The instrumental Telstar, created by the sound engineering genius of producer Joe Meek, was named after the eponymous communications satellite of the same year. The track captures Meek's obsession with sound rather than melody (he couldn't read music anyway).
Cult Birmingham band Broadcast made three albums in the early 2000s, mixing sounds around co-founder Trish Keenan's soft voice.
If you are new to - or old and unmoved by - classical music then maybe Benjamin Britten can persuade you; or at least show you how it can work. The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945) was Britten's way of showing off the roles and ranges of the various instruments in the orchestra. This last section, the short Fugue, brings it all together. If you want to know more about the piece here is a good explanation. Then maybe go and listen to it all?
Should you need relief after a long term, try a little hypnosis, Gregorian style. This chant is taken from a 1959 recording from the Abbey of Saint-Maurice and Saint-Maur, Clervaux in Luxembourg and is regarded as one of the gems of its type by the Gregorian cognoscenti. It was apparently recorded during Mass. You can certainly hear shuffling in the pews in some of the later chants.
French electronic duo Daft Punk 'exploded' after 28 years last week via a farewell video showing them in their characteristic robot helmets and leather before one of them literally explodes. Dumb? Maybe, but they were anything but, mixing genres and record collections at will over 4 albums. Here is a 2013 track from the last album which, with its melancoly but uplifting dance, seems to come from almost any genre you want. Worth a listen whatever your taste.
You have to be a little suspicious of the 'died young, neglected in their lifetime' genius, but in the case of Nick Drake, Song of the Week would suggest the reputation is well-deserved. Despite reading English at Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge (he packed it in anyway), he went on to make 3 brilliant, largely acoustic, largely ignored, albums before his death in 1974, aged 26.
This song from his second album 'Bryter Layter' seems to be about being lonely in an overcrowded world. Our overcrowded world has moved online but we can still find a few friends. Gather Town perhaps at the 5pm Chime of a City Clock?
We celebrate brevity this week courtesy of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. This, the 11th of his 24 Preludes written for solo piano, makes its point in just 41 seconds.
In the week we lost Mary Wilson, here are the Supremes (Mary on backing vocals) having a very good time with an audience who are also having a very good time. Stoned Love is from 1970, after Diana Ross had left, but is as good as anything they did. So put Teams on mute, turn off the camera and get dancing with Mary.
This song comes from the 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, one of the albums Sinatra made with arranger Nelson Riddle which revived his musical career. The song was written much earlier, in 1923, but it was probably waiting for Frank to get hold of it. It's been said many times but just listen to Frank's phrasing as he tells you his story.
"Do I look for those millionaires like a Machiavellian girl would, when I could wear a sunset?" sings Kate, accompanied by a Macedonian bridal dance played on Uilleann pipes (I had to look that bit up, obviously).
If you don't know Kate Bush's music then there are worst ways of spending lockdown, from the teenage years of Wuthering Heights to the most recent (and pertinent) 50 Words for Snow. Yes, she does come up with 50.
Shaking off initial reputations is the curse of many artists (and mathematicians?). De La Soul found themselves labelled hip hop's hippies after the release of their first album and they have spent 30 years trying to shake it off. Mind you, they did claim they were transmitting live from Mars and rapped a lot about peace and harmony.
So in deference to their wish to be thought of as more than that first album, here is the biggest hit from that album. Peace and love.
As Konzertmeister in Weimar from 1714-1717, Bach was charged with providing a monthly diet of church cantatas. This one is from c1715. It was performed in Lecture Theatre 1 of the Andrew Wiles Building in October 2019 as part of our 'Sunday Service' collaborations with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The Services will resume later in the year.
Your Song of the Week correspondent spent some of the holidays in a bubble with a mouse. Admittedly it was rather good at social distancing but for everyone who has had mouse issues in their house (or even their car, as a colleague has reported) here's Ronnie Hilton in the days before mice had heath and safety officers on site.
In 1960, during a concert in Berlin, Ella launched in to Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Mack the Knife, by now a jazz standard. Only Ella couldn't remember the words. Not that it made any difference. Check out the Louis Armstrong impersonation. And enjoy the voice.
In the week of the Nobel Prize presentation it is only appropriate that Song of the Week should come from a Nobel Prize winner. Unfortunately neither Einstein or Niels Bohr took to the recording studio (though Einstein loved Mozart and Bach) so here is the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan. A controversial choice though Bob's Nobel lecture, taking in Buddy Holly, Dickens and Moby Dick, is well worth checking out.
So here is a song by Bob. Song of the Week was going to go for Shooting Star to complete the cosmological theme, but it is hidden behind premium access. So here is Tangled up in Blue, an even better song and, best of all, one that references "mathematicians." Bob and Roger, we salute you.
The album cover said it all. Instead of the usual smiling Marvin getting ready to sing about love lost and found, here was a man uncertain in the rain. But then as he said, he had a lot to think about. War, enviromental disaster, police brutality, social and racial divisions. The record company (Motown) were nervous, but Marvin got his way. It will be 50 years old in 2021.
Minimalist American composer John Adams said of 'Short Ride:' "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?"
If you get chance go and see it live. Come to think of it, if you get chance go and see anything live.
This version is from the 2014 BBC Proms conducted by Marin Alsop.
Chester Arthur Burnett, as Wolf was born, was part of the Chicago Blues scene led by musicians escaping segregation in the South in the 1940s and 1950s. The likes of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon had a massive influence on subsequent genres and musicians of all type, but sometimes that can hide the fact that they made songs that are just good in themselves.'Smokestack Lightnin' was, in Wolf's words, a result of when "we used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightnin'."
Song of the Week has neglected Opera so far but we are going to start at the top with the 'Letter Scene' from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, based on Pushkin's verse novel. Tatyana pours out her love for Onegin by writing a middle of the night letter (never the best time perhaps). Onegin is not impressed. But he comes to regret it. Anna Netrebko is Tatyana in this New York Metropolitan Opera production.
Back in the 70s, even hard-bitten punks had a grudging respect for ABBA. After all it was clear that these guys could write songs. 'The Name of the Game' is a perfect example. Most bands would have squeezed 4 songs out of it, but Benny and Bjorn were on a roll. Agnetha and Anni-Frid each have solo parts. 'Dancing Queen', 'SOS' et al are great - as are lesser-known songs such as 'Angel Eyes' - but this, despite a silly if ironic video, might just be their masterpiece.
The phrase 'one hit wonder' is used rather disparagingly though it applies to many walks of life and for many of us is just an aspiration. American Garage-Rock band ? and the Mysterians fit the bill though they are more interesting than some. Their name was inspired by the Japanese Sci-fi film 'The Mysterions.'
The version below is the album original but if you want to see them do it live and check out ?'s taste in shirts click here.
It may not be common to mathematicians but retiring early is becoming a theme in Song of the Week (Bobbie Gentry being the first). Janet Baker retired nearly 40 years ago and now, in her eighties, reserves her singing to the odd visit to church. Here in Strauss's Morgen! (Tomorrow!) she sings "And tomorrow the sun will shine again." Indeed.
Strauss originally wrote it for piano which is the version below. He later orchestrated the accompaniment for orchestral strings. Janet sings that version here (not great quality but it is live).
It's hard to imagine George Ivan (Van) Morrison dancing to anything but here he is giving it a go "under cover of October skies." Van has said some questionable things about the Coronavirus recently but Song of the Week is a strictly neutral segment of the Bulletin so we will move on. And anyway, as they say, don't love your heroes.
Bobbie Gentry had great success until she threw it all up 40 years ago and socially distanced from the world. Admittedly this, her biggest hit, is not the most cheery of ditties but it is good and in the spirit of keeping things current, it is a rare example of the word 'virus' being used in a song.
"I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect"
Trader Vic's in London is still there. Below is the remastered version but for the purists and those who want to see Warren in action (and howling) here is the original.