This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

Here is some more music I thought well worth a listen.

FRANCESCA D'ADDA was born in Milan and lived most of her life in that city.

She really didn’t start composing and playing music until her husband, an architect and her cousin, died. She married again (another architect) to someone who was really well connected. That probably helped her somewhat. Her main output was music for duets and trios, mostly involving the piano, her main instrument. Today’s offering is her Trio in E-flat major, Op. 18, the first movement

♫ D'Adda - Trio in E-Flat Major Op. 18 (1)

MICHAEL BALFE was an Irish composer who lived for much of the nineteenth century

He wrote a couple of dozen operas, hundreds of songs and some cantatas. These days he’s pretty much only known for one of his operas, “The Bohemian Girl”. From that we have I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls. This is sung by the wonderful GRETA BRADMAN.

Australian readers (and some English ones as well) will recognise that surname, and yes, she is the great man’s grand-daughter.

♫ Balfe - I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls

While we’re in Australia, here is the wonderfully named Van Diemen's Band. That sounds like the name of a folk group, but they’re a classical ensemble led by Catherine Jones. They play a composition by NICOLA FIORENZA, who was born in Naples and was a violinist and composer around the end of the Baroque period and the beginning of the Classical.

The piece I’ve chosen is his Cello Concerto in F major, the fourth movement.

♫ Fiorenza - Cello Concerto in F major (4)

Continuing this theme for a bit longer, a while ago Australian pianist Gerrard Willems recorded all of BEETHOVEN’s piano sonatas and piano concertos. I produced a column on it at the time called The Beethoven Obsession.

From that collection here is the most famous of them all, the Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat, Op 73 called “Emperor”, the second movement. To my ears it sounds as if Leonard Bernstein listened to it before he wrote the music for “West Side Story”.

♫ Beethoven - Piano Concerto No5 E flat Op73 'Emperor' (2)

We've had the real Beethoven, now for the pretend Beethoven. I'm talking about FRIEDRICH WITT.

Fred was born the same year as the great man but outlived him by nine years. One of his symphonies was the “Jena Symphony”, so-called because it was discovered in that city and was initially attributed to Beethoven because of the similarity to his early ones. Someone else found another copy a couple of years later with Fred’s name on it, and there goes that theory.

It’s still the same piece of music but, hey, it’s not Beethoven. The same sort of thing happens with paintings. Anyway, this isn’t that one, it’s his Symphony No.6 in A minor (known as Alla Turca), the third movement.

♫ Witt - Symphony No.6 in A minor (3)

FRANTIŠEK JIRÁNEK was a Czech composer of the Baroque era. I could only find one supposed picture of him, and it was very dubious, so I didn’t use it.

Fran almost certainly was a pupil of Vivaldi as he was sent to Venice to improve his musical skills. After that he returned to Prague for a while until he left for Dresden where he was employed by the Prime Minister. He remained in that city for the rest of his life.

The influence of Vivaldi is obvious in his works, one of which is his Concerto for Oboe, Strings and Basso continuo in B flat major, Jk 17, the first movement.

♫ Jiránek - Concerto for Oboe Strings and Basso continuo in B flat major Jk 17 (1)

In spite of her name MARIANNA MARTINES was born and lived most of her life in Vienna – her father was from Spain.

Upstairs in the apartment building where the family lived was a struggling young musician called Joseph Haydn. Marianna became a superb pianist and apparently a beautiful singer. Many of her works feature vocal performances.

As she got older, Marianna and her sister (neither of whom married) hosted musical soirees at their home that attracted many distinguished guests, including Haydn and Mozart. Her compositions were well regarded in her time, and it’s believed that Mozart modeled a couple of his choral works on hers.

Here is the first movement of her Overture in C Major. I always thought overtures were a single piece. I guess I was wrong.

♫ Martines - Overture in C Major (1)

Those with long memories of such things will now probably have a flashback to when they were young and used to watch TOM AND JERRY cartoons, I know I did.

This next piece was featured prominently in one of them. Indeed, it was the basis for the whole cartoon. I looked it up on Youtube, and it’s still a lot of fun. The piece of music I have in mind is by FRANZ LISZT.

It’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor, S. 244. In this case it’s a piano only version arranged by Vladimir Horowitz and played by one of the finest pianists around, Lang Lang.

♫ Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 In C Sharp Minor S.244 (Lang Lang)

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN was the most prolific major composer in history.

He wrote thousands of compositions, and I’m not talking about little things – some went on for hours. He was good friends with both Handel and Bach, indeed he was god father to one of Bach’s sons (who was named after him).

With all those compositions you can bet he came up with some interesting instruments to compose for, otherwise it would have got really tedious.

We have one of those today, his Sonata for two chalumeaux in F major, the third movement (or maybe the fourth, there seems to be a one and a halfth movement for some reason).

A chalumeau is the forerunner of the modern clarinet. It started out as a folk instrument, but composers started using it due to its mellow sound.

♫ Telemann - Sonata for two chalumeaux in F major (3)

MICHAEL HAYDN had the bad luck of having an older brother who was the best known composer in Europe at the time, also one of the best.

Michael was no slouch at the composing business such that quite a few of his compositions were attributed to big brother Joseph for decades, centuries even.

It’s only with modern scholarship that they have been restored to their rightful owner. I don’t know if this is one of those, his Horn Concerto in D Major, P. 134, the first movement.

♫ M Haydn - Horn Concerto in D Major P. 134 (1)

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

This is not an overview of DUKE ELLINGTON’s career; that would take several columns. Instead I’ve selected mostly small groups, rather than his orchestra because that’s my preferred option.

Also, most of the selections feature other famous jazz musicians, so if you like piano jazz in small combos, this is for you.

Duke made one album with COLEMAN HAWKINS, but what a fine album it was. It has the prosaic title “Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins”. This was from 1962 and it’s surprising it took so long as Duke had been asking Hawk to collaborate for a couple of decades or so.

One of the tracks is a reworking of Duke’s Mood Indigo.

♫ Mood Indigo

I always think of TERESA BREWER as a fifties pop singer, but there was more to her than that. In 1973 she recorded with Duke in what turned out to be his last recording session. That album is called “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing”.

From that we have Satin Doll, a song Duke wrote with Billy Strayhorn and Johnny Mercer.

♫ Satin Doll

Probably the most famous song associated with the DUKE is Take The A Train. It was written by Billy Strayhorn, a regular composer and arranger attached to the orchestra. The most famous version was recorded in 1941, but the one I’m featuring is just Duke with a drummer (Ben Riley) and bass player (Larry Gales).

♫ Take The A Train

Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me was written as an instrumental by Duke back in 1940. Later Bob Russell wrote words to it and it’s been recorded by just about every good singer around (and a few not so good ones, I imagine).

One of the best of those is AL HIBBLER. Al is generally considered the finest male singer who performed regularly with Duke’s orchestra. He later sang some of the finest ballads in the fifties

♫ Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me

As with Coleman Hawkins, JOHN COLTRANE only made one album with Duke. That’s a real shame as this is a really fine record, and I suggest that you look out for it if you’re interested in jazz. It’s another with a prosaic title: “Duke Ellington & John Coltrane”. From that album here is Stevie.

♫ Stevie

C Jam Blues is another of Duke’s famous tunes. Everyone who is anyone in the world of jazz has recorded it. It’s usually an instrumental, but several folks put words to it and turned it into a song.

ALICE BABS, who was Swedish, and the Duke recorded an album together (“Serenade to Sweden”) which featured the tune (although the words aren’t readily discernable). To my ears Alice listened closely to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

♫ 'C' Jam Blues

Unlike a couple of others in today’s column, JOHNNY HODGES and Duke Ellington made a couple of albums together. The one we’re interested in is called “Back to Back”.

Johnny is particularly soulful on this record and the backing band is first class - that’s Harry Edison playing the trumpet, Less Spann on guitar, Jo Jones on drums and Sam Jones playing bass. They play the old tune. Beal Street Blues.

♫ Beal Street Blues

“Black, Brown and Beige” was an extended jazz suite that Duke wrote and he and his orchestra performed it Carnegie Hall in 1943. Besides the recording of that concert, Duke also recorded the entire work in the studio with MAHALIA JACKSON on vocals.

There were a couple of alternate takes of some of the tracks that were included on the album. From that here is Part IV, also known as Come Sunday.

♫ Black Brown and Beige ~ Part IV (aka ''Come Sunday'')

Duke gets a bit more avant-garde than usual when he teams up with CHARLES MINGUS and MAX ROACH. It almost crosses over into free jazz. There were no rehearsals and everything on the album was the first take.

They were contracted to record a second album but tensions were so fraught among the musicians that it didn’t eventuate. From that first and only album here is the title track, Money Jungle.

♫ Money Jungle

I’ll end with DUKE on his own – you can’t get a smaller group than that. He plays Solitude.

♫ Solitude

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

1956 was in the grip of the first flush of rock and roll, however, most of the songs today don’t reflect that because other sorts of music were still dominant at the time.

In spite of what I just said, I’ll start with one of the creators of rock music. If only BO DIDDLEY could have copyrighted his guitar style and the groove he created he could have made a fortune as much of the music of the sixties was based on what he created.

The Rolling Stones especially built their early career on Bo's style of playing. You have to admire Bo who made a career performing songs named after himself. This isn’t one of them, it’s Who Do You Love?

♫ Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love

EDDIE FISHER had a couple of hits this year.

The really forgettable Dungaree Doll was one of them, but we used that one in a previous version of this year. Another one, equally as “good” is Cindy, Oh Cindy.

♫ Eddie Fisher - Cindy Oh Cindy

The song Sixteen Tons was a double crossover hit – it crossed over from 1955 to 1956 and also crossed over from the country charts to the pop. The man responsible was TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD.

Rather surprisingly for a singer from both genres, Ernie was a classically trained singer. Also unusual for a country song, the clarinet is featured prominently.

♫ Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons

If I mention BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS, I imagine that there is one song that springs to mind.

That wasn’t his only hit; there were quite a few others. One of those, and probably his second most remembered song, is See You Later Alligator. The song was written by Bobby Charles, a New Orleans songwriter and occasional singer. He wrote quite a number of hits for performers from that city (although Bill isn’t one of those).

♫ Bill Haley - See You Later Alligator

FRANKIE LAINE claimed his was a jazz singer, not a pop performer. He made a few jazz albums and based on those he’s right about that. However, most of us remember him as a pop performer, especially singing cowboy songs.

One of those is certainly Moonlight Gambler, just because of the backing rather than the words.

♫ Frankie Laine - Moonlight Gambler

The song Green Door has been recorded a few times over the years. It was written by Hutch Davie and Marvin Moore. It first saw light of day in a version by JIM LOWE.

Jim released a bunch of records over the years, but none sold anywhere near as many copies as Green Door. There are many theories about the club mentioned in the song. Marvin has said that it was about a club in Dallas. He even mentioned the city in an early draft of the song.

♫ Jim Lowe - The Green Door

JAMES BROWN seems out of time – either a throwback to an earlier time, or anticipating music a decade or more in the future.

I’ve always thought of him as a performer from later decades, but here he is right in the middle of 1956 with Please, Please, Please, one of his earliest records.

♫ James Brown - Please Please Please

As a complete contrast, FATS DOMINO is right at home this year.

