David Holmes - I Heard Wonders as heard during Olympics opening ceremony

Joe writes: This was a surprising, lesser-known highlight of Danny Boyle's London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

Isles of Wonder indeed

Nina Simone - My father

Phil writes: Some time ago I saw a clip of Judy Collins singing this song of hers and wondered about posting it then. I knew it was a good song but wasn't quite sure how good. I just caught this Nina Simone version on a film of her last recorded live performance. I find it very moving and deeply felt, in a way that the original doesn't quite match.

"Laura, you're more than a superstar"

Joe writes: I'm a convert to Bat For Lashes thanks to her new single Laura, and the artwork for her forthcoming album The Haunted Man. Both are brave and classic, recalling a bygone era in several different ways, all of them welcome.

Asaf Avidan & The Mojos - One Day / Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)

Joe writes: Wankelmut is a DJ/producer from the Berlin-Mitte minimal scene. Asaf Avidan is an Israeli singer-songwriter. Wankelmut sampled Asaf's 2008 track Reckoning Song and the resulting track has come through the Berlin clubs to become a phenomenon in Germany. Despite coming from a very cool minimal club scene, it comes off sounding like the midpoint between Rednex and Moby. Fun.

"It's too late when we die to admit we don't see eye to eye"

Joe writes: I've taken to posting songs on This Is My Jam regularly, even though I would never use the phrase "This is my jam". At present, my jam (ugh) is The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics, one of my all-time favourites and an apposite song for people of my generation with parents approaching old age. Make time for them; you never know when it might be too late. The lyric was written by BA Robertson.

The King Blues feat. Tim Armstrong - Booted Out Of Hell

Joe writes: This is my favourite track from the final King Blues album, and it features one of The King Blues' heroes, Tim Armstrong of Rancid. Big hooks and a great lyric.



My favourite Tim Armstrong track is probably Diamonds & Guns by The Transplants, and Tim owes a lot to The Clash so here's London Calling:

Daddy I've fallen for a monster

Joe writes: Loving bad men has been the theme of some of the biggest and best songs of recent times including Stooshe's current UK hit Black Heart with its wonderful lyric "Daddy I've fallen for a monster".

See also the biggest hit of 2010, Love The Way You Lie by Eminem feat. Rihanna.

And one of the biggest albums of recent years, Back to Black by Amy Winehouse.

And if you haven't heard Lying Lips (Words I Should Have Said) by Tanya Stephens before, you must.

The Four Seasons - Sherry

Phil writes: I see that Frankie Valli (at 78) is touring the UK. A good excuse to post this masterpiece:

Sugar Man by Sixto Rodriguez from the film Searching for Sugar Man

Joe writes: I know this sounds very Nathan Barley-esque but I first heard Sixto Rodriguez when the DJ at the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch played Sugar Man and I Shazamed it. It's a magical record and it turns out it has a magical story behind it which is the theme of the new documentary Sugar Man. Read this for more.

Edwina Hayes, whose cover of Feels Like Home features on the soundtrack to the Cameron Diaz film My Sister's Keeper

Joe writes: I have been an Edwina Hayes fan ever since the demo of The Road appeared on a National Band Register CD in the late nineties. There's an all-too unusual purity to her voice and her songwriting. If she had more ambition and nous perhaps she would be huge, or then again, perhaps that would be incompatible with purity.

She made an album called Out On My Own for Warner which featured most of her best songs, but it was  overproduced (not enough focus on the purity).

Her cover of Randy Newman's Feels Like Home featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Diaz film My Sister's Keeper and I guess the film was just shown on UK TV because Edwina appeared in the lower reaches of the chart.

Here's the original demo version of The Road, a little rough around the edges and very long but who cares when the voice and song are this good:




And here's Bonnie Raitt singing Feels Like Home (Edwina's version is here):

Daine Angel feat. Theo Altieri - Txt Me Back

Joe writes: This is so good. Theo Altieri is a singer songwriter in his early teens. Daine Angel is a rapper with hearthrob good looks whose father is the techno DJ and producer Dave Angel. Both Theo and Daine are from Swindon and on Txt Me Back they get together and perform alchemy. Emotion, hooks, songcraft, it's all there. Who does it sound like? Maybe G Love & Special Sauce. Whoever it is, it's a sound no-one else has done recently and it feels like the right time.

