Playlist: Listen, my friends! ~ April 2013

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In the words of Moby Grape… listen, my friends! Yes, it’s the (hopefully) monthly playlist presented by George’s Journal just for you good people.

There may be one or two classics to be found here dotted in among different tunes you’re unfamiliar with or have never heard before – or, of course, you may’ve heard them all before. All the same, why not sit back, listen away and enjoy…

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CLICK on the song titles to hear them

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Charles Gounod ~ Funeral March For A Marionette¹

Louis Armstrong ~ Cabaret²

Mary Hopkin ~ Those Were The Days

Johnny Hallyday ~ Hey Joe

Ten Wheel Drive with Genya Ravan ~ Ain’t Gonna Happen

Les Crane ~ Desiderata³

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band ~ Blinded By The Light

Yvonne Elliman ~ If I Can’t Have You⁴

Jeff Wayne featuring Justin Hayward ~ The Eve Of War – Disco Remix (from the 1978 album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds)

Sheena Easton ~ Morning Train

Rush ~ Spirit Of The Radio

Asia ~ Heat Of The Moment⁵

Dusty Springfield Featuring Pet Shop Boys ~ Nothing Has Been Proved⁶

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¹ Originally written by the composer for his unfinished Suite Burlesque, this piece became more famous as the opening theme of the classic US TV suspense drama Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-65); it was one of the tracks Hitch selected when he appeared on the Beeb’s legendary radio show Desert Island Discs in 1959

² This take on the instantly recognisable ditty from the musical Cabaret (later to be immortalised by the Liza Minelli/ Michael York-starring film adaptation) was the other tune on the Double A-Side #1 UK single more famous for featuring What A Wonderful World – the best selling single in Britain in 1968   

³ Controversial American DJ and talk show-host Crane’s 1971 US chart hit and Grammy Award-winning (mostly) spoken-word version of Max Ehrmann’s 1927 prose poem, itself regarded as something of a devotional work with its philosophical, nay, Biblical-esque observations

⁴ Written by The BeeGees and as featured, alongside many other self-performed hits-to-be of theirs, in the box-office disco smash Saturday Night Fever (1977)

⁵ As memorably featured in the films The Matador (2004) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), as well as a 2001 episode of the animated TV series South Park

⁶ From the soundtrack to the ‘Profumo Affair’-dramatising film Scandal (1989), starring John Hurt, Ian McKellen, Joanne Whalley and Bridget Fonda

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