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| Let The Magic Begin! |
Picture the scene if you will . . . you're driving along in your car and THAT song comes on. You know the one, the one that instantly makes you turn the volume up to eleven in a Spinal Tap way in the car because for some reason that song makes you want to tap the steering wheel even more than normal. It's a song that may have special memories or may just be because it's damn good! What makes the song that damn good may just be the introduction.
The Independent newspaper put an article online recently where Donald McInnes sang the virtues of his favourite introductions to songs. That article got me thinking . . . what would be my favourite introductions to songs be? Naturally you can't include every decent song intro ever heard on the radio as you'd be here for ever! So, I tried to limit it to songs that were played on The Nightclub featuring The Late English Breakfast back in the day on Valley Free Radio (www.valleyfreeradio.org)
Now like I say it is not possible to include every classic song with a great intro (The River 93.9FM www.wrsi.com) are playing "This Could Be The Last Time" by the Rolling Stones as I write; made me think "Bugger! Should have included that in my list!" Oh well there'll have to be a second blog on this subject! Anyhow, without further ado, here's my choices of songs (in no particular order) we played (or wish we could have played) that have, in my opinion, a great introduction.
The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Women
This song is memorable for many things. Having seen the Stones twice in concert I know the enormous blow up dolls have to be seen to be believed! However, the cowbells, so loved once upon a time by Saturday Night Live live long in the memory. The song that was released the day after Brian Jones' death in 1969 got to number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic truly is a classic. All together now "I met a gin soaked bar room queen in Memphis . . . " One further closing note on this classic tune, one I'm sure Stones aficionados know, is that the version of the song that appears on their 1969 "Let It Bleed" album is the equally legendary but vastly underrated "Country Honk" . Do check it out if you have the chance. Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music 
Whenever I played this song in my bedroom back home in Congleton it would get pretty near full volume! For me it's one of the great underrated soul classics of the 1960's. It's not on the radio enough times in my opinion. Both Linda and I rate it high - highly enough that when we started our show on Valley Free Radio back in 2007 we decided that when we were recording our show trailer - "Want something new and exciting in your lives? You need The Nightclub hosted by Linda and Eddie Kennedy" we had Sweet Soul Music as the backing music. A great tune and one that'll get you grooving! If you don't have it buy it whenever you get the chance.
Whenever I played this song in my bedroom back home in Congleton it would get pretty near full volume! For me it's one of the great underrated soul classics of the 1960's. It's not on the radio enough times in my opinion. Both Linda and I rate it high - highly enough that when we started our show on Valley Free Radio back in 2007 we decided that when we were recording our show trailer - "Want something new and exciting in your lives? You need The Nightclub hosted by Linda and Eddie Kennedy" we had Sweet Soul Music as the backing music. A great tune and one that'll get you grooving! If you don't have it buy it whenever you get the chance. 
Simply Red - Money's Too Tight To Mention This song is "totally" relevant, to use today's increasingly annoying parlance! The song was originally a hit for The Valentine Brothers.This excellent song was a top twenty hit in the UK in 1985 and the nation's first sighting of the talent that is Mick Hucknall. For me Mick is one of Great Britain's best ever singers. The lyrics, that tell the tale of a man trying to make ends meet are sadly oh so relevant today. The song's mention of "Reaganomics" is particularly relevant as many political and economical commentators attribute today's problems to the policies first seen under the former actor and California Governor in the USA and similar to the policies put into practice under Mrs. Thatcher in Great Britain. 
Luciano Michelini - Frolic Ah yes, the theme tune to end all theme tunes! Sunday nights are so much better now on HBO at 10pm now the unmistakable "bum bum bum doo doo doo, do do do . . . " now resonates joyfully in our house! The TV show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" written by and starring Larry David is one of the all time great situation comedies. It basically satirizes modern day life and is one respect a continuation of the excellent work he and Jerry Seinfeld started with "Seinfeld" back in the 1980's and 1990's. It truly is a hilarious show and I understand why Seinfeld is so popular in this country because of my understanding of Curb. The show is popular in Great Britain, well it was at 16 Back Lane! The show makes me so happy - it cracks me up to be honest - so when my British radio show on Valley Free Radio started I could only think of one theme tune to use! 
The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night "Claaang! It's been a hard day's night!" There are a million and more Beatles' tunes I could have picked but this one resonated with me because the opening to the tune is so different, so unique, that you instantly know what the song is. This UK and US chart topper is just a great fun tune to listen to. The title "A Hard Day's Night" was attributed to Ringo Starr when he was feeling bewildered after filming . . . not knowing how long they'd been filming, he said it had been a hard day's . . . night's work of filming! The song knocked The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now"
Michael Franti and Spearhead - Say Hey (I Love You) One of the most catchy tunes I've heard in a long long time. My darling wife Linda loves it to pieces as well! We're often found boogieing to this tune in the kitchen or in the bathroom in the morning. You know, the way we first found out about this tune was courtesy of an adopted American but always a Scot to me by the name of Craig Ferguson. He featured it on his show with quite possibly one of the funniest little sketches Linda and I have seen on a chat show for quite some time. Its joyous upbeat nature is so refreshing to listen to. 
The Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive The soundtrack to an era - who said disco sucks? Saturday Night Fever will be shown on TV forever. Now it's a movie that will serve as a commentary of New York City in the 1970's, but what cannot be forgotten is how good the music was and still is. This song wasn't supposed to be a single, but airplay given to the album generated demand for "Stayin' Alive" to be released as a single. Record label RSO gave way. It proved to be a good move as it became a number 1 hit here in the States and a number 4 back home in Great Britain. Not bad going for a family act from Chorlton Cum Hardy Manchester!
The Black Crowes - Hard to Handle I had a t-shirt that resembled the cover of this fantastic single. I had the privilege of seeing this band at The Apollo Theatre in Manchester back in 1990. Some band called The Verve were the support act! It was originally recorded by Otis Redding (who died the day I was born if my memory serves me correctly. Our show was always full of facts of that nature!) It's a great single, one that always gets my foot tapping. I remember when we played the song on our show and it sure sounded good with good speakers in that radio studio. Again, the opening few bars are instantly recognizable . . . I think Chris Robinson and the boys do the song immense justice. Dare I say they make it their own? Discuss!
Blur - Parklife Another class tune from the 1990's. The battle of the bands, Oasis versus Blur, a so-called re-run of The Beatles versus The Rolling Stones, was a common feature during the decade. This song with its contribution from celebrated actor Phil Daniels (who sprung to national acclaim back home in the 1970's with his now legendary performance in "Quadraphenia") was the 3rd single to be released from the album of the same name. A top 10 hit in Great Britain it instantly takes me back to the time when the Premier League was a relatively new idea and nobody knew who Victoria Adams was . . . (Mrs. Beckham in case you didn't know) 
Booker T and The MG's - Green Onions Pure genius! The only way to describe this instrumental. It's hard to imagine that this timeless classic is nearly 50 years old. It inspired a generation of musicians. I'm not making this up - we've read Ian McLagan's autobiography! I also know that back in time in Riverside Drive in Florence Massachusetts a young girl called Moraski grooved to this in her family's basement . . . wonder what happened to her? (She married me!) So there's my first choice of classic songs with great intros. I've enjoyed putting this list together. It is a great indicator of the music we played on our show. We wanted to be a show you could listen to whilst having your evening meal on Sunday nights and also have a bop to if the mood took you! People have wide tastes in music and we wanted to cater to them. Although it's over two years since we did our show we'll always have great memories of it.
Enjoy your music,
Ed