Fats had had hit records from 1949 and continued doing that to the rest of the decade and beyond. Here is an oldie, but still a goodie, Blueberry Hill.

♫ Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill

THE PLATTERS were easily the finest Doowop/pop/rock singing group of the decade. Only The Drifters would give them a run for their money.

Although not their first hit, The Great Pretender is probably their most memorable. They were blessed with one of the finest singers in the business, Tony Williams.

♫ The Platters - The Great Pretender

PATTI PAGE dominated the charts in the fifties.

She sang what was then considered throwaway pop songs, but 60 years later are considered classics of the form (at least by me). One of those is Allegheny Moon.

♫ Patti Page - Allegheny Moon

This was the year that ELVIS really hit it big.

He had half a dozen chart toppers, starting with Heartbreak Hotel. Besides that one, there were others you know, perhaps including I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.

♫ Elvis - I Want You I Need You I Love You

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

After school and university where he learned and sang folk songs, PETER YARROW started performing “professionally” at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. I used quotes as they weren’t paid but passed around the hat.

By this stage he had acquired a manager, the now famous Albert Grossman who suggested Peter should be part of a group. Albert knew MARY TRAVERS whose singing impressed Peter. Albert said that she was great if you could get her to work. I guess they managed that.

Mary was friends with a comedian named NOEL STOOKEY who was performing at the Gaslight. They chatted with him and although he knew music and played a little, it was in the fields of jazz and classical. He didn’t know any folk songs.

The others taught him some and after deciding to use Noel’s middle name of Paul, a group was born.

PETER PAUL & MARY became the most popular of the folk-inspired groups of the sixties.

Besides the folk songs, the group performed the works of then unknown, but up and coming, songwriters like Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver and others. They did more than anyone else to get those names into the purview of the general public.

One of those they featured was Gary Shearston. Gary was already an established folk singer in Australia when PP&M heard the song of his called Sometime Lovin'. It appeared on the album just called “Album”.

♫ Sometime Lovin'

We’ll have a couple of the songwriters mentioned above, starting with John Denver. It was through PP&M’s version of Leaving on a Jet Plane that I first became aware of John. It certainly wasn’t the last time.

♫ Leaving on a Jet Plane

Bob Dylan would certainly have been the finest songwriter in the second half the twentieth century without being kick started by recordings of his songs by PP&M and Joan Baez, but they certainly started his career a bit earlier.

One of those early songs is Don't Think Twice, It's Alright. Bob was being his usual enigmatic (and perhaps spiteful) self when he wrote this one.

♫ Don't Think Twice It's Alright

Otto Preminger wanted a theme song for his film “Hurry Sundown”, so he contacted Earl Robinson to write one. Earl called on Yip Harburg to help him. In the end Otto didn’t use the song but PP&M’s arranger heard the song and got them to record it. Theirs was the first version of Hurry Sundown.

♫ Hurry Sundown

PP&M were the first to record the songs of Laura Nyro, another singer/songwriter. One of her songs they recorded before anyone else is And When I Die. Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, said that Blood Sweat and Tears did it better, but our group today did it first.

♫ And When I Die

Gordon Lightfoot’s version of For Lovin' Me will always be the definitive one. However, PP&M did a find version and kick started Gordie’s career south of the 49th parallel.

♫ For Lovin' Me

Here is another song of Bob’s. It’s from the time he was holed up in Woodstock after the motor cycle accident that broke his neck. Also present was his backing group who eventually became better known as The Band. They made music together in a big pink house they rented for that purpose (and for some of the group to live in).

They played music for their own enjoyment, but also wrote songs that they, and especially Bob, thought would be suitable for others to record. One of those is Too Much of Nothing, which he sent to PP&M.

♫ Too Much Of Nothing

Before there was Bob Dylan writing songs there was Tom Paxton. He was the original singer/songwriter in the New York folk scene to do that. His songs were so good that many think some of them are traditional, but they’re not. One such is The Last Thing on My Mind. We’re not playing his version today, but I urge you to seek it out if you haven’t heard it.

♫ The Last Thing on My Mind

Yet another singer/songwriter, the one who started it all for the folk boom of the sixties, Woody Guthrie. His song is Deportee, just as relevant today as when it was written many decades ago.

Today’s version is taken from the album “Lifelines” where our group got together late in their career with a bunch of other people. Singing on the song are Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman (both from The Weavers), Tom Paxton, Richie Havens, Dave Van Ronk, Odetta and John Sebastian. Now there’s a backing group.

♫ Deportee

A second song from John Denver, and this is one where the title doesn’t appear in the lyrics – something Bob used to do quite often. The song is For Baby (For Bobbie). Mary sings this one on her own, and splendidly at that.

♫ For Baby (For Bobbie)

A songwriter we haven’t encountered yet in this column is Fred Neil. He is most famous for writing Everybody’s Talking but PP&M didn’t record that one. Instead we have his next best known song (amongst those who know these sorts of things) is The Other Side of This Life.

♫ The Other Side of This Life

I’ll end with another Gordon Lightfoot song, from very early in his career. The A.M. and I both like this one, but we are very nitpicking about some of the words of the song. I like the one Gordie recorded first, she is in favor of a later version (which even Gordie performed later).

The song is Early Mornin' Rain, and this is the later version.

♫ Early Mornin' Rain

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

At times like this we need all the friends we can get, quite a few of whom these days will be on Zoom or Skype. Similarly, for a few years after I discovered Time Goes By and when I got this gig, I could count Ronni as the best friend I had never met.

That all changed of course when Norma, the Assistant Musicologist and I visited Oregon (a couple of times) and stayed with her in Lake Oswego.

Here are some friends songs.

RAL DONNER was cursed by having a voice that was uncannily like Elvis’s.

I bet all those Elvis impersonators wish they could claim the same thing. Ral was never an impersonator, indeed he really hated it when it was pointed out to him (which was quite often). See what you think when he sings Girl of my Best Friend.

♫ Ral Donner - Girl Of My Best Friend

MIKE MCCLELLAN would be a super-star if he lived in a bigger country. Well, he is here in Australia.

Mike recorded several albums in the seventies and eighties, but they have been deleted. There are a couple of collection CDs as well as several more recent albums, but it’s still difficult to source his early music unless you have the vinyls.

From that early period, here is a song he still performs quite often, Lovers Never Wind up Friends.

♫ Mike McClellan - Lovers Never Wind Up Friends

Quite coincidentally, I discovered Larry McMurtry’s book, All My Friends are Going to be Strangers, around the same time that I first heard MERLE HAGGARD perform (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.

I assume for Merle there was a bit of tongue in cheek going on as his backing band was called The Strangers.

♫ Merle Haggard - (My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers

After his initial success as a pop star and member of a Doowop group DION DiMucci turned into a fine blues and folk performer.

One of the first albums of his that demonstrated that was “Sit Down Old Friend”. Here is the song Sit Down Old Friend.

♫ Dion - Sit Down Old Friend

PERCY SLEDGE is probably best known for one song and what a great song that is. It’s not the one we have today, however.

There was a lot more to him than that one. Besides being one of the finest soul singers, he was also a bluesman of note as this shows on My Old Friend the Blues, from the album with the same name.

♫ Percy Sledge - My Old Friend The Blues

On the surface. JIMMY BUFFETT seems to be the friendliest musician around. I hope he’s really like that.

From one of his early good albums (most of his early albums were good), “Son of a Son of a Sailor” Jimmy tells us about his African Friend.

♫ Jimmy Buffett - African Friend

By far the most critically successful and popular band in Australia in the seventies was SKYHOOKS.

They liked to dress up in outlandish costumes but their musicianship was impeccable. Besides that they, thanks to main songwriter Greg Macainsh, addressed issues about Australian suburban life, particularly Melbourne whence they hailed.

The song All My Friends Are Getting Married is more laid back then their usual fare.

♫ Skyhooks - All My Friends Are Getting Married

From easily their finest studio album, “American Beauty”, the GRATEFUL DEAD want to be a Friend of the Devil.

Of course, although they only recorded two or three good studio albums, their milieu was live performances at which they excelled. As they are no more, it’s good that there are a number of fine live recordings. “A number”? I wouldn’t be surprised if every concert they ever performed is out there somewhere.

Anyway, here’s the song, with Phil Lesh playing bass as the lead instrument.

♫ Grateful Dead - Friend Of The Devil

HERMAN'S HERMITS came from Manchester (not far from Liverpool) at the height of Beatlemania.

Unlike most of their contemporaries, they were a straight pop band and had a clean cut image – they didn’t frighten parents the way other bands at the time did. In spite of that (or maybe because of it) they produced really fine pop songs, most of which still hold up today, including My Sentimental Friend.

♫ Herman's Hermits - My Sentimental Friend

The members of the NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND must be friends as they’ve been together with little change to their lineup since the sixties.

They have even recorded a song along that line called Partners, Brothers and Friends. Here it is.

♫ NGDB - Partners Brothers And Friends

Back around 1970, I discovered a record by SPIDER JOHN KOERNER and WILLIE MURPHY.

This is a really wonderful album and in keeping with the theme of the column, my friends thought so too. The album is called “Running Jumping Standing Still” and I now have it on CD so it might still be around somewhere.

It’s the only thing they did together and it’s a collection folk-blues, ragtime piano, country and even a little jazz thrown in for good measure. In keeping with our category, their song is Friends and Lovers. Spider John sings the lead on it.

♫ Spider John Koerner & Willie Murphy - Friends and Lovers

There is one song I’m sure you were all expecting, but as you can see, I didn’t include it. I expect that there will be comments about that.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

We are all still locked up at home (okay, maybe we can get out for various things, but still). I really want to thank these and other musicians who make this a bit less grim.

Several of the DOOBIE BROTHERS reunite (virtually) to perform their most famous song, and one that’s really appropriate for this column Listen to the Music.

Alas, we can’t have John Lennon performing his most famous (solo) song. In his place here is STEPHEN RIDLEY. Stephen performs Imagine (and bits of other songs) in a (nearly) deserted London railway station. This piano has been used for many musical videos from back when people could congregate.

Here is a video I had originally had in the first of these columns. It got the flick when I found other songs by both these performers. It’s still worth a listen. It’s by BRIAN MAY (guitarist from Queen, of course) and SHUBA. They perform a Queen song, written by Freddie Mercury and first performed by him, Love of My Life.

The CELLISTS OF THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA could easily have fitted into the classical version of “Together at Home”, but that was full, so I decided to include them here. It’s one of J.S. Bach’s most famous tunes, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, from his cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147”.

PAUL KELLY is one of the world’s finest singer/songwriters. Here he is with JESS HITCHCOCK. Jess is an up and coming singer, if you can call 10 years as a singer, songwriter, teacher, backing singer, composer as “up and coming”. Together they perform one of Paul’s songs, Every Day my Mother’s Voice.

It was JOHN FOGERTY who was my inspiration to produce these columns in the first place – his were the first of these videos I found. He performs with his kids, a daughter who usually plays guitar, but she’s playing drums on this clip, and two sons who play bass and guitar. Not to forget the family dog.

That means today’s instrumentation matches that of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Here’s the Fogerty family with Tombstone Shadow. This might be the best garage band ever.

IAN MOSS was the guitarist and one of the songwriters for iconic Australian rock group Cold Chisel. JIMMY BARNES was the charismatic singer for the group whose vocal style made Joe Cocker sound like Pavarotti.

