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When his record company told avant-garde musician Anthony Moore that his work was not commercial enough he wasn't happy. Or rather he was Slapp Happy, the name he gave to his new band with their deliberately commercial sound.  The band became less commercial subsequently but not before songs such as 'Blue Flower' bloomed. Dagmar Krause provides the distinctive voice.

Shane McGowan of the Pogues died last week. Aside from all the articles about self-destructive genius and the relentless playing of 'Fairytale of New York' over the next few weeks, it's worth remembering that the Pogues' first three albums are well worth a listen.

Incidentally he went to the same private school (Westminster) as Conrad Shawcross though he was expelled for possessing and selling drugs. Shane that is, not Conrad.

The Reverend Al Green tells it how it is.

If you are new to opera the Marriage of Figaro is a perfect place to start: satire, silliness and songs. This is the overture where Mozart sets the mood.

This track is taken from the album There's a Riot Goin' On, where Sly Stone moved away from the upbeat soul of the sixties and filled the sound with a downbeat, hazy instrumentation and vocal. Apparently he wasn't feeling great at the time. Critics think it is great though. Such is art.

Some pieces of music are very familiar, but the composer not known. 'Fanfare' was written by American composer Aaron Copland in 1942 in the wake of his country's entry in to the Second World War.

Written in the late sixteenth century, this song is typical of Dowland's melancoly ways. But is also catchy. An Elizabethan pop song perhaps.

Steven Rickards is the counter-tenor, Dorothy Linell plays the lute.

So famous you've never heard of them, Fanny were one of the first all-female rock bands. This track is a cover of a Beatles song (who you probably have heard of). It is from an episode of Beat Club, the legendary German sixties and seventies music programme. It has a treasure trove of performances from the period.

Reworking your old material is risky - not just in music - but when Gene Clark turned this track from a speedy psychedelic Byrds song in to a country rock ballad he produced something very different and very tender. Much feted now, it never really happened for Gene as a solo artist in his lifetime. A familiar story.

Ask your local chatbot to tell you about the Slits and it will gleefully splutter words like 'disruptive' and 'anarchic'. But in its excitement, it might omit 'pretty good'. Which they were, right down to the drumming from non-girl Budgie.

The music starts at 1.15, but meet the typical girls first.