Sinatra called it “the greatest love song of the past 50 years”. Beatle George’s Something
A taste of West Africa – singer/kora player Sona Jobarteh, live in Budapest with Gambia
Xmas Eve 1914. For a moment, peace breaks out on the Western Front. Silent Night
Mick Foster Group with vocals by Jacqui Dankworth on Changing Fortunes
Exquisite. From Dvorak’s Rusalka, Frederica Von Stade gives us a Song to the Moon
Ain’t no sugaring it. It’ll be a Blue Christmas
The classical guitar greats of our age all looked to him. Andrés Segovia plays Asturias
At 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton is giving himself a good talking to in Let it Grow
With the one and only Mick Fleetwood to help keep time, the Corrs Toss the feathers
Grateful Dead’s joyous segue from Not Fade Away to Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
One jazz-classical fusion with mass appeal was George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
Sixteen when it came out, I was blown away by John’s vocal power on Instant Karma
The Arctic Philharmonic with the rousing Rondo from Mozart’s Horn concerto No. 4
It’s Led Zep, Jim – but not as we know it. Yamato String Quartet visit Kashmir
Sámi (Lapp) singer Mari Boine tells of the joy of Arctic spring in Tundra Flower
The Righteous Brothers aided by mad bad Phil Spector on You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling
WW1 nostalgia from the Incredible String Band. Darling Belle
All the way from the Netherlands, here’s Unders with Syria
Croatian cellist Stjepan Hauser giving it plenty on Albinoni’s Adagio
Ella Fitzgerald with the Cream’s Sunshine of your love
Tom Jones, Rhiannon Giddens, Jools Holland Orchestra and them St James Infirmary Blues
The sound of folk 2019. Old Sea Brigade (aka Ben Cramer) and Western Eyes
Kathryn Williams covered Hallelujah, Candy Says – and Python Lee Jackson’s Broken Dream
Portishead’s Beth Gibbons as lamenting mother in Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Too fast to live, too young to die. It’s 1975 and Chris Spedding is Motor Bikin’
Rhiannon Giddens: bluegrass from Manchester, Tennessee. You mad at your man, Ruby?
1964. Hard Days Night & Hello Dolly top the charts. The Searchers endure Needles and Pins
Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love has two songs of ambivalence: Cautious Man, and Two Faces
It doesn’t get more poignant than this. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Killing the Blues
Bizarre, blood soaked disturbance from Asking Alexandria on The Violence
The Boss does Elvis and Stones – Burning Love/Satisfaction
Is the tap dancer Amy? New Orleans Swinging Gypsies and Mahogany Hall Stomp
Flash Mob in a Catalonia town square with something about an Ode to Joy
Dusty is Going Back
Bob is all Tangled up in Blue
Bob Dylan’s searing account of the fitting up of Rubin Carter, aka the Hurricane
The power and piercing vulnerability that put Janis in the 27 Club are laid bare in Cry Baby
Billy Joel – aided by George, Bob, Ringo, Bruce, Mick and others – Saw Her Standing There
Joscho Stephan Trio again, now with Django Reinhardt’s Minor Swing
Getz did more than bossa nova but that gave his lyric tones full vent. This is Samba Triste
Another gem from ECM. Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet and Rising Grace
Trust me. That lead singer’s bound for greatness. 1965, Them, and Here Comes the Night
Ringo on drums, Billy Preston on keyboard, as John Winston Lennon does God
Joscho Stephan Trio do it accoustic and drop the lyrics but Jimi’s here in spirit for Hey Joe
Astonishing Rhiannon Giddens and Pretty Little Girl With the Blue Dress On
Ry Cooder, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and A Meeting by the river
French jazzman Louis Sclavis and his quartet, live in Vienna with this from Napolis Walls
Sinead’s second album opens with Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer and Feel so different
From the Chess Records vaults, Chuck Berry wants to know why Maybelline can’t be true.
Bass player Eberhard Weber’s Pendulum album is flawless. This is Delirium
Flying to New Orleans I watched The Sting. Think ragtime, Scott Joplin and The Entertainer
Sinead O’Connor, with the heartrending Paddy’s Lament
Here’s Buddy Holly to tell us, as if we needed telling, that Love is Strange
Bon Jovi at their peak at Wembley Stadium with Dry County
Underrated Canadian guitarist Jean Paul Albert. This is Busic Hall
Carolyn Wonderland, Bonnie Raitt and Ain’t Nobody’s Fault But Mine
Lee Moses: this is a song about a Bad Girl
Pink Floyd Mandolin Orchestra: Shine on Crazy Diamond
Virtuoso playing, exquisite melodies. Oud player Anouar Brahem with C’est alleurs
Great song. Great video. The Boss: Tougher than the Rest
Mr Crosby’s last Xmas saw him duet with Mr Bowie: Little Drummer Boy
David Grey with Marc Almond’s Say Hello and Wave Goodbye
Did Mozart ever put a foot wrong? Did Karajan? Here in full is Requiem in D minor
Oliver Nelson’s Blues and the Abstract Truth opens with wickedly Stolen Moments
Eric Satie on Once Upon a Time in Paris
Little Eva urges that we come on, come on and do the Locomotion with her
Amazing Amy (with Paul Weller) pleads: Don’t talk to strangers
Here from 1958, long before Eric Clapton, Johnny Otis is doing the Hand Jive
John Lennon’s post primal therapy farewell to a Mother lost in childhood.
