ In the Years 108: Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More

More Steely Dan.

Pity about the poor grammar in the title.

Steely Dan: Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More

Reelin’ In the Years 107: Rikki Don’t Lose That Number

Steely Dan’s second UK hit – but it only achieved the heights of no. 58. Though their singles got a lot of airplay I suppose they were more of an albums band this side of the pond.

Steely Dan: Rikki Don’t Lose That Number

Reelin’ In the Years 105: Hazell

Taggart’s wasn’t the first TV theme tune Maggie Bell had taken on. From the previous decade here’s her version of the Hazell theme.

Maggie Bell: Hazell

Reelin’ In the Years 102: My Brother Jake (RIP Andy Fraser)

A belated recognition of the passing of Andy Fraser, Free’s bassist.

It’s also an almost follow on to the “Jack” songs I posted over a couple of weeks not so long ago.

There’s some good mellotron on this too.

Free: My Brother Jake

Andrew McLan Fraser: 37/1952 – 16/3/2015. So it goes.

Reelin’ In the Years 101: Brain Damage and Eclipse

Not a single; and two tracks which run together on the LP but the second one seemed appropriate for today.

Pink Floyd: Brain Damage and Eclipse

Reelin’ In the Years 100: Light Flight (Take Three Girls)

Another TV theme from the (very) early 1970s – for the first BBC drama series to be broadcast in colour, Take Three Girls – except it wasn’t just a theme as it became a minor hit for the folk band Pentangle.

Pentangle: Light Flight

For completeness here is the title sequence from the first series of Take Three Girls.

Take Three Girls Titles

Reelin’ In the Years 99: Arthur of the Britons

Arthur of the Britons, starring Oliver Tobias, was an agreeably gritty early 1970s TV series made by the Welsh ITV company Harlech and broadcast in the children’s “hour.” The theme was written by prolific film composer Elmer Bernstein. I always thought it had similarities to the theme of my mother’s favourite soap Emmerdale Farm (which only became Emmerdale in 1989.)

Arthur of the Britons theme tune

Reelin’ In the Years 97: Farewell is a Lonely Sound – RIP Jimmy Ruffin

I saw Jimmy Ruffin’s obituary in the Guardian this week. Another one down.

Perhaps forever haunted by What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, of which his version is still the best, he had relatively little other success.

I’ve Passed This Way Before didn’t seem quite appropriate. This one, more so.

Jimmy Ruffin: Farewell is a Lonely Sound

Jimmy Lee Ruffin: 7/5/1936 – 17/11/2014. So it goes.

Reelin’ In the Years 96: RIP Alvin Stardust

A few days ago it was Raphael Ravenscroft, now Alvin Stardust. In the words of another 70s song, “They’re dropping down like flies, man.”

I don’t remember Alvin Stardust’s first pop incarnation. (Apparently on his comeback, Tony Blackburn – who has a running joke with Graham Norton that he still hasn’t been arrested – bumped into him backstage on Top of the Pops one week and said to him, “Didn’t you used to be Shane Fenton?) I’d heard the name but couldn’t put a tune or face to it.

I do, though, remember the 1970s records and leather clad appearances on TV – complete with outrageous size ring worn outside his glove – and thought he was rather sending up the rock hard man schtick.

I haven’t opted for either of his two big hits, Jealous Mind nor My Coo Ca Choo, though.

Alvin Stardust: Red Dress

Bernard William Jewry – aka Shane Fenton; aka Alvin Stardust. 27/9/1942 – 23/10/2014. So it goes.

Reelin’ In the Years 94: Have a Whiff on Me

A song with a venerable past and many variations on the title.

Very catchy, but not one of Mungo Jerry’s hits, though. It didn’t get much air time for some reason…..

Mungo Jerry: Have a Whiff on Me

There’s a video here of the band performing Have a Whiff on Me on TV but the picture quality is dreadful.

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