Written and recorded by Jamaican artist Junior Murvin in protest at police and gang violence in his home country, this song became a success in the US and UK and an anthem of the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival in London which broke out in to riots. The Clash also recorded a version as part of their fusion of reggae and punk.
Popular music has often borrowed from its classical colleagues, and even from poetry, but often with mixed success. But in this 1939 song by Hoagy Carmichael all falls in to place. The main melodic theme is based on the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor by Frédéric Chopin and the lyrics are based on a poem by Jane Brown Thompson. There are many versions. In this one by the Lew Stone Band, vocals are by British crooner Sam Browne.
Band names are so familiar we rarely stop to think what they mean, if anything. The Beatles? The Bee Gees? But that's not the point, of course, and most of them probably didn't give it too much thought. However, there's no doubt the Cure chose well.
Erich Korngold was an Austrian-born composer who fled the Nazi regime for America where he made a living composing film music while also continuing to produce a range of 'classical' works.
This song is one of four songs about Shakespearean characters and plays, in this case Desdemona, ill-fated wife of the ill-fated Othello (it's a tragedy in case you were wondering),
Some record labels are more well-known than many of their artists - Motown, 2 Tone, Def Jam. Stiff Records were one such example during the independent label boom of the 1970s with artists such as Elvis Costello, Devo and, in this case, Wreckless Eric. Eric is still going at 67 though no doubt a little less 'wreckless'.
Film music, and musicals, can be an acquired taste, especially when the strings get going, and the strings are certainly being pulled in this song by the Sherman Brothers from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins.
This week musician Ed Sheeran won a copyright case brought against him claiming he stole his hit Shape of You. Back in 1976 George Harrison was not so lucky when he was ordered to pay compensation for 'stealing' aspects of The Chiffons He's So Fine when writing his 1970 hit My Sweet Lord. Generally it seems the law has resisted supporting claims of musical plagiarism and you can't help feeling Harrison might have got a better verdict today.
Progressive (Prog) Rock takes a lot of flack. No surprise given its love of overly complex songs you can't hum, performed in elaborate settings and costumes (Peter Gabriel performed this song while dressed as a flower). However, occasionally they stopped trying to be JS Bach and knuckled down and wrote great songs (not many admitttedly). This is one of them.