I Drove All Night - Roy Orbison

Phil writes: I've heard this a lot recently. Although he didn't write it, and recorded it late in his career, it's up there with his classics as far as I'm concerned.

 

R.I.P. George Jones

Phil writes: A great country singer has died.  I first heard this track covered by Elvis Costello  -  very well, I thought. But this sounds majestic and the two voices go well together.  He did write a lot of the songs he recorded but this was written by Jerry Chesnut.

my new favourite Dylan cover - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues by Nina Simone

Joe writes: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blue isn't one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs, or wasn't until I heard Nina's restrained version of it. It's my new favourite Dylan cover and one of my two favourite Nina Simone tracks.



Here's my other Nina favourite, Little Girl Blue, which borrows from Good King Wenceslas:



and while I'm on the subject of classic tracks that borrow from Christmas carols, here's Joni Mitchell's River with its debt to Jingle Bells:

Phosphorescent - Song for Zula on Jimmy Fallon

Joe writes: Nice performance of my favourite track of the moment

Hi, my name is Stereo Mike

Joe writes: While looking through old possessions in my mum's house, I came across these Bran Van 3000 beer mats which reminded me about their awesome but odd debut single Drinking In LA. Odd because there's a DJ talking over the intro about giving away Bran Van 3000 tickets. Awesome because it's such a tune, with that fabulously loose groove, a singalong chorus to rival Tubthumping, and a lyric which captures the mindset of wasting time getting drunk when you could be getting famous. Bran Van 3000 are Canadian and they're still touring apparently but the rest of their career was always likely to be overshadowed by this extraordinary debut single.

Grandaddy - AM180

Joe writes: For years I've been racking my brains trying to remember which American indie record from the '90s inspired MGMT so much. Of course it was this.

DJ Jurgen presents Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone as sampled by David Guetta on Play Hard

Joe writes: This is one of my favourite Euro dance tracks. I love the build up to the vocal (which doesn't come in until 1.17). I love how simple the lyric is; they were right to resist the temptation to write any more. Basically it's perfect.

I once experienced a big moment when Judge Jules played this at El Divino in Ibiza. Judge Jules is now an entertainment lawyer. I wonder what DJ Jurgen and the rest of Alice Deejay are doing now? Wikipedia suggests Jurgen might still be a radio DJ in The Netherlands, probably playing the David Guetta tune that samples Better Off Alone I imagine. Wikipedia also confirms something people might have forgotten - Alice Deejay had a top ten album in the UK.

Sometimes It Snows In April - Prince

Joe writes: NME declared Prince's Parade as the album of 1986, back before they were obsessed with white indie rock. Years later I borrowed it from my local library, copied it on to cassette and remember being moved to tears by Sometimes It Snows In April as I walked home from school along Cemetery Road. It might have been April, it might have been snowing, probably not though.

Prince has an army of lawyers keeping his music off YouTube so here it is on Spotify: