From the Vaults

Luv: You're The Greatest Lover (1978)

14 Mar 2022 | 1 min read | 2

August 2012 marked a sad day in global pop. On August 12 the off-and-on group Luv played their final ever performance. If that means little to you it is perhaps because you weren't tuned in to bland, efficiently produced Abba-style dance pop in the late Seventies and early Eighties when this trio were at their peak. Perhaps more photogenic than musical, Luv were one of those pre-Spice... > Read more

Patrice Holloway: Those DJ Shows (2005)

7 Mar 2022 | 1 min read

Ridiculous to observe, but there was once a time when radio people weren't "shock jocks" (and ain't that the second easiest job in the world?) or "taking callers now." Once upon a time radio people actually played music they loved which was right-then/right-now important and they brought new sounds to their audience. Here's one stunt I fell for as a teenager.... > Read more

Mark Dinning: Teen Angel (1959)

28 Feb 2022 | 1 min read | 1

When songwriter Jean Dinning died in 2011 at age 86, the obituary writers got the bare fact down straight. How she'd been reading about juvenile delinquents and someone had commented these kids weren't so bad and should be called "teen angels". Her then-husband Red Surry suggested that might be a good title for a song and so the two of them came up with the maudlin,... > Read more

Luke Leilani and His Hawaiian Rhythm: Hawaiian Holiday (1966)

28 Feb 2022 | <1 min read | 1

Although there is no shortage of albums by Luke Leilani (and his various groups), getting solid information about him is more difficult. He doesn't rate a mention in the thick Hawaiian Music and Musicians collection edited by George S. Kanahele which makes me think Luke might have been as about authentic a Hawaiian as the Waikikis (from Brussels, see here). I am happy to be proven... > Read more

RM Hubbert: Sunbeam Melts the Hour (2012)

21 Feb 2022 | <1 min read

Okay, here's what you need to do. Just play the posted track, shut your eyes and try to pick where you think this piece might have come from. Don't read on. If you've done that and stabbed in the dark a bit then let's flip all the cards slowly and tell you this is from the album Thirteen Lost & Found which was produced by Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos. And the album is... > Read more

Haysi Fantayzee: Jimmy Jive Jive (1983)

14 Feb 2022 | 2 min read

It's entirely possible that this British pop duo (with the svengali figure of Paul Caplin guiding their brief career) spent more time in make-up than they did on the charts: they knocked out four singles and an album . . . but their chief feature was their risque glam-raggamuffin look which was used to greater effect by their contemporary Boy George. However their album Battle Hymns... > Read more

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra: Love Will Tear Us Apart (2006)

7 Feb 2022 | <1 min read

The Susanna here is Norway's Susanna Wallumrod and the Magical Orchestra is keyboard player Morten Qvenild . . . and this Joy Division classic is right in their frame of reference because her vocals often work this ethereal and moody area, usually on originals. She is quite some esthete also -- her siblings are renown musicians also -- and among her recent collaborators have been jazz... > Read more

Davy Graham: Maajun (1964)

7 Feb 2022 | 1 min read | 1

In his exceptional book Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music, the author and folk excavator Rob Young shines his astute and poetic spotlight on not only the more well known names in British folk -- Donovan, the Incredible String Band, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Strawbs et al -- but traces links to William Morris, Ralph Vaughan Williams and gives equal time to the likes of... > Read more

Elvis Presley: US Male (1968)

31 Jan 2022 | 1 min read | 1

In '67-'68 very few people were listening to Elvis Presley in the way they once did. The mode of the music had changed, the musical cultures of London and San Francisco were dominant and the new heroes were the Sun Kings (the Beatles), Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic bands and so on. Tough minded rock'n'roll singles -- aside from those by John Fogerty for Creedence -- weren't of as much... > Read more

Rochelle Vinsen: I Wanna Swim With Him (1965)

24 Jan 2022 | 2 min read

For those with a long memory, Wellington's Rochelle Vinsen is but a footnote in New Zealand pop history, the girl who gained some minor attention with My Boyfriend's Got a Beatle haircut in early '64 and . . . Hmmm. That might be about it? In fact, she also recorded with Christchurch's rocking Castaways and on this B-side displays some real teen-pop girl group-style chops. ... > Read more

The Kinks: Dancing in the Street (1965)

17 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

Even their most generous fans would have to concede that – unlike their peers the Rolling Stones, Small Face, Who, Animals and other – the Kinks didn't have a natural feel for black American r'n'b. This was the music of the club circuit in Britain but the few times the Kinks attempted to do those songs in the studio they came off very flat when compared to the originals and... > Read more

David Bowie: Rubber Band (1966)

10 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

Although Ray Davies is rightly credited as the great British documentarian/songwriter, it's worth checking out David Bowie's songs before 1968. During that period he was flaying about and trying on different styles, one of which was a kind of wry, sometimes humorous but at other times melancholy storytelling. What was distinctive was not just the very English – a kind of mock... > Read more

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: Hearts of Stone (1978)

20 Dec 2021 | 1 min read | 1

With his big band the Asbury Jukes (a 10-piece), Southside Johnny out of New Jersey could only ever run a distant second to his friend Bruce Springsteen as the Seventies unfurled. Springsteen had the impetus, the big label, smart management and a kind of destiny -- but they were pals and E Street guitarist Steven Van Zandt was a Juke in '74-'75. Van Zandt produced the first three SJ&AJ... > Read more

Ann-Margret: It's a Nice World to Visit But Not to Live In (1969)

13 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

The actress Ann-Margret wasn't such great shakes as a singer, but she had other . . . attributes? She certanly had a decent movie career for a while (she even wasn't bad in one of Elvis' better films Viva Las Vegas) although it does seem odd that she would win a Grammy for best new artist back in '62. Her gospel album of 2000 God is Love was one of her best moments, but otherwise there were... > Read more

The Fab Four: Hark! The Angels Sing (date unknown)

13 Dec 2021 | <1 min read

Round our way after a long period in Auckland's second lockdown and just not feeling the festiveness we might usually at this time, we pushed ourselves into the spirit. My wife who loves Christmas (because she has a generous heart) put up the tree earlier than we normally would; made plans to invite the neighbours into our apartment courtyard to give small presents to their kids who've... > Read more

Ronnie and the Hi-Lites: I Wish That We Were Married (1962)

13 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

When Brian Wilson wrote the wonderful Wouldn't It Be Nice about that adolescent yearning to be older (and therefore able to indulge in carnal activities without judgement), he was part of lineage of such songs by the likes of the achingly soulful Cross My Heart by Billy Stewart and . . . This by the New Jersey doo-wop group fronted by 14-year old Ronnie Goodson which couches sexual desire... > Read more

Paul Simon: Slip Slidin' Away (1977)

6 Dec 2021 | 3 min read

When it comes to economy of images, Paul Simon has few equals, as this song illustrates. There are huge gaps the listener can fill. Slip slidin' awaySlip slidin' awayYou know the nearer your destinationThe more you're slip slidin' away I know a manHe came from my home townHe wore his passion for his womanLike a thorny crownHe said DeloresI live in fearMy love for you's so... > Read more

Aretha Franklin: Don't Play That Song For Me (1970)

22 Nov 2021 | 1 min read | 1

It's a well established fact that some songs write themselves into our autobiographies: we remember our first love by our favourite song, can be taken back to exactly where we were and who we were with when a certain piece of music plays, songs conjure up time and place . . . Talkin' 'bout them Night Moves. The Classic Hits radio format plays on this fact, and rock'n'roll has become a... > Read more

Aretha Franklin: Don't Play That Song For Me

Peg Leg Howell: Please Ma'am (1928)

19 Nov 2021 | <1 min read

Just as a lot of blues artists were “Blind” and there were a few “Peg Leg” characters out there. Georgia-born Josh Howell got his nickname after he lost a leg when he was shot by his brother-in-law. He'd already established a reputation as an excellent finger-picker but now, unable to work on the farm, he moved to Atlanta and became a street performer before he began... > Read more

The Louvin Brothers: Knoxville Girl (1956)

15 Nov 2021 | <1 min read | 1

In his autobiography Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers, Charlie Louvin – who died in 2011 at 83, shortly after its competition – explains this traditional murder ballad. He said that he and his brother Ida (older, a violent alcoholic ladies man) had been performing this since they were kids on the farm in Alabama in the Thirties. “In the old country it... > Read more