On this clip there are some others, including Jimmy’s daughter Mahalia Barnes singing harmony. The song is When the War is Over.

DELTA GOODREM is often described as “The Voice of Australia”. It’s a pity she’s not widely known elsewhere so I’ll do my little bit to help that along. She performs the quintessential Australian song Down Under, first performed and written by Men at Work.

Speaking of Men at Work, here is the main man from that group, COLIN HAY. He’s a solo performer these days, although he often calls on a couple of friends to join him. He does that today when he performs the song Ringo Starr made popular, Photograph. Ringo knew what he was talking about as he was a photographer of some note.

Hands up all those who don’t remember PETER FRAMPTON from the seventies. Okay, a few of you, but back then he was everywhere with one of the biggest albums of all time. You know the one, at least those who didn’t put their hands up. Here’s another Ringo song, It Don’t Come Easy.

KRISTEN MOSCA channels Scott Joplin with her tune, Quarantine Rag. She says that it’s her first original rag, and based on the way it sounds, she has a real future in this genre. Scott is smiling down on her and the rest of us.

I was going to end there but thanks to Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, I found this one, and it’s an appropriate way to end. Here is ARLO GUTHRIE performing the old Stephen Foster song, Hard Times Come Again No More.

Arlo has the help of Jim Wilson on piano, Vanessa Bryan as co-lead singer, the great Stanley Clarke playing bass, a terrific choir and others who are mentioned at the end of the video. It’s amazing how relevant a 160-plus year old song can be.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

We’ve been rich, just last week, and now we’re poor. I don’t know what happened, something to do with the economy, I imagine. Today we have the poor songs.

I’ll start with the poor boy who became very rich indeed, ELVIS.

Elvis performed the song Poor Boy in his first film, Love Me Tender. Unlike later films, there weren’t enough songs to release them as a soundtrack album. Instead they were released as an EP (remember EPs?).

Neither the song nor the EP went to the top of the charts. That was about the last time that happened with Elvis. The song is Poor Boy.

♫ Elvis - Poor Boy

JOHNNY RIVERS isn’t as well known today as many of his ilk.

He had several chart topping songs in the sixties and seventies and also wrote a bunch of really good songs. One of those is Poor Side of Town that was covered by Mel Tormé and Ray Charles amongst others.

♫ Johnny Rivers - Poor Side of Town

On his “John Wesley Harding” album, Bob Dylan had a song called I Pity the Poor Immigrant. JUDY COLLINS recorded that same song, but truncated the title to Poor Immigrant.

This was from her album “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”, probably the most country sounding of hers, but not really a country record.

♫ Judy Collins - Poor Immigrant

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL didn’t get the respect of some of their colleagues when they were first popular.

That was probably because they produced well-crafted songs that the general public really liked, and bought by the millions. However, time is the great arbiter and their songs are still admired and loved today, unlike the 20 minute noodlings their original critics used to indulge in.

Their song is Down on the Corner, which is about Willy and the Poor Boys, from the album that shares that name.

♫ Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner

The EVERLY BROTHERS sing an absolute tale of woe about their girlfriend.

It seems that our lads took Jenny to a party that got out of hand. She was assaulted, the cops were called, they left her in the lurch and Poor Jenny was banged up in the clink. They don’t seem very contrite; I don’t think this relationship will continue.

♫ Everly Brothers - Poor Jenny

From around about the same time, there’s no mistaking LITTLE RICHARD on this song.

However, it isn’t one of his usual frantic songs. Well, not entirely. It’s a mid-tempo (for him) song called Poor Boy Paul.

♫ Little Richard - Poor Boy Paul

There’s probably an interesting story behind GORDON LIGHTFOOT’s contribution today. That’s because with Gordie there’s always a story that leads to his songs.

This one is called Poor Little Allison.

♫ Gordon Lightfoot - Poor Little Allison

Linda Ronstadt had a huge hit with the song Poor, Poor Pitiful Me. This was written by WARREN ZEVON and he recorded it first.

This was from his early self-titled album that had many of his best songs on, many covered by Linda (and other lesser musicians). Here’s what Warren makes of it.

♫ Warren Zevon - Poor Poor Pitiful Me

VAN MORRISON teams up with TAJ MAHAL on an album where Van rerecords some of his songs helped by other singers.

That album is called “Duets - Re-Working the Catalogue”, a fairly obvious title for such an endeavour. Of course, anything by Van is worth the cost, and if we have Taj along as well, that’s a bonus. They perform How Can a Poor Boy.

♫ Van Morrison - How Can a Poor Boy

I always liked RICKY NELSON. I still do.

He had the advantage over other similar performers early on in that he was on television each week, always ending the program with a song. An added bonus was that he had the best lead guitarist around at the time, James Burton, playing for him. Here’s Ricky with Poor Little Fool, written by Sharon Sheeley.

♫ Ricky Nelson - Poor Little Fool

I’ll go out with a blaze of glory with the lesser known and underappreciated blues man JOHN PRIMER.

Before going out on his own, John was a guitarist for the great Muddy Waters. You really had to be good to get that gig as Muddy could get anyone he wanted by the time that John played with him. Here’s John with Poor Man Blues.

♫ John Primer - Poor Man Blues

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

We have a couple of columns about rich and poor. Today it’s rich songs. I imagine that most people would prefer to be rich but alas, most people don’t get to be that way. We can appreciate rich songs though.

SAFFIRE, THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN hung up their guitars, pianos and basses in 2009.

Unfortunately, they won’t be getting back together as founder member Ann Rabson has since died. We still have their records though and really good ones they are too. To kick off the rich list here they are performing The Richest Guy In The Graveyard.

♫ Saffire The Uppity Blues Women - The Richest Guy In The Graveyard

Here is an old song by TONY BENNETT and it’s one of his biggest hits.

Given the topic most of you will figure out that the song is Rags to Riches. The young Tony’s voice was in terrific shape when he recorded this one.

♫ Tony Bennett - Rags To Riches

The next song was written by Mississippi John Hurt, and he does a fine version of it. However, I think it should be performed by a woman, and the one I have in mind is MARIA MULDAUR.

John had a really lovely laid-back style of guitar playing and Maria employed her old friend John Sebastian to emulate him on her record. This is one of my favourite of Maria songs that’s not on her first two albums.

Mississippi John called his song variously Rich Woman Blues or Richland Woman Blues. Maria used the latter name.

♫ Maria Muldaur - Richland Woman Blues

The first song I thought of for this category is by DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES.

It’s another big hit, one of their biggest. It’s also something of an earworm, or at least it is for me. See what you think, it’s Rich Girl.

♫ Hall & Oates - Rich Girl

During his lifetime there was not another cooler performer than TONY JOE WHITE.

He could entertain an audience with just his guitar and himself singing, I know because I’ve been there. Alas, he died a couple of years ago so you won’t be able to experience his magic if you haven’t already. There are still records though, and videos.

There were few more enjoyable performers than Tony Joe in my opinion. Let’s hear Rich Woman Blues.

♫ Tony Joe White - Rich Woman Blues

PATSY CLINE could have fitted in both rich and poor columns with her song. It was just a matter of how the songs panned out.

So, here she is trying to decide which one to go for. Listening to the song, I found that she thinks she’d go for poor, so perhaps I put her in the wrong category. It doesn’t matter, any appearance of Patsy is fine by me. A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold).

♫ Patsy Cline - A Poor Man's Roses (Or A Rich Man's Gold)

Many, many years ago I went to a one man show by Nehemiah Persoff. He talked about his life, his acting and many other things. It was an extraordinary performance.

He mentioned the stage show “Fiddler on the Roof”. If I Were a Rich Man was a song from the musical. I don’t have Nehemiah performing it (if he ever did). In his place I’ve found a rather good version by ANTHONY NEWLEY.

Anthony was the all round performer – singer (many of his songs hit the charts), songwriter (quite a few film scores), actor (more than 50 films) and writing plays, some of which he performed in.

I liked the line in the song that seems just relevant today: “It won’t make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong, when you’re rich, they think you really know.”

♫ Anthony Newley - If I Were a Rich Man

I mentioned above what a great live performer Tony Joe White was. In concert there was one that might just have been better. If any of you, like me, had the pleasure to see MARTY ROBBINS live you are blessed.

We all know what a fine singer he was, possibly the best in country music, but that’s not all he sang. He could do anything as far as I’m concerned. His contribution to today’s topic is Little Rich Girl.

♫ Marty Robbins - Little Rich Girl

THE BLACK SORROWS is the most successful of the several bands founded by Australia’s living national musical treasure, Joe Camilleri.

The Sorrows started as a reggae band but expanded to become a rhythm & blues, rock & roll and pop band. They could play anything really, with a bunch of superb musicians and singers. I’ll let you consider who The Richest Man in the World is.

♫ Black Sorrows - The Richest Man In The World

The DESERT ROSE BAND was essentially a vehicle for Herb Pederson (from The Dillards) and Chris Hillman (from The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers).

These days they don’t even bother with the band, they perform as an acoustic duo, and mighty fine they are. However, back when they were still a band, here is For the Rich Man.

♫ Desert Rose Band - For the Rich Man

C. J. CHENIER is a zydeco musician; he plays the accordion and sings. He’s the son of the most famous zydeco accordionist, Clifton Chenier.

C.J. was brought up in Texas and was more into jazz and funk. Rebelling against his dad, I suspect. However, over time he absorbed his father’s music and became a master of that style of music, bringing his own musical influences into it. Here he performs Richest Man.

♫ C. J. Chenier - Richest Man

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

Allen Toussaint may be the best unknown songwriter of the last 70 years. Most of you will know these songs, but perhaps not realise that they were all written by him.

Besides being a songwriter, Allen was also a superb New Orleans pianist – that’s really a tautology as every New Orleans pianist is superb. He was also an arranger of note as well as a record producer and occasional performer himself.

He was characteristically modest about his talents, but he really didn’t need to be.

Allen produced most of the great New Orleans records, including those of The Meters, Dr John and all the ones mentioned below. He was also in demand by rock and pop musicians, such as Elvis Costello, Boz Scaggs, Robert Palmer, B.J. Thomas, Willie DeVille and many more.

Allen performed regularly at local haunts around the city as well as more formal concerts further afield.

He died in Spain in 2015 after performing a concert there. He was 77.

Coincidentally, CHRIS KENNER was born in Kenner, Louisiana.

It’s not just a town full of Kenners, it’s quite large (for Louisiana). He started singing gospel music in a choir and then worked as a longshoreman. Upon relocating to New Orleans, Chris encountered Allen and they formed a bit of a songwriting partnership.

One of the songs they wrote together is I Like It Like That, that Chris took to the pointy end of the charts.

♫ Chris Kenner - I Like It Like That

There are several performers with whom Allen had a long association, one of whom is LEE DORSEY.

In spite of having several hits over the years, all written and produced by Allen, Lee didn’t give up his day job of running his own auto repair business. Of course, he took time off now and then to tour and record, but he always had that to fall back on.

One of his biggest songs was Working in the Coal Mine.

♫ Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coal Mine

And now for something completely different from all the rest of today’s music. Here is AL HIRT.

Not completely different, Al was born and bred in New Orleans, as is the case of a lot of the musos today. It’s really that he is an instrumentalist and doesn’t sing on records, at least not on this one.