From Officium, 1994, Jan Garbarek and Hilliard Ensemble: Parce Mihi Domine
Blatant 1942 innuendo as Rudy Vallée bids Claudette Colbert Goodnight Sweetheart
The Moody Blues arrangement was a direct steal from that of Bessie Banks’s Go Now
Jimi’s soaringly repeated riff opens and sets the tone for House Burning Down
Some say Henry VIII penned this for John Coltrane: Greensleeves
Joan Baez with a cautionary tale about one Matty Groves
A nobler cause than patriotism. Billy Bragg sings The Internationale
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly. Velvet Underground/Nico – Venus in Furs
Rossini and the Big Lucy demand we make way – that we Largo al factotum
Sledge on, Percy! Here’s Michael Bolton on When a Man Loves a Woman
Ella walks the wayward ways of a wayward town in Cole Porter’s Love for Sale
Keith Jarrett’s legendary 1975 gig in Cologne’s Opera House: the Köln Concert
Leeds shoppers ambushed by Ravel’s Bolero
Gordon Lightfoot on the night Lake Superior claimed the Edmund Fitzgerald
Springsteen’s Cautious Man was an honest man, who wanted to do what was right.
Heartwarming: the love and respect between David and Tina on Tonight
Guys, we’ve all been there. Dr Hook on gatekeeping matriarch, Sylvia’s Mother
Stevie on the subject of Superstition
Nottingham indie trio, London Grammar, with Chris Isaaks’ Wicked Game
Who’d hang around as Danish National Symphony Orchestra do Good, Bad & Ugly?
The Bangles urge us to Walk Like an Egyptian
Ill starred but seriously good Mancunian indie outfit, James. This is Sound
Like Macy G, Norah J and Ms D, David Grey never followed through: This year’s love
What do they want, guys? Cyndi lays it out for us: Girls just wanna have fun
Beck, and something about a Broken Drum
Lucinda, told she couldn’t dispose of her (dead) man in Lake Charles, did it anyway.
Pink Floyd on the subject of Us and Them
1962, Cuba Missile Crisis and a Minnesota boy in NYC is Talking WW3 Blues
Return of Cab Calloway? Lou Bega and Mambo No 5 (A little bit of)
Florence and the Machine: What the Water Gave Me.
Jeff Buckley on that dangerously seductive Lilac Wine
Jane Birkin tells Serge Gainsbourg, je t’aime. Gallantly he replies, moi non plus.
John Lennon’s sardonic ode to the Maharishi, covered by Paul Weller: Sexy Sadie
“IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole’s troubles melt like lemon drops somewhere over the rainbow
Sinatra says – and not in a shy way – “I did it My Way”
Best song ever on sex dialectics? Carol King asks, Will you still love me tomorrow?
RB Greaves covers barefoot Sandie’s first hit. Always something there to remind me
Discovered in my mid teens, I still love Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture
Undisputed king of the lutelike kora, Mali’s Toumani Diabaté live in Seville
Dylan’s fifties Minnesota high school sweetheart was a Girl from the North Country
Etta James: she did powerful, tender – and raunchy. You can leave your hat on
Who’s afraid of John Cage? He wasn’t all avant-garde for 1948’s In a Landscape
Another sultan of swing, Oscar Peterson, plays the Bach Suite
1978. Dire Straits fused Shadows with Grateful Dead to give us Sultans of Swing
Hot Club D’Europe segue from d’Orange Juice into Joseph Joseph
George Winston with The Holly and the Ivy
Mike Oldfield and crew on the best known bit of Tubular Bells: The Bell
Tine to tango. Tine Thing Helseth’s trumpet on Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango
Julian Bream with his Memories of the Alhambra
Bryan Ferry and a high octane crew, live in Lyon, suggest we Stick Together
Joan Baez with a tale of woe from Olde England – Geordie
Two of Canada’s finest. Diana Krall covers Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You
Annie Lennox, live. She wants to know Why …
After Astral Weeks, Van Morrison gave us Moondance to take us Into the Mystic
Last word in serene minimalism? That’ll be Arvo Pärt with Spiegel im Spiegel
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord! Big Youth + Proverbs 12:22 = Natty Dread
Guys, you want your cake and eat it? Better fix that Lipstick on your collar
Unsurprisingly, given rooftop venue, John Lennon pleads: Don’t Let Me Down
Chamber jazz at its ECM finest. Tord Gustavson Trio with some Deep Love
Grand Pianola from American minimalist, John Adams: On the Dominant Divide.
