RIP Don Williams

Joe writes: Love I'm Just A Country Boy

Glen Campbell

Joe writes: RIP Glen Campbell.

Glen featured on the first project I ever managed, and totally stole the show in this video, shot in the Arizona desert near his home:



Here's a playlist of my favourite Glen tracks (minus that one). Glen suggested Rikki & Daz also do a cover of Country Boy, which they did, but it never saw the light of day tragically:

Tenor Fly - Sorry If I Hurt U Feelings

Joe writes: Damn, Tenor Fly has died and Sorry If I Hurt U Feelings still hasn't been a hit. Every summer in the mid nineties Choice FM used to have a reggae playlist and that's where I heard this banger.




or if you prefer it without the annoying ident, listen on Spotify:

R.I.P. Percy Sledge

Phil writes: I remember being blown away when I first heard 'When a Man Loves a Woman'. An archetypal soul number, it has that rare ability to get to you every time:

R.I.P. Lesley Gore

Phil writes: Lesley Gore will surely be remembered for one monster hit that has echoed down the years.  It may or may not be great music.  I happen to think that it is a worthy pop classic.  When a song is played so many times over so many years it usually deserves to be on WGM:

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

"I'm gonna stop wasting my time" - RIP Lou Reed

Joe writes: Sad Song, from the amazing album Berlin, is my favourite Lou Reed track and one of my favourite tracks of all-time

JJ Cale has died

Joe writes: Here's his lovely track Wish I Had Not Said That, which opened a recent Washed Out mix done for Rough Trade

Mindy McCready has died

Joe writes: Back in the era where major labels decided what was going to be big and, mostly, made it so, her single Oh Romeo was one of the anointed ones that didn't quite deliver (in the UK anyway, where it reached the fateful chart position of no. 41), which is surprising as it's a great pop song and something of a forerunner of Taylor Swift. It's closing line is "I would not die for you".

Shadow Morton died on Valentine's Day

Joe writes: Go to Wikipedia to read the amazing story of Shadow writing of Remember (Walking In The Sand) which was the breakthrough single for The Shangri-La's and is also my favourite single of theirs. I also learnt from Wikipedia that Billy Joel played piano on the demo.

just found out that Chris Ethridge from The Flying Burrito Brothers died earlier this week

Joe writes: He co-wrote my favourite Burritos song, Hot Burrito #1, as covered by Elvis Costello under the title I'm Your Toy

R.I.P. Levon Helm

Phil writes: Another member of the legendary band follows Richard Manuel and Rick Danko offstage. One of the extraordinary things about the Band was the sheer excellence of every member. None of them was really ever the same after the surely premature decision to dis-Band, though the reformed band (minus Robbie Robertson) of the nineties was very good by any standard and I reckon they made better albums than RR.

Here's Levon Helm at Woodstock singing possibly the best Band song (and in his view, and the view of other members of the Band, like much of their material, this was a co-operative writing effort  -  like the vocals  - though, as so often, Robertson managed to get the credit).

Etta James

Joe writes: I listened to all the Etta James tracks that Richard Williams wrote about in The Guardian, but I have to say I don't think any of them are as good what her two biggest hits until Avicii sampled her.

At Last is a top 40 hit in the UK for the first time this week:

I Just Wanna Make Love To You (originally the B side to At Last) was a hit in the nineties of the back off a Diet Coke advert:

Dobie Gray has died

Joe writes: Drift Away is his classic recording. There's an interesting blog about it here.

More Sammy Cahn

Phil writes: He was also apparently responsible for two great songs on Chet Baker's memorable album 'Chet Baker Sings'.

Sammy Cahn/Mario Lanza

Joe writes: This week I have been learning about Sammy Cahn, who co-wrote Come Fly With Me, Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow, and Love And Marriage. But best of all for me is Be My Love, especially when Mario Lanza sings it. Russell Watson must listen to this and weep.

Joe writes: Clarence Clemons has died

I'm not sure music gets any better than Thunder Road, and the saxophone plays a big part (as does the glockenspiel):




Wish I had been at this gig (wasn't alive then but still):

Lennon's 70th

Phil writes: An appropriate time to post this amazing song. There was a decent enough piece about it by Laura Barton in the Guardian recently but she is too young to have been around when his great solo album appeared and to have experienced the shock of this track. There may be echoes of the 'Love Letters' riff but this is a unique and flawless number (and the other tracks are pretty stunning too):

RIP John Martyn

John Martyn - May You Never (Amazon)

Isaac Hayes has died

Joe writes: You might want to download something with his voice on right now, but instead here's something with Ghostface Killah's voice on, rapping over a sample from Isaac's version of Walk On By - I Can't Go To Sleep by the Wu-Tang Clan