Oh, one day when he was having lunch with Ennis Marsalis (Miles Davis was there too) he gave the really young Wynton his first trumpet. This is Al’s biggest hit, Java.

♫ Al Hirt - Java

ERNIE K-DOE began his recording career under his birth name of Earnest Kador.

He met with little success until he changed his name. I don’t know if that was the reason, but he certainly hit the charts with his nom de plume (nom de recording, perhaps).

One of the songs that became a hit with his new name is Mother-In-Law, a song that Allen’s mother-in-law was none too happy about. That is, until the royalty cheques started rolling in and she changed her mind completely.

♫ Ernie K-Doe - Mother-In-Law

A few performers have tackled the song Play Something Sweet, the pick of the bunch is MARIA MULDAUR.

It was on her second solo album, “Waitress in a Donut Shop”, a terrific album, only overshadowed by her first. Three Dog Night had a hit with the song and others, notably Levon Helm and Allen himself, have recorded good versions. No one beats Maria’s though.

♫ Maria Muldaur - Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)

BENNY SPELLMAN was the first (but far from the last) to record the song, Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette). It’s a staple for soul, country, blues and even pop performers.

Benny later was first cab off the rank with another much-covered song of Allen's, Fortune Teller (not included today). Benny later retired from the music biz and worked in the beer industry. I won't say a word.

♫ Benny Spellman - Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)

Allen had a long association with THE BAND.

He did the horn arrangements for the concerts they gave in New York at New Year’s 1971 into 1972 that were recorded and released as the double album “Rock of Ages”. Most notably he arranged the music for their final concert known as “The Last Waltz”.

Some of the songs on “Cahoots” were arranged by him and The Band performed his song Holy Cow on “Moondog Matinee”. The song was first recorded by Lee Dorsey.

♫ The Band - Holy Cow

I don’t feature MILLIE JACKSON nearly enough.

I think it’s because many of her songs run into others making them double or triple songs (or more on some of her live albums). It’s often hard to split them and make them sound okay. That happened with the song today, but fortunately she recorded it several times so there is a standalone version.

The song is If You're Not Back in Love by Monday. Incidentally, she’s not related to the family of musicians with the same surname.

♫ Millie Jackson - If You're Not Back in Love By Monday

Allen’s music is not restricted to soul and R&B performers. His influence covers most styles of music. I’ve mentioned several alternate versions of some of the songs I’ve included, and here’s one well away from the others, GLEN CAMPBELL.

Glen heard Allen’s version of the song Southern Nights and it struck a chord with him. Allen wrote it about visiting relatives in the backwoods of Louisiana and it reminded Glen of his growing up. He took the song to the top of the charts.

♫ Glen Campbell - Southern Nights

IRMA THOMAS is generally known as the soul queen of New Orleans.

Although not as well known as her contemporaries Etta James and Aretha Franklin, she’s certainly their equal. Her songs have been used in films and TV series, particularly the one we have today, It's Raining.

♫ Irma Thomas - It's Raining

We have ERNIE K-DOE again because I really wanted to include this song, and his was the best (and first recorded) version.

It’s a little bit silly, but I really like it. Ernie boasts of his new (or not so new, if you listen to the words) gal, but won’t tell anyone who she is. The song is A Certain Girl.

♫ Ernie K-Doe - A Certain Girl

You could have guaranteed that the Neville Brothers, either as a group or individually, would be present today. I listened to all their recordings of his songs (that made for a pleasurable time) and decided to use AARON NEVILLE quite early in his career.

Okay, not all that early, it’s from 1973. However, this was before the brothers organised themselves into the great band they later became. The song in question is Hercules.

♫ Aaron Neville - Hercules

We’ve had everyone else, here’s the man himself ALLEN TOUSSAINT.

He performs Just a Kiss Away, not to be confused with the Rolling Stones’ song with a similar title.

♫ Allen Toussaint - Just A Kiss Away

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

I’ve previously published two columns with musicians at home performing during lockdown. Here’s another one, this time featuring classical musicians. It would be considerably harder for them as there are generally quite a few more to corral. The ones below do a good job though.

The self-titled JERUSALEM STREET ORCHESTRA play the first two thirds or so of the first movement of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K 525, which technically means “a little serenade”, not what most people (including me) think it means.

The Jerusalem Street Orchestra doesn’t seem to be actually out on the street, they’re safely tucked up at home.

Famed pianist LANG LANG is joined by his wife GINA ALICE REDLINGER to play the Chopin Nocturne op.9 No.1. Gina is an excellent pianist in her own right and I wish this had been longer.

Here is part of an even more famous symphony from the most famous composer who ever lived, Beethoven. Musicians from the ROTTERDAM PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA play the famous “Ode to Joy”, a small part of the fourth movement of his Symphony No 9.

In spite of its seemingly frivolous name, the ARCTIC PHILHARMONIC is a real orchestra based in Norway. Naturally they play something from Norway’s most famous composer, Edvard Grieg. That something is the “Preludium”, which they subtitle “á la Quarantine”, from his Holberg Suite.

The next is a made-up group calling themselves THE SWAN PROJECT, consisting of 24 cellists in 24 different cities around the world, accompanied by Inah Chiu on the piano.

The cellists don’t play together, they are featured separately via some impressive editing. They perform “The Swan” from the suite, The Carnival of the Animals composed by Camille Saint-Saëns.

The SOCIALLY DISTANT ORCHESTRA is another where many disparate musicians get together to play, and play beautifully on Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, the New World Symphony. This is the second movement, the theme of which was adopted for the song, Going Home.

The much acclaimed TRIO ZADIG consists of childhood French friends who play violin and cello and an American pianist. They all got together in Paris and clicked immediately (okay the French two were already playing together). They have played all around the world.

Today they play from their homes the Gabriel Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine, arranged for Piano Trio. This was originally written for a choir and organ, but it sounds fine this way.

Members of the TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA get together to perform Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring, one of his most performed and loved pieces of music.

This is a real hoot. Here is a string quartet, the UCELI QUARTET playing in Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house to an audience of plants. It was the first concert in the opera house since their shutdown.

Instead of people we have the plants, all 2,292 of them – one for each seat in the house. They applaud wildly at the end, although that reminded me somewhat of triffids, which was a bit disturbing. The quartet play Puccini’s I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums, singularly appropriate).

Here are some musicians from the MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA performing Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme Enigma, Op. 36 - Variation IX (Adagio) called “Nimrod”. This is from his famous Enigma Variations.

You knew this one had to be here somewhere. Here are some musicians from the NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC to play a shortened version of Ravel’s Bolero.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

GUY CLARK was born in Monahans, Texas, which is famous for producing Guy Clark.

Guy was the focus around whom many other fine singers and songwriters congregated. The most notable being Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earl, Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith and a couple of others.

As Ian Crouch said in a tribute to Guy in The New Yorker when Guy died,

”It's tough to pin down precisely what made his songs so distinctive. He wasn't a poet genius like Townes Van Zandt, or a blazing, righteous performer like Steve Earle. He never enjoyed wide popularity like Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings. Mostly his songs were strong and steady, projecting a deep, indisputable, and ultimately persuasive confidence and sense of self.”

There are many really good Texas songwriters, and there three great ones. They are Guy, Willie Nelson and Townes. I’d also like to include Buddy Holly (and wonder how much better he might have been). However, today it’s Guy’s turn.

The first song of Guy’s that I heard was L.A. Freeway. That encouraged me to buy his first album “Old No. 1”, on which the song appeared.

That album encouraged me to buy every album Guy recorded from then on, so we have all his music from which to select wonderful songs. One of those is that first song.

♫ L.A. Freeway

Rita Ballou was a song that appeared twice on Guy’s albums. The first time was on that first album. The second was from my favorite album of his, “South Coast of Texas”. I’ll use the latter version, just for a bit of change of pace.

♫ Rita Ballou

Quite independently, Norma, the Assistant Musicologist and I both came to the same conclusion and that is that Dublin Blues is each of our favorite Guy Clark song. This is in spite of all the other superb songs of his, many of which are here today. Here it is, with Nanci Griffith singing harmony.

♫ Dublin Blues

As mentioned, I really like South Coast of Texas. Any song that mentions swimming snakes, shrimp boats, whooping cranes and Gilbert Roland is okay as far as I’m concerned. Here is the title song.

♫ South Coast of Texas

Guy was really happy to collaborate with other songwriters. He thought that if they could make the song better he was for it. One person he wrote with several times is Rodney Crowell. One of those songs is from “South Coast of Texas”, and it’s called She’s Crazy for Leavin’. Rodney has also recorded this song. It’s not really a deep song, but lots of fun.

♫ She's Crazy for Leavin'

Another song that lacks gravitas but is a lot of fun is Crystelle. This is yet another from “South Coast of Texas”. If nothing else, I would urge you to check out that album (and the first one as well). It seems to me to be a song about someone who is just out of reach.

♫ Crystelle

Another of the fine songs from his first album is Desperados Waiting for a Train. This is about getting old, something that fits in our website. However, Guy was young when he wrote it, I think he always had an old soul. Rather than the version from that album, here he is performing it live.

♫ Desperados Waiting for a Train

Another song about one of his relatives is New Cut Road. In this case it was someone he didn’t ever meet, but had heard stories about. It’s about his fiddle-playing great-uncle who stayed in Kentucky when Guy’s grandmother boarded the family’s covered wagon and headed for Texas.

It’s yet another song from “South Coast of Texas”. I could have done an entire column on this album if it weren’t for all the other good songs.

♫ New Cut Road

The next song is generally known by Norma, the Assistant Musicologist and me as The Train Song. That’s not its title though. Its official name is Texas 1947.

When I was selecting songs for the column, the A.M. noticed this one and asked what it was. “That’s the Train Song”, I said.

“Oh, so that’s what it’s called”, she replied.

So, here is The Train Song. Oops, sorry, Texas 1947. To get an idea of what Guy was like in person, here’s a video clip from one of his concerts.

It might seem to be an aberration to write a song about Picasso, but Susannah, his wife, was an artist (as well as a serious songwriter in her own right) and they both had an appreciation of art. It’s a bit of a throw-away song, but entertaining. It’s Picasso's Mandolin.

♫ Picasso's Mandolin

“My Favorite Picture of You” was Guy’s final album.

The title song, My Favorite Picture of You, Guy sang to Susanna (the "you" in this case) who was seriously ill and she seemed to like it, he said. She died not much later.

The story of the song is that Susanna had been away for a weekend and returned to find Guy and Townes drunk (again). She packed her bags and was going to leave.

When she came out of the house, someone took that picture. She didn't leave, but things were a bit tense at the time. The song has some lovely harmony singing by Morgane Stapleton.

♫ My favorite picture of you

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

LUIGI BOCCHERINI was born in Lucca in Italy. His dad was a cellist and double bass player and he taught the young Luigi to play the cello from the age of five, and he turned out to be pretty good at it.

When Luigi was 14, he and dad went to Vienna where they were both employed in the court orchestra.

At the age of 25, Luigi went to Madrid at the behest of the Spanish ambassador whom he met in Paris. He remained in Spain for the rest of his life, being employed to play and compose music for various bigwigs around the place.