Terry meets Julie … What’s that you say? Greatest pop song of the 60s? Agreed
Inverted snob? False consciousness? John meant the latter in Working Class Hero
Cocteau Twins: nonsense lyrics that always sounded classy. This is Iceblink Luck
Throaty staccato from Gene Pitney in life changing motel just 24 Hours from Tulsa
UK Election 2017. It’s Captain SKA wot (nearly) done it, with Liar Liar
From banal domesticity, Ms Mercury and the girls just Want to Break Free
Creedence Clearwater Revival coming home soon – Long As I Can See the Light
Lisa Hannigan, like her compatriot Sinead, does Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U
Jimmy Dean’s 1961 tale of a man you didn’t give no lip to: Big Bad John
Marvin Gaye, live at Montreux, on how he Heard it through the Grapevine
Robert Ridley, Grandpa Elliott and musicians across the world: Dock of the Bay
Bugger Orff! Here’s Philip Pickett et al with their take on Carmina Burana
Mozart’s Turkish March meets electronica with the Tribal version
Barnsley oldsters tell Pretenders they can’t go to the gig: No brass in us pockets
Tenor Jussi Björling, baritone Robert Merrill and Bizet’s Pearl Fishers’ Duet
Glittering word play, dark misogyny. Eminem (with Dido) does Stan
Adele’s question is as old as love forgotten: Don’t you remember?
Trippy surrealism in the visuals for the fab four’s Strawberry Fields
Uganda’s Geoffrey Oryema is joined by Peter Gabriel for Land of Anaka
Malvina Reynolds, not Pete Seeger, penned this ode on bourgeois Little Boxes
How could someone this good not follow through? Macy Gray, 2000: I Try
Incontestably the greatest ever Dylan cover. Jimi’s All along the Watchtower
A taste of Cambodia, this: Khmer Surin
Lucinda Williams showing how classy Country can be. This is Greenville
From the eighties and Philip Glass’s sumptuous Songs from the Trilogy: Protest
Jake Thackray on unspeakable pagan rites at the Castleford Ladies Magical Circle
One of the lighter moments in the film Deliverance was Dueling Banjos
Dame Sutherland’s take too mannered? Try Enya’s Marble Halls
Mozart’s Figaro: Barenboim glides East-West Divan through its blazing Overture
Trane knew how to strip the syrup from melodic gems: My Favourite Things
Another old factory Mahogany Session. Colouring: Everything has Grown
High octane duo The Proclaimers can do poignant too: Act of Remembrance
We love this! Christine and the Queens dance on a block to Tilted
Strand of Oaks with Radio Kids
From sound/venue specialists Mahogany Sessions: Rag’n Bone Man, Bitter End
David’s cover of John’s Across the Universe
Janis Joplin, whose own Summertime burned brief but bright .
People bowed and prayed to the neon gods they’d made. S & G: Sound of Silence
Men at arms: the late great Leonard Cohen mines a familiar theme in The Partisan
Irish songbird Lisa Hannigan in an East London factory: Prayer for the Dying
First aired on BBC’s Peaky Blinders: Cohen’s 2016 title track, You Want it Darker
AIDS benefit, Red Hot & Blue. Debbie and Iggy do Cole Porter’s Did You Evah
John McLaughlin & Zakir Hussain with an unnamed piece from Shakti
Happened on while travelling in Rajasthan in 2016: Kalibelia folk
Wynton Marsalis pays homage to Jelly Roll Morton: New Orleans Bump
Gertrude Lawrence cuts glass on Cole Porter’s lyric genius: The Physician
George Winston’s arrangement of JS Bach’s sublime Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Brit soulster Michael Kiwanuka with the title song of 2016 release, Love and Hate
New York based Peurto Ricans, Balún, with Camila
“We’d all play like Stan Getz if we could”, said Trane. This is Samba Triste
Too didactic by half but Dory Previn had her moments: Lady with the Braid
Poetic licence in Shaffer’s take on what inspired Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria
40 years on, live in Rome, Bruce Springsteen revisits NYC Serenade
Maura O’Connell & Karen Matheson follow WB Yeats down by the Sally Gardens
Cohen rasps eloquent on the Johnny Walker wisdom running high at Closing Time
Some like it hot – not Curtis, Lemon & Monroe but 70s dubster, Big Youth
National anthem? Here’s Edith Piaf with a real one from the Paris Commune
Sonny wrote it for Cher. Nancy sang it too. Lady Gaga: Bang Bang My Baby shot ..
