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One of the last things Buddy recorded with just him and his guitar, Peggy Sue Got Married and its predecessor Peggy Sue were written about Peggy Sue Gerron who Holly had known for many years and who had married his band's drummer Jerry Allison. The marriage was unhappy and this song, so wistful yet written by a 22 year old Holly, was about that marriage.

Brazil's Queen of Samba, a pioneer for female Samba singers and composers, danced to the age of 96. She also spent a long and influential career in occupational therapy and psychiatry in her homeland.

Sea Song is the first track on the album Rock Bottom which Robert Wyatt released after becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window. He has said that the accident saved him because he had become an alcoholic and was heading for disaster.

The Cure are back, looking much as they did in 1979 when they produced this post-punk masterpiece. Lyrics and song meshing to perfection. It's what music is about.

Known as the 'James Bond one' by aficionados, this is one of hundreds of obscure, small label soul tracks from sixties America that were adopted by the Northern Soul scene in the UK, many of them absolute bangers.

Yvonne's voice on the chorus...

Are you dancing?

Nicola Pedreschi was a postdoc in Oxford Mathematics until the summer. But like several Oxford Mathematicians he is a musician, in Nicola's case in the band Eveline's Dust. So here is the lead single from their new album. This is their website.

"If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break..."

This song was made famous by Led Zeppelin, but the original was written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929, two years after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which killed hundreds and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Who were the first boy band? Probably The Jackson 5 (R.I.P. Tito Jackson who died at the weekend), but The Osmonds were hot on their heals. In fact this song was intended for the Jacksons. The genre became known as bubblegum and much of it was. But this is class.

This song starts as if they are making up as they go along. Which in Big Star's case probably wasn't a million miles from the truth. But wait for the chorus.

Big Star did it all. Made unfashionable music at the wrong time, sold no records, self-destructed and influenced generations of subsequent bands. As they sing: "Love me, we can work out the rest".