He became a cello maestro and many of his compositions feature the instrument to one degree or another. He was greatly influenced by the music of Joseph Haydn and a large percentage of his output consists of chamber music - trios, quartets, quintets, sextets and so on - as will be demonstrated today.

His compositions have been catalogued by Yves Gérard, hence the G number attached to each.

Luigi’s music has been characterised as warm, gentle and elegant but often with an undertow of melancholia - his two wives and three daughters died before he did.

Luigi’s string trios published as Opus 47 are mature works (he was 50 when he wrote them) and although still definitely in the classical mode, they rather suggest to me the coming Romantic style of music that was fast approaching.

This one is his String Trio Op 47 No 5 in D major (G 111), the second movement.

♫ String Trio Op 47 No 5 in D major (G 111) (2)

Although. as I mentioned, Luigi’s composition are Classical in style, this next rather seems to look backward to the Baroque era. It’s not a bad thing to mix the two styles and this is a delightful piece.

It’s his Octet in G (G 470), the first movement. It’s scored for oboe, bassoon, French horn, two violins, viola and two cellos.

♫ Octet G 470 (1)

Luigi wrote a series of arias called “Aria Accademica” based on texts written for operas by Pietro Metastasio. The complete set had 16 of these. He collected 12 of them and presented them to music publisher Ignaz Pleyel (who was also a fine composer as well as a piano maker).

These actually didn’t see the light of day until the 20th Century. One of those is G 549, also known as Care luci che regnate, sung by CECILIA GADIA.

♫ Care luci che regnate (Cecilia Gadia)

Besides chamber music, Luigi liked to write music for his favoured instrument, the cello. Joseph Haydn wrote the two finest cello concertos in music, but Luigi wasn’t far behind him with his 13.

His Cello Concerto No. 9 in B-Flat Major, (G 482) is the most popular and widely performed of his. It’s often used as a teaching tool for budding cellists. This is the first movement.

♫ Concerto for Cello in B-Flat No 9 G 482 (1)

Early in the 1770s, Luigi started composing for the flute. It was at this time he wrote a series of flute quintets, called “little quintets” at the time. These are in contrast to later ones where he was more adventurous.

One series was his opus 19 (which has had several number changes over the centuries) and from that we have his Quintet No 2 for flute and strings in G minor (G 426), the second movement.

♫ Quintet No 2 for flute and strings in G minor G 426 (2)

Another aria from the series “Aria Accademica”, mentioned above, is the G 557, Se d'un amor tiranno. This one is sung by MARTA ALMAJANO.

♫ Aria Accademica in B-Flat Major G. 557 Se d'un amor tiranno

Perhaps it was because he lived in Spain, but Luigi seemed to be fond of the guitar and he wrote a number of guitar quintets, that is a guitar with a regular string quartet. He “cheated” with some of them by using old string quintets or piano quintets and re-scoring them for guitar. It doesn’t matter, they still sound fine.

See what you think of the second movement of his Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D major (G 448). This one is nicknamed "Fandango".

♫ Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D major (2)

Luigi’s Quintet No.3 for Oboe and Strings in D major, Op 45 (G 433) is essentially a string quartet with an oboe plonked on top of it. A lot of his quintets are like that - just string quartets with an extra instrument. Nothing wrong with that, they all sound fine. Here is the second movement of that work.

♫ Quintet No.3 for Oboe and Strings in D major Op.45 (G 433) (2)

Known mostly for his chamber music, Luigi was “asked” by the King of Spain’s younger brother, Luis, Count of Chinchón, to write a liturgical work for him. He produced his Stabat Mater (G 532). From that we have the seventh movement sung by Michele Minne.

♫ Stabat Mater G. 532 (7)

Like all composers of his era, Luigi wrote symphonies. It seems it was a rite of passage for composers back then. He wrote 30 of them that are called symphonies and several more works that really are but under different names.

From his Symphony No 3, op 37 in D minor (G 517) here is the fourth movement.

Symphony G 517 (4)

I’ll end with his most famous, and popular, composition: the String Quintet Op 13, No 5 (G 281). In this case the third movement, a minuet, that is also quite often performed as a standalone work. It’s been featured in many movie scores, most notably the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers from 1955.

String Quintet No. 17 in A Major Op. 13 No. 5 G 281 (3)

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

“The Forgotten Angel” is a name that has been applied to CLYDE MCPHATTER these days. I think it sums him up - somewhat forgotten and singing like an angel - his singing style set the stage for many who followed him.

If you’re looking for a really good musical trivia question, he is the answer to: “Who was the first person inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice?”

Since then, others who have done the same refer to themselves as belonging to the “Clyde McPhatter Club”. He was a member of two seminal groups before he became a solo artist, so he could have made it three times.

Clyde began singing in his father’s gospel choir, the starting point for many of the finest singers of the era. His brothers and sisters were there as well and there were enough of them such that they could have been a choir on their own.

After moving to New Jersey, Clyde entered talent nights at the famous Apollo Theatre in New York and won. He was snapped up by a band led by Billy Ward to sing in his group, Billy Ward and the Dominoes.

The first three songs are by that group, all of them with Clyde singing the lead vocal (as he did on most of their songs). The first of these is Have Mercy Baby.

♫ Billy Ward - Have Mercy Baby

The song Harbor Lights was written back in the thirties by Hugh Williams (a pseudonym for Will Grosz) and Jimmy Kennedy. It was recorded by many artists, most especially The Platters. They had a hit with the song with the great Tony Williams singing lead, as he did on all their best songs. As good as Tony was, I think that Clyde was more soulful in his interpretation.

♫ Billy Ward - Harbor Lights

I’ll end the Billy Ward section with possibly the most overwrought song in recorded history. Johnnie Ray had the reputation of crying on his records. He has nothing on Clyde. This is The Bells.

♫ Billy Ward - The Bells

Billy was a real tightwad and didn’t pay much and he also deducted from his musicians’ pay packet for food, taxes, hotel bills and anything else that he could get away with. After Clyde decided to leave, Billy said he had to come up with a replacement singer. Clyde found the young Jackie Wilson.

Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, then signed Clyde to his record company on condition he create a group to lead. He rounded up some singers and called them The Drifters.

After recording a couple of songs, Ahmet was dissatisfied and suggested a different lot of singers. Clyde did that and called the new group The Drifters (well, if you’re on a good thing…)

They worked out better than the previous lot, such that they became one of the best loved groups in singing history.

One of the first songs they recorded was Such a Night. This was a reasonable hit for them even though it was the B-side of the record. It was covered by Johnnie Ray and later still by Elvis who took it to the top of the charts.

♫ Drifters - Such A Night

Their next song was a huge hit. The song is Money Honey, and it’s been covered by many over the years. The song was written by Jesse Stone.

♫ Drifters - Money Honey

During his time with The Drifters, Clyde was inducted into the army. Fortunately, he wasn’t sent overseas and could continue recording during his time off. After his discharge, he decided to go out as a solo singer.

The Drifters’ manager then disbanded the group and started a new group (and called them The Drifters) built around Ben E King. Goodness, this column contains some of the finest singers from that time (or any time).

Clyde sold his share in the group to the manager. He regretted that decision for the rest of his life.

One of the first things he did as a solo singer was perform a duet with RUTH BROWN, with whom he toured. They were close. Very, very close. Their son now performs as one of the current Drifters.

One of the songs Clyde and Ruth performed together is Love Has Joined Us Together.

That’s Jerry Wexler, who produced their song; Ruth; Clyde; LaVern Baker and Ahmet Ertegun.

♫ Clyde McPhatter - Love Has Joined Us Together

Without Love (There Is Nothing) was written by Danny Small. Clyde was the first to record it. Over the years everyone from Elvis to Ray Charles to Tom Jones (to a whole bunch of lesser singers) have recorded it. Of course, as I’ve often said, the first is the best (okay, not always).

♫ Clyde McPhatter - Without Love (There Is Nothing)

No Love Like Her Love was the B-side of the single that had That’s Enough For Me on the A-side. Neither song made the charts, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t any good. Lots of fine songs don’t manage to do that.

♫ Clyde McPhatter - No Love Like Her Love

Now we get to the songs that most of us remember. A Lover’s Question is my favorite of his.

♫ Clyde McPhatter - A Lovers Question

Norma, the Assistant Musicologist prefers Lover Please.

♫ Clyde McPhatter - Lover Please

Towards the end of his life, and it was brief, he died at 39, Clyde thought that his fans had deserted him. That wasn’t true but he turned to alcohol such that many of his concerts were canceled or he didn’t turn up for them. He died of various complications due to his serious drinking.

I’ll end with a video of Clyde back when he was young and singing like an angel. A lovely smile at the end because he knew that he had nailed it.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

These are certainly strange days we’re living through, and that means I get to play some strange songs. Okay, not necessarily strange songs, but those with strange in their title. Quite a few of these are blues which seems strangely appropriate.

Given the title of the column, many people could guess that THE DOORS would lead off proceedings. They are right.

They actually have a song called Strange Days, taken from their second album also called “Strange Days”, but that song was a bit too strange. Instead, I’ve gone for one of their more famous songs, People are Strange from the same album.

♫ The Doors - People Are Strange

PATSY CLINE is always welcome in my columns and judging from past comments, you readers rather agree with that.

On this song I think that Patsy sounds like Tami Neilson. Of course, Tami wasn’t even born when Patsy died, so it should be the other way around. If you have a chance check out Tami’s music (particularly her song Cry Over You) I suggest you do that to see what I’m talking about. Anyway, here’s Patsy with Strange.

♫ Patsy Cline - Strange

ELMORE JAMES was a particular favorite of the British bands of the Sixties, especially Brian Jones who developed his guitar playing style from listening to his records.

Elmore worked in an electrical store early on and devised his own electric guitars that were in advance of the standard versions of the time. It took years for the others to catch up. He had a wide variety of styles which is probably why he was so influential. Here he performs Strange Kinda Feeling.

♫ Elmore James - Strange Kinda Feeling

Love is Strange was a big hit for the Everly Brothers. However, before them MICKEY & SYLVIA also hit the charts with the song.

Bo Diddley claimed that he wrote the lyrics and Mickey and Sylvia also claimed to have done so. Bo was the first to record the song, but his version didn’t see light of day until a recent box set of his complete recordings. Buddy Holly also recorded it, but he didn’t claim to have written it. I’m going with Mickey & Sylvia.

♫ Mickey & Sylvia - Love Is Strange

JAMES HUNTER has recorded Strange But True twice.

The first time was on his album “Kick it Around” with a band and backup singers. He later did it again on “The Hard Way” with minimal accompaniment. I like the stripped back version, but the other isn’t bad either. Actually anything that James records is worth a listen.

♫ James Hunter - Strange But True

OTIS SPANN was easily the finest post war Chicago blues pianist.

Besides his solo work, he was also Muddy Waters’ pianist for many years. He was also involved in one of the two or three best blues albums ever (“Super Black Blues”) with T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner. That’s another one to check out.

Here is Otis, with some of Muddy’s band, with Strange Woman.

♫ Otis Spann - Strange Woman

NICK CHARLES is a particular favorite of Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, such that we’ve seen him live many times over the years.

Besides playing in Australia, he’s performed all over the world and played at some of the best blues festivals around the world. He’s a superb acoustic guitar player and quite a decent singer. Here he is with a reasonable sized band backing him with Strange Things Happen at Night.