Unnamed Azerbaijani orchestra with catchy take on Floyd’s Brick in the Wall
Dave Brubeck Quartet with one of jazz’s best loved tunes: Take Five
Larry Williams on the legendary Chess label with My Baby’s Got Soul
The Beach Boys with – what else? – Good Vibrations
Mick & John do fun intro to a Lennon song with unusual line-up: Yer Blues
Garbarek, Metheny et al pay tribute to a bass ace: Hommage à Eberhard Weber
1960 footage of the Shadows in terrific form with Apache
In Japan it’s a recognised illness. So tell us, Zola Jesus, about Hikikomori
From Gerry Mulligan’s 1971 classic, Age of Steam: K-4 Pacific
Lemonade pies & living bra? Gotta be John Fred with Judy in Disguise
John Renbourne with Donne’s metaphysical conceits on fickle womanhood: Song
You couldn’t call it soul, you have to call it heart. Sinead says Thank you
Art Pepper, from Intensity 1960: I can’t believe you’re in love with me
Mancunian indie band James, vocalist Tim Booth hitting the high notes in Laid
Ravi Shankar’s love child, Norah J, with her seductive waltz, Come Away With Me
Amy: she told you she was trouble, you know that she’s No Good
60’s icon Julie Driscoll works wonders with Donovan’s Season of the Witch
Tepidity in love damned by Ismael Lo & Marianne Faithful: Without Blame
Penguin Cafe with Helen Lieberman’s soul-stirring cello: Prelude & Yodel
Its spit venom was the rock shock of ’65. Bob Dylan: Positively 4th Street
South Koreans Sumi Jo and Ah-Kyung with Léo Delibes’ exquisite Flower Duet
Ethiopian star Gigi sings Balewashintu
Charles Mingus, jazzman with a sense of drama. This is Pithecanthropus Erectus
Leonard Cohen is caught in the grip of an Undertow
The Animals did this better than Nina: Please Don’t Let Me be Misunderstood
Get verse 2. I don’t think the censors did! Cab Calloway and Minnie the Moocher
Alabama Shakes, led by Brittany Howard, do Hold on
Late great Eva Cassidy: secular gospel on Pete Seeger’s Had I a Golden Thread
Johnny Thunder & his ladies kick wellie into an old nursery rhyme: Loop De Loop
Alpine scene from Cabaret. 1933: a Hitler Youth sings Tomorrow Belongs to Me
Heavy metal men Disturbed with another cover of Paul Simon’s Sound of Silence
1967 saw rock masterpieces like Forever Changes. Arthur Lee: You Set the Scene
“I can hold a note longer than Caruso”. Boy Bob Dylan and Freight Train Blues
The late great David Bowie in Tokyo: Rock ‘n Roll Suicide
From The Rising, Springsteen’s album on 9/11: You’re Missing
G.G. Yunupingnu – so good he got two slots running: History (I Was Born Blind)
The incredible sound of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu: Wiyatha and Bapa
Bags of Rock ditch lyrics in barnstorming Hootenanny take on Whisky in the Jar
Thanks to Richard of Wakefield for this: Bon Iver at Air Studios
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen? When MJQ do it, it’s England’s Carol
Beyoncé does to Sex on Fire what Jimi did to All Along the Watchtower
Kings of Leon on Jools Holland Show do Sex on Fire
Garbarek, McLaughlin, Hari Prasad Chaurasia & Zakir Hussain Making Music
Steve Earl’s tale of one family defying two Prohibitions: Copperhead Road
Faure’s Requiem: lighter than Wolfie’s but, well, to die for: Sanctus, Pie Jesu ..
Hyde Park, 2012. McCartney joins Springsteen for two of the Beatles’ earliest.
Susheela Raman with a fine cover of Joan Armatrading’s Save Me
Inspired by Mikhail Sholokhov, Joan Baez asks Where have all the Flowers Gone?
Miles was so fond of this putdown he made it the opener to Kind of Blue: So What
BBC Panorama pinched the Karelia by Sibelius. This is the intermezzo.
Afroman’s morality tale is steeped in remorse, and all because he got high
Striking miners, reight brassed off tha knows, do t’ Lone Ranger.
Sonny’s Lettah from Brixton Jail brings bad news to a mother in Jamaica.
Scandi-noir fans know this one. Choir of Young Believers and their Hollow Talk
If I love you, watch out! Elina Garanca, as sex terrorist Carmen, does Habanera
Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem, La Pas du Chat Noir
Greatest rock’n roll band in the world? Gimme shelter!
Jennifer Warnes duels with Leonard Cohen on Joan of Arc
La Fiesta: Stan Getz blows for Spain as Chick Corea smokes the keyboard.