Julio Bashmore

Joe writes: Julio Bashmore is the producer behind one of my favourite tracks of the year so far, 110% by Jessie Ware. Superficially what he's doing isn't that different to the last two decades of house music, but he has somehow succeeded where so many others have failed - he makes accessible tracks that also sound modern. He has also started DJing on Radio 1 and he's pretty good at that too. Here's his solo track Troglodytes, in the fine tradition of dance tracks featuring spoken word samples.




Talking of which, here's Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb, featuring a sample of an interview with Rickie Lee Jones (and various other samples according to the Wikipedia page):

The theme from Prometheus: Chopin Prelude in D Flat Major

Joe writes: I went to see Ridley Scott's film Prometheus tonight which was better than I'd feared, and features my favourite piano piece as its theme, Chopin's Prelude in D Flat Major, also known as the Raindrops prelude.




The same prelude also inspired the theme to the '80s soap opera Howard's Way (sorry, couldn't resist):




Here's a scan of an autographed page from the Paderewski edition of the sheet music:

 

Wind and Walls by The Tallest Man On Earth

Joe writes: My favourite track from the new Tallest Man On Earth album. Also my favourite track of the moment. It's an orgy of melody.

more Rumer originals: Richie Havens and Stephen Bishop

Joe writes: Here are my other two favourite discoveries of songs covered by Rumer on her Boys Don't Cry album.

It Could Be The First Day by Richie Havens is simple, concise and beautiful. Rumer has said she was introduced to the song by the producer Steve Brown.




The Same Old Tears On A New Background by Stephen Bishop can't be found on YouTube so here it is on a long-forgotten corner of the internet called MySpace: The Same Old Tears On A New Background

Art Garfunkel actually released the first version of Same Old Tears... on his album Breakaway, but Stephen wrote the song and released his own version on his album Careless.

Here's Stephen's greatest hit On And On:

Otto Knows - Million Voices

Joe writes: Big dance tune from a protege of Avicii.

Vaguely reminds me of the classic Da Da Da by Trio, being based around a vocal riff that's not really a lyric.

original versions of the songs from Boys Don't Cry by Rumer

Joe writes: I get excited when artists with great taste make covers albums - it means I can download all the original versions and reasonably expect to discover some great tracks in doing so. Rumer was already planning the release of Boys Don't Cry before she'd signed a record deal. It features lesser known songs of heartbreak by well respected but not necessarily well known male singer songwriters of the early '70s. In other words, music to my ears. A lot of the song suggestions came from Steve Brown who produced Rumer's first album but didn't produce this one after falling out with Rumer.

I have three favourite discoveries from the album. Two of them aren't on YouTube yet which I may remedy shortly. The one that is is Be Nice To Me by Todd Rundgren. I liked the YouTube comment "Ben Folds should give Todd 30 cents of every dollar he makes".

The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved

Phil writes: Not really being very clued-up about the music of today, apart from things that Joe tells me about/posts here, I must confess that 'The Voice' has been a bit of an ear-opener  -  Tom Jones was the only judge whose music I was at all familiar with.

Just happened to catch the video of this on a music channel. Pretty impressive even on first hearing:

 

Benny Hill meets dancehall

Joe writes: Every summer, London's Choice FM used to playlist reggae and that was where I first heard Sorry If I Hurt Your Feelings by Tenor Fly tune in I think 1996. Great lyric, great melody, an amusingly Benny Hill-esque backing track... it should have been huge.



Which reminds me of the time the Benny Hill theme became the dancehall beat du jour. My favourite take on it was of course Lady Saw's excellent Jealous.

Jimmy Webb's Ivor Award

Phil writes: This recognition of his great songwriting has meant several TV and radio interviews, plus an appearance on Jools with Rumer:



I love this song of his:



And this (though not the best audio quality):