♫ Nick Charles - Strange Things Happen At Night

Racism has always been present in yours and my societies, but it’s been somewhat hidden until recently when the American president essentially gave licence to the darkest elements of society to raise their heads and spew their vile filth over all of us.

The next song by BILLIE HOLIDAY is as relevant today as it was 80 years ago.

The song is Strange Fruit, written as a poem by Abel Meeropol and put to music by him and his wife, Laura Duncan.

♫ Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

From his fine, but rather underrated album “Believers”, DON MCLEAN gives us the song Isn't It Strange, one he wrote himself.

It is a wry, ironic song about love and the way that men and women see their relationships. On the surface is a pleasant gentle song, but digging deeper into the lyrics reveals the clever and bittersweet exploration mentioned before.

♫ Don McLean - Isn't It Strange

I’ve always thought of CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE as an old bluesman, however, when I investigated him I discovered that he’s only a year older than I am. Okay, that could still make him an old blues man, but not in the way I had in mind.

Charlie’s instrument is the harmonica and he also sings a bit (not while playing the harp, of course). He came to prominence in the early sixties with other white blues players like Michael Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield.

Although mainly a bluesman, he has also played with such musicians as Cyndi Lauper, Hot Tuna and Jools Holland. To fit into the column he performs Strange Land.

♫ Charlie Musselwhite - Strange Land

I’m really surprised to find a song by ELVIS from the Fifties I didn’t know.

Yep, that can happen even to your musical guru (“That’s a joke, Joyce” – that’s for my Australian readers). The song I discovered hidden somewhere on my computer is Is It So Strange.

♫ Elvis Presley - Is It So Strange

JIMMY JOHNSON is a blues guitarist, and a fine one at that.

A couple of decades ago he recorded an album called “Johnson’s Whacks” (ho ho) which contained a blues guitar rendition of Paul Desmond’s jazz classic Take Five. It’s worth seeking out. This has nothing to do with today’s selection, I just thought I’d mention it.

From a completely different album (“Every Day of Your Life”), Jimmy plays and sings Strange Things Happening.

♫ Jimmy Johnson - Strange Things Happening

BLOG HOUSEKEEPING REMINDER: As announced last Monday, beginning tomorrow (20 July 2020), Time Goes By will no longer be published on Facebook. If you want to continue to read TGB, you can subscribe in the right sidebar of the TGB website for email delivery.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

You’d expect that songs that have funny in their titles would be, well, funny. Having collected these songs, it seems that that isn’t so (mostly). They’re good songs nonetheless, if a little on the depressing side of things. Let’s get to the funny songs.

Funny is certainly not the way to describe BILLIE HOLIDAY’s life.

She had a really hard life but in spite of that (or maybe because of it), she produced some of the most sublime music ever put on vinyl. He's Funny That Way was written by Neil Moret and Richard Whiting and it first appeared in the film “Gems of M-G-M” in 1929, sung by Marion Harris.

Since then it’s been tackled by many singers of both genders, changing He to She whenever appropriate. This is the way Billie does it.

♫ Billie Holiday - He's Funny That Way

In the early sixties, BURL IVES had a rather unexpected worldwide hit with the song, Little Bitty Tear.

He followed that pretty much immediately with what to me was a follow-up song, trying to explain what had happened in the first one. A bit like someone trying to talk their way out of an embarrassing situation. I’ll let Burl try to explain that with Funny Way of Laughin'.

♫ Burl Ives - Funny Way Of Laughin'

My Funny Valentine was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It first appeared in the musical “Babes in Arms” sung by Mitzi Green to Ray Heatherton. Since that time, it’s usually sung by a male to a female, although, if you listen to the words, it makes more sense the original way.

However, you’re probably like me and have pretty much only heard male performers sing and play it, and my goodness, there are a lot of them. It’s certainly popular with jazz musicians, and here’s one of those, CHET BAKER.

Chet was a fine trumpeter and terrific singer and he threw it all away on drugs. Before his decline this is the way he sounded.

♫ Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine

JESSE BELVIN could have been a contender, up there with Sam Cooke, but he was killed in a car accident in 1960.

The accident was almost certainly orchestrated by the Klan or another white supremacist group as he was returning from the first integrated concert in Little Rock, where there were several death threats.

Coincidentally, Sam was at that one too, along with Jackie Wilson and others. Jesse sings Funny.

♫ Jesse Belvin - Funny

JOHN SEBASTIAN sings a rare happy song in our category today.

The song She's Funny was from his album “Welcome Back” which was based around the song of the same name that became a big hit when it was used as a theme for the TV program “Welcome Back, Kotter”.

♫ John Sebastian - She's Funny

Funny (But I Still Love You) was an early single for RAY CHARLES.

That was back in 1953 and was the flip side to his big hit, Mess Around. I image people were surprised when they flipped over the record as it’s a complete contrast to that one. Ray wrote the song and that guitar playing is by ace session guitarist, Mickey Baker.

♫ Ray Charles - Funny (But I Still Love You)

HELEN SHAPIRO was easily the finest female English singer of the sixties, maybe ever (excluding classical ones of course).

Helen toured with The Beatles very early in their career. Actually, it was a matter of The Beatles toured with Helen, it was that early.

She was offered a song they had written but her manager refused it as he didn’t want her recording songs by unknowns who’d be forgotten in a couple of months. She would have been the first person other than themselves to record one of their songs. This isn’t one of them: It's so Funny I Could Cry.

♫ Helen Shapiro - It's so funny I could cry

Things Aren't Funny Anymore was MERLE HAGGARD’s 17th number one song on the country charts. He went on to have 38 of those.

Hag was the master of the tear-jerker songs, although not as blatantly as some others, and this is an excellent example of that genre of country music. Of course, there are some who’d say that’s all country music is, but I’m not one of those.

♫ Merle Haggard - Things Aren't Funny Anymore

It probably comes as no surprise that BOB DYLAN is present today.

What is a bit unusual is the song he sings: It's Funny to Everyone but Me. It was written by Jack Lawrence in 1939. The Ink Spots were the first to record it and Frank Sinatra followed soon after when he was still with the Harry James Orchestra. Also unusual is the way Bob turns himself into a crooner.

♫ Bob Dylan - It's Funny to Everyone but Me

Okay, just insert here my usual rave about what the record companies insisted on accompanying NAT KING COLE with, rather than his terrific trio.

Good, I’ve got off my chest. Nat recorded and released Funny (Not Much) in 1952 and since then it’s been recorded by a bunch of people. However, I can’t imagine anyone surpassing Nat, even with that orchestra behind him.

♫ Nat King Cole Trio - Funny (Not Much)

Funny How Time Slips Away has become a classic, a standard, over the decades which isn’t surprising as it was written by Willie Nelson. The first time I heard it wasn’t by Willie, it was JIMMY ELLEDGE.

It was some years before I knew of Willie, but I obviously knew his songs – not just this one, but others by Patsy Cline, Faron Young and so on. I’ve found that the version you first hear tends to make a big impression and that is so with this song. I still prefer Jimmy’s.

♫ Jimmy Elledge - Funny How Time Slips Away

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

After searching for songs about certain cities I found that some didn’t have enough good ones, or even enough songs, to justify a column.

However, there were certain good songs that deserved an airing so I’ve decided to put two Texas cities together in the one column because they both had terrific songs about them. San Antonio has more variety than El Paso as it really only has the same song four times (and another one).

First, San Antonio.

You could probably guess that BOB WILLS would be present.

He wrote and recorded a song called San Antonio Rose, then some time later he updated it to New San Antonio Rose. The newer one is the better of the two and it’s what we have today.

♫ Bob Wills - New San Antonio Rose

DOUG SAHM deserves his place today, not just for a fine song, but he was born and bred in San Antonio.

Doug was a musical prodigy, playing several instruments before he even got to school. He also appeared on stage with Hank Williams when he was just 11 years old. This was Hank’s last concert.

If you’re not familiar with his name, he was the founder of the Sir Douglas Quintet and also the leading light of the Texas Tornados. As a solo artist he’s appeared with some of the finest Tex-Mex performers, including Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers and, dare I mention him in this company, Bob Dylan.

Doug performs (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone.

♫ Doug Sahm - (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone

Susanna Clark was the wife of Guy Clark and friend (or “friend”, who knows?) of Townes Van Zandt. She was an artist by trade, but dabbled in song writing. More than dabbled, she wrote some wonderful songs, including this one sung by EMMYLOU HARRIS.

Emmy performed a few of her songs but the one we’re interested in today is I'll Be Your San Antone Rose.

♫ Emmylou Harris - I'll Be Your San Antone Rose

LOS LOBOS may be from East L.A. but their music covers the territory today.

Their song is Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio, which sort of means I leave you in San Antonio. My Spanish isn’t good enough (I took French at school) to determine if they’re coming back or not. As this is a song and not real life, I suspect not.

♫ Los Lobos - Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio

The HOT TEXAS SWING BAND takes its cues from Bob Wills, but they are a contemporary outfit. Asleep at the Wheel comes to mind when listening to them.

Like many fine Texas musicians, they are resident in Austin where they have regular gigs. They tour as well, of course. The membership seems to fluctuate between four and eight, depending on the circumstances.

Today, with quite a few of them by the sound of it, they perform Somewhere South of San Antone.

♫ Hot Texas Swing Band - Somewhere South Of San Antone

And El Paso…

I’ve been to El Paso, but I’m afraid it didn’t inspire me to return (sorry, readers from that city). The city did produce one of the greatest pop/country songs of all time though and you know what it is.

Before we go hard-core Marty Robbins, here is DON WALSER to kick off the El Paso section.

Prepare yourself for some yodelling because it seems that cowboys must yodel. Don demonstrates that in El Paso Cowboy.

♫ Don Walser - El Paso Cowboy

I hope you like MARTY ROBBINS as much as I do as the rest of the songs are either by him, comments on his most famous song or both. I’ll start with the famous song, the one you expected to be present, El Paso.

This is a terrific song made extraordinary by Grady Martin’s guitar playing.

♫ Marty Robbins - El Paso

If you thought that song was long – it certainly was for the time it was released – then prepare yourself for the next one which is twice as long. It’s really the same song, only from the point of Feleena.

It’s called Feleena (From El Paso). It’s also sung by MARTY.

♫ Marty Robbins - Feleena (From El Paso)

But wait, there’s more. I hope you’re not tired of MARTY yet because we have another one of his. This time it’s a modern take on the same song, El Paso City.

♫ Marty Robbins - El Paso City

I guess TOM RUSSELL is getting tired of all this because he’s Leaving El Paso. Naturally, he referenced Marty’s song as well.

♫ Tom Russell - Leaving El Paso

I nearly included Kinky Friedman’s Asshole from El Paso, then thought better of it.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

In 1935, I wasn’t even a glint in my dad’s eye. The glint in his eye was mum who worked in the same store that he did, he was in men’s ware (he was a tailor) and mum was over the aisle selling haberdashery.

It took 10 more years (or really nine, I suppose) for the glint that led to me to appear. This preamble is really to tell you that I don’t remember any of these songs when they first appeared. That doesn’t matter as I know about them now.

Someone I’ve known about from a very young age is BING CROSBY, as he was one of my dad’s favorite singers.

The song, Red Sails in the Sunset, I remember from my youth thanks to Fats Domino and Tab Hunter. Bing’s version has an introduction that the later versions lacked.

♫ Bing Crosby - Red Sails In The Sunset

The SONS OF THE PIONEERS were about the best harmony group from this era, well in the genre of country music, as there were many harmony groups around who should be recognized.

In 1935, they still had their most famous lead singer. Regular readers will know that I’m talking about Leonard Slye, better known to us all as Roy Rogers. He was helped by Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. They must have liked Santa Fe as they recorded four or five songs with it in the title, including Over the Santa Fe Trail.

♫ Sons Of The Pioneers - Over The Santa Fe Trail (1935)

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES was a blues performer from Tennessee.

He went blind when he was young due to a friend hitting him with a rock (some friend). His songs are pretty much about people he knew or encountered, or about events he participated in or “observed”.

He was a big favorite of blues revivalists in the early sixties. His song is Stop That Thing.

♫ Sleepy John Estes - Stop That Thing

One of the most enduring songs from this year is I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter. It was written by Fred Ahlert and Joe Young. The first recorded version, and one of the best, was by FATS WALLER.

We know Fats for his wonderful singing (and mugging and whatnot), but he demonstrates his piano playing in the introduction. He then sings the song with a fine jazz band backing him.

♫ Fats Waller - I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter

Speaking of harmony groups, as I was above, SOL K. BRIGHT & HIS HOLLYWAIIANS were certainly up there with the best.

I only discovered them a few years ago, but since then I’ve become a fan. You can probably guess that they were from Hawaii, and they integrated that island’s musical culture with what was going around at the time. One of those things was Irving Berlin’s song, Heat Wave.

♫ Sol K. Bright & His Hollywaiians - Heat Wave (1935)

BENNY GOODMAN was at his best when he performed in his small groups.

Of course, at the height of the swing era he knew on what side his bread was buttered, so he organised an orchestra. That included singers as was normal for such things. One of those was HELEN WARD who sang “vocal refrain” on their record of Blue Moon, a Rogers and Hart composition.

♫ Benny Goodman - Blue Moon

Naturally, FRED ASTAIRE was making films in 1935.

Also, naturally, his partner in those was Ginger Rogers. The one we’re interested in today is “Top Hat” where Fred sang Cheek to Cheek while dancing with Ginger.

I’ll refrain from saying things about high heels and backwards. The song is yet another written by Irving Berlin, and Fred’s is the first recorded version.

♫ Fred Astaire - Cheek To Cheek

Often cited as the finest guitarist whoever plucked a string, DJANGO REINHARDT achieved that with only three functioning fingers on his left hand. The others were injured, along with quite a bit of the rest of him, by a fire.

Here he is jamming with his long time musical partner, violinist Stéphane Grappelli, on the tune Djangology.

♫ Django Reinhardt - Djangology

Okay, take your partners for a foxtrot, or a hybrid I’d not heard of before, a tango foxtrot. Waving the baton in front of his orchestra is RAY NOBLE, and we have AL BOWLLY on vocal refrain.

The song Isle of Capri was written by Wilhelm Grosz and Jimmy Kennedy. Ray’s and Al’s version was one of the early ones, only being pipped a month earlier by Lew Stone.

♫ Ray Noble and his Orchestra ~ Al Bowlly - Isle of Capri

I’ll end with LOUIS ARMSTRONG in mellow mood.

By 1935, Louis had left his Hot 5 and Hot 7 groups behind him, and he was pretty much going with the mood of the times, employing a larger orchestra. Anything with him playing his trumpet is worth listening to, including I'm In the Mood for Love.

♫ Louis Armstrong - I'm In the Mood for Love

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

It’s only half way through the year and already too many important musicians have died (a couple because of Covid-19 – it has a lot to answer for).

LITTLE RICHARD Penniman was one of the three or four most important and influential figures in the early days of rock and roll. He, along with the others, took the music to a wider audience, worldwide really, and made it the dominant force in popular music.

Unlike most other rockers, Richard played piano and wrote his own songs. He gave up music and turned to religion at least twice while he was still popular, but always came back to the music.

His songs have been covered by many artists, most appallingly by Pat Boone. No one performed them better, or more outrageously, than Richard himself. The song that kick started his career is Tutti Frutti. (He was 87)

♫ Little Richard - Tutti Frutti

BOBBY LEWIS was a soul singer who had a giant hit in 1960 with Tossin’ and Turnin’. He had a couple more songs that made the charts, and he kept performing until quite recently, which is remarkable when you consider his age. (97)

JIMMY COBB was a jazz drummer best known for playing on the Miles Davis album, “Kind of Blue”, one of the most important albums in history. He played on other Miles’ albums and later teamed up with several others who played on “Blue” to form their own group. Over the years Jimmy played with all the important jazz players. (91)

For much of his life, BARRY TUCKWELL was the world’s foremost French horn player. He initially studied piano, violin and organ but was given a French Horn when he was 13. He took to it right away, such that he was giving concerts within six months.

He was a member of both the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras while still a teenager. He later was a member of the London and many other renowned Orchestras. He later went out on his own as a soloist, forming his own chamber group and also became a much in demand conductor.

Barry plays the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata for Horn and Piano in F, Op.17. (78)

♫ Beethoven - Sonata for Horn and Piano in F Op.17 (1)

JULIE FELIX was an American born singer whose biggest successes came in Britain. It was there where she recorded, toured and appeared on TV, most notably hosting her own program that featured many of the sixties biggest acts early in their careers. (81)

ELLIS MARSALIS was a jazz musician from New Orleans who started out playing saxophone but switched to piano which became his main instrument. He was the father to a family of jazz musicians who have become household names. (85)

DAVID OLNEY died with his boots on. He was performing at a festival when he apologised to the crowd and died of a heart attack.

He was a songwriter of great skill and a poetic bent whose songs were recorded by many others, including Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Tim O’Brien and Del McCoury.

He began performing in the band X-Ray that he formed himself. After a couple of records he went out as a solo performer. Besides his songs, he also wrote poems and sonnets, appearing in Shakespeare festivals. He recorded more than 20 albums. From one of those, “Eye of the Storm”, David performs Queen Anne's Lace. (71)

♫ David Olney - Queen Anne's Lace

CARL DOBKINS JR was a singer and songwriter best known for his fifties hit My Heart is an Open Book. He appeared on TV frequently and later joined an Oldies tour. (79)

MILLIE SMALL was the first person to bring ska music to the world at large. Indeed, her song, My Boy Lollipop, is still the best selling ska record. She was born in Jamaica but went to live in England as a teenager and remained there for the rest of her life. (72)

BILL WITHERS seemed destined to a career in engineering until he had a chance encounter with famed musician and producer, Booker T Jones (of Booker T and the MGs).

Booker produced Bill’s first album that contained the song, Ain’t No Sunshine. This song became a world number one hit for him. He had several other hits, including Lean on Me, Lovely Day, Just the Two of Us and others.

His music career was brief, only about 10 years as a big record company took over his contract and insisted he make music their way, in spite of his previous success. Bill was one of music’s good guys, maybe the best of the lot. Here is that first hit (with the 26 “I know”s). (81)

♫ Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

STEVE MARTIN CARO was a founding member and singer for the rock group, The Left Banke. He wrote and sang their first and biggest hit, Walk Away Renée, about his brother’s girlfriend on whom he had a crush. (71)

PAUL ENGLISH was Willie Nelson’s long time friend, drummer and bodyguard – he started with Willie in 1955, and was with him until he died. He was the subject of a terrific song Me and Paul, one of Willie’s best. (87)

KENNY ROGERS was a singer, songwriter, actor, record producer and entrepreneur. Although generally considered a country music performer, he had many crossover hits in the pop charts.

He started his career in the New Christy Minstrels. After that, he and some of the other Christys formed their own group, The First Edition. It was, as the lead singer of that group, he had his first hits.

He later performed on his own and occasionally collaborated with other artists, most notably Dolly Parton. Besides that, he acted in films and in TV programs. Instead of one of his famous hits, I’ve decided to include a lesser known, but really good song, Even a Fool Would Let Go. (81)

♫ Kenny Rogers - Even A Fool Would Let Go

JOSEPH SHABALALA was the founder and director of the singing group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They achieved worldwide fame when Paul Simon used them on his “Graceland” album and they toured with him to promote that record. Because of that, the group sold a huge number of records of their own music. (78)

MCCOY TYNER was a jazz pianist who initially worked with John Coltrane and later had a long solo career. His piano style was hugely influential and later jazz pianists started out imitating his style. (81)

ROBERT PARKER was yet another fine New Orleans musician. He started out playing saxophone for Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Huey “Piano” Smith, Irma Thomas and others.

He turned his hand to singing and started making records. Most of these were minor or regional hits, but he had one major success with the song Barefootin’. (89)

♫ Robert Parker - Barefootin'

PHIL PHILLIPS wrote the song Sea of Love, recorded it and saw that it hit the top of the charts. However, he received a pittance for it due to the nefarious dealings of his record company. The song has been used often on film soundtracks (especially the one with the same name). (94)

PETER SERKIN was a classical pianist most noted for his interpretation of the works of J.S. Bach. (72)

JOHN PRINE was a songwriter who could break your heart with his songs. Then he would make you laugh with others, or even occasionally the same one. He wrote sensitively and movingly about old age while still in his twenties.

He was generally the best interpreter of his songs, but there are several memorable versions by other artists, generally female. John was done in by Covid-19. I like to think he’d find humor in that, although the rest of us wouldn’t.

I’ll play possibly my favorite song of his, Lake Marie. (73)

♫ John Prine - Lake Marie

BONNIE POINTER was a founding member of the singing group The Pointer Sisters. The four of them really were sisters. They were big in the seventies. Bonnie later had a successful solo career. (69)

BOB SHANE was the last of the original members of the Kingston Trio. The group pretty much single-handedly put folk music on the charts in the late fifties. (85)

MIRELLA FRENI was an Italian operatic soprano who started out singing lighter roles. Halfway through her career (of 50 years) she changed tack and started singing meatier parts.

She was born at the same time and lived next to Luciana Pavorotti. They appeared together numerous times. She was best at Mozart, Puccini, Donizetti and Verdi roles. You can hear just a bit of that from her interpretation of Un Bel Di Vedremo (One Fine Day) from Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”. (84)

♫ Mirella Freni - Un bei di (Madama Butterfly)

ERIC WEISSBERG was an American multi-instrumentalist who became known as a banjo player after his version of Dueling Banjos was featured in the film “Deliverance”. Otherwise he had a successful career as a session musician and appeared on many artists’ records.

DON BURROWS was Australia’s most important and celebrated jazz musician for the last 70 years. He played flute, clarinet and saxophone. Over the years he’s played with the cream of the world’s jazz players as well as with symphony orchestras. (91)

HAROLD REID was the bass singer for the Statler Brothers, probably the finest harmony singing group in country music. There was no one named Statler in the group, and only two of them were brothers, Harold and lead tenor Don.

Harold was the driving force of the group who achieved their initial success as Johnny Cash’s backing group. Johnny was instrumental in getting them a recording contract of their own. One of their biggest hits was Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott with Harold starting it off. (80)

♫ Statler Brothers - Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott

BETTY WRIGHT was a soul and rhythm and blues singer whose biggest success was in the seventies. She won a Grammy for best soul song and her music was sampled often by lesser performers. (66)

FLOYD LEE was a blues guitarist and singer who performed in New York’s subways and streets for many decades. He later found success as a recording artist and as the subject of an excellent documentary of his life. (86)

LYNN HARRELL was one of the finest cello players of recent times. He had a good start in the classical music biz with a father who was an opera singer at the Met and a mother who was a violinist.

Lynn attended Juilliard but both parents died when he was in his late teens. By that time he had a gig in the Cleveland Orchestra. After that he played with many of the world’s great orchestra and often teamed up with pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy to play cello sonatas, especially those of Beethoven.

Here they are with the first movement of Sonata for Cello and Piano No.5 in D, Op.102 No.2. (76)

♫ Beethoven - Sonata for Cello and Piano No.5 in D Op.102 No.2 (1)

DARICK CAMPBELL was one of three brothers in The Campbell Brothers (as well as their nephew). They played “sacred steel” music, religious music with heavily amplified guitars, including the pedal steel. They were often joined by master blues pedal steel player Robert Randolph. The group was much admired by rock and blues musicians. (53)

KEITH TIPPETT was a British jazz pianist who also played prog rock. Although not a member, he played with such groups as King Crimson and the Soft Machine, as well as gigs with his wife, the musician Julie Driscoll. (72)

VERA LYNN was a British singer, songwriter and entertainer who became a huge success with her songs during the Second World War, not just in Britain but around the world as well. She performed for troops in Egypt, Burma and India and elsewhere.

She thought that her singing career would be over when war broke out but that was proved wrong. She kept singing afterwards for several decades and never lost her popularity. I had to play her most famous song, We’ll Meet Again, her signature tune. (103)

♫ Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

Here is another container to hold various things. Those things are some interesting classical music. Well, they’re interesting to me; I hope they are to you too.

When the name Water Music is mentioned most of us (including me) think of Mr Handel. However, that Georg wasn’t the only one who wrote music with that name. Another was GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN.

This Georg was a good friend of J.S. Bach and J.S. named one of his sons after him. Georg is generally considered to be the most prolific composer in history, and pretty much everything he wrote was of the highest order, and these aren’t short pieces – Table Music went on for hours.

This one’s a bit shorter, well the bit I have included is, the whole thing is quite lengthy. This is the Overture in C Major, TWV 55D3, from his Water Music.

♫ Telemann - Water Music Overture In C Major

Speaking of Mr HANDEL, here he is with something from his best known work.

That, of course, is “The Messiah”, these days mostly called Handel’s Messiah. From that we have How Beautiful are the Feet, sung by SIOBHAN STAGG.

I don’t know whose feet he was talking about. It could be my mum’s which were really splendid, and she complained that her best feature was generally covered up.

♫ Siobhan Stagg - How beautiful are the feet (Handel's Messiah)

A double bass concerto is not something you hear every day. They’re pretty rare but there are examples. Some of the best were by Ditters Von Dittersdorf, a friend of Haydn and Mozart with whom he played string quartets.

Another is Johann Vanhal, who was the fourth member of the group. I can imagine the chat after they were done playing: “You know, nobody has written a double bass concerto”. “You’re right, why don’t you do it?” “No, you do it.” “No, you.” “Your turn.” And so on.

None of these folks are who we have today, it is GIOVANNI BOTTESINI.

Gio didn’t play music with any of the others because he was born too late. He was a double bass virtuoso though, something that really didn’t happen again until jazz occasionally put the instrument front and centre.

Gio was taught music by his father, who played the clarinet. I imagine that he kicked himself whenever he had to lug his instrument around that he didn’t follow dad’s lead.

Anyway, he wrote several dozen compositions for the instrument as well as more standard fare, like operas, string quartets, symphonies and the like. Getting back to his instrument, here is the first movement of his Double Bass Concerto No 2 in B Minor.

♫ Bottesini - Double Bass Concerto in B Minor (1)

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH wrote his second piano concerto for the birthday of his son, Maxim.

Maxim played the premiere of the work at his graduation from music college. This is an uncharacteristically cheerful composition (although less so in this movement), unlike most of Dmitri’s output; well he had to satisfy Stalin, no mean enterprise.

As often happens with such works, the critics dismiss it and the public really likes it. I’m one of the public. Thus, here is the second movement of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102.

♫ Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2. in F major Op. 102 (2)

I’ve devoted a whole column (I’ll finish it one day) to LUIGI BOCCHERINI but before I get to that, here’s a sample of his music.

Although Italian, Luigi spent much of his life in Spain. He was a cello player (as was his dad, who taught him) and he wrote many works that featured the instrument prominently. He also used the guitar quite a bit, probably due to the Spanish influence.

Today we’re back to his first love, along with a bunch of other instruments in his Concerto for Cello, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns and Strings in D No 10, G 483. The third movement.

♫ Boccherini - Concerto for Cello 2 Oboes 2 Horns and Strings in D No 10 G 483 (3)

JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL, what a splendid name, wasn’t the first to write a trumpet concerto for the new keyed trumpet, the sort we have today, but he came close.

At the time he was Kapellmeister at the Esterházy court, a post that Joseph Haydn held for 30 years before him. It was this Jo who pipped our Jo at the post with the first such concerto.

The instrument was designed by famed trumpeter Anton Weidinger who commissioned the work today. He was a friend of both of them and they both saw the possibilities in the new instrument. So, here’s Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto in E or E flat major, WoO 1, S. 49, the third movement.

♫ Hummel - Trumpet Concerto in E or E flat major WoO 1 S. 49 (3)

PHILLIP WILCHER is possibly not generally known to most of the readers of this column, but just ask someone under 7 or 8 years old and they can probably tell you.

Phillip was an original Wiggle, but he didn’t have a distinctive colored shirt as he left the group before they adopted those. Others might say, “What’s a Wiggle?” That’s why you need to ask a young person.

Besides his Wiggling activities Phil is a composer of really fine music, including his Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello. This is the fourth movement.

♫ Wilcher - Piano Trio (4)

RADAMÉS GNATTALI was a Brazilian composer, conductor and orchestrator of the 20th century.

Boyd & Metcalf are Australian classical guitarist RUPERT BOYD with American cellist LAURA METCALF, acclaimed soloists in their own right, and just happened to be married to each other.

They perform the first movement of Rad’s Sonata for Cello and Guitar.

♫ Gnattali - Sonata for Cello & Guitar (1)

Along with Mozart, GIACOMO PUCCINI is my favorite composer of operas.

One of his best known is La Bohème. From that we have the scene from the first act where Rodolfo and Mimi get to know each other. Here we have David Hobson (especially for Norma, The Assistant Musicologist) and Cheryl Barker (especially for me) from a performance staged by the Australian Opera a little while ago.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

We were taught in English class at school that we shouldn’t begin sentences with a conjunction. Great writers learn those rules and break them whenever it’s necessary.

Today I’m breaking the rule too, at least musically, and featuring songs that begin with “And”. I might cheat and include those whose titles start with that word, even if the songs don’t.

If you think I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one, I can assure you that the barrel is virtually bottomless when it comes to silly ideas for columns.

The first is from that vastly under-rated group THE ZOMBIES.

They were one of the more interesting bands from the sixties. They had a couple of hits and released a couple of albums but weren’t supported by their record company so that after their first couple of hits, the record buying public weren’t able to hear their music.

Now they have been reassessed and all their music re-released to considerable acclaim. One of their initial hits is Tell Her No.

♫ The Zombies - Tell Her No

There are three excellent versions of the song And When I Die. They are Laura Nyro, who wrote the song, Peter, Paul and Mary, which was the first I heard and the one you were probably expecting, BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS.

This was from their second album, the first with David Clayton-Thomas as lead singer. Before that, Al Kooper, who formed the band, did the honors. However, by this stage he had moved on to other projects like solo albums, producing, session work and so on.

Blood, Sweat & Tears - And When I Die

The song She Cried was written by Greg Richards and Ted Daryll. Ted was the first to record the song. It became a hit when Jay and the Americans tackled it. The song is a quintessential teenage angst song. Those two versions are pretty mournful, so I’ve gone with DEL SHANNON instead.

Okay, Del’s take isn’t all that jolly either but it’s better than the other two.

♫ Del Shannon - She Cried

TALKING HEADS was formed in New York by a bunch of former art students, most notably David Byrne.

It’s interesting how many bands were started by all or mostly ex-art students – I guess they could create their own album covers.

About the only notice I took of the Heads at the time was the song Once in a Lifetime. I’ve since come to appreciate them more as time has passed. The song of theirs that fits our category is And She Was.

♫ Talking Heads - And She Was

Paul McCartney wrote the song And I Love Her about his relationship with Jane Asher as things were going well with them at that stage. It appeared in THE BEATLES’ first film A Hard Day's Night.

John wrote most of the music for the film as Paul was somewhat distracted by Jane. He made up for it later.

♫ Beatles - And I Love Her

The London Olympic Committee used the song Jerusalem in the opening ceremony of their Games. This was so excruciatingly awful it set my teeth on edge.

I’m not perverse enough to use that version – I wouldn’t inflict it on you, but more to the point, I wouldn’t inflict it on myself. After all, I’d have to listen to it first.

There are many far superior versions out there – all of them, in fact. This is a version sung by four clean cut young men who sing for a British program called Songs of Praise but I don’t know who they are. We’ll just have to make do with the music.

Oh, there seems to be some discussion about whether it’s a song or a hymn. Consensus seems to be falling on the side of song, so that’s what I’ll call it. The song was taken from a poem by William Blake, the strange but brilliant poet of the 18th and early 19th century. That’s him below.

♫ Jerusalem by William Blake

DON MCLEAN would certainly have had a nice little earner from his song And I Love You So.

It’s become a “middle of the road” classic and pretty much everyone from Elvis on down has recorded it. However, Don did it first and he did it best.

♫ Don McLean - And I Love You So

The song Comme D’habitute was written by Jacques Revaux. Paul Anka heard it when he was holidaying in France and got together with Jacques and others and did a deal. Paul wrote English lyrics and called the song My Way.

He rang Frank Sinatra and suggested he might like to record it. Frank did just that and it became a mega-hit, so much so that Frank came to detest the song.

I’m with Frank; it’s a song I really, really don’t like. That is why I’m including what I think is the least worst version around, and boy, there are a lot of them. I can’t imagine there will be many who agree with my choice. Here is SID VICIOUS.

Sid was once the bass player for the Sex Pistols. His skill with the instrument was so rudimentary that their guitarist played bass on the records, and they often employed another bass player to play behind a curtain at live gigs.

♫ Sid Vicious - My Way

It’s surprising that HOYT AXTON didn’t become far better known.

After all, he had a fine singing voice, wrote terrific songs and was an actor of considerable ability as well. That’s the way show biz works, I guess, the deserving don’t always get the acclaim. Anyway, here’s Hoyt with Evangelina.

♫ Hoyt Axton - Evangelina

There’s an obvious and clichéd way to finish off and I’m going to go with it. THE BEATLES with The End, their second song today. Well, if they can’t break the rules, who can?

Okay, I’m cheating a bit as there are a few “Oh yeahs” and the like before the song itself kicks in. I like to think of that as introduction. It’s not really a song, more a songlet, one of several from “Abbey Road”.

♫ The Beatles - The End