Listen, my friends! Playlist: Winter 2026

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In the words of Moby Grape… listen, my friends!

Yes, it’s back (again) – the occasional 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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The Beatles ~ Rain (1966)¹

The Association ~ Windy (1967)¹

Bob Sleigh and the Downhill Racers ~ Pop Looks Bach (1970)²

The Byrds ~ Chestnut Mare (1970)³

Bernard Herrmann ~ I Still Can’t Sleep/ They Cannot Touch Her (1976)⁴

Barbara Dickson ~ January, February (1980)

Kate Bush ~ Under Ice (1985)

Denis King ~ Theme from Lovejoy (1986)⁵

The Bangles ~ Hazy Shade of Winter (1987)⁶

Carly Simon ~ My Funny Valentine (1990)

Underworld ~ Born Slippy (Nuxx) (1996)⁷

Eva Cassidy ~ Over the Rainbow (1996)⁸

Fleet Foxes ~ White Winter Hymnal (2009)

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¹ Like it or not, the new normal for the British winter, weather-wise at least, is higher temperatures, and wind and rain. Lots of it. The first two months of 2026 have delivered an unprecedented near-constant deluge of rain and consistent high winds, up and down the country. The fact that the Scottish city of Aberdeen experienced no sunshine at all for 21 days straight made national headlines. Today’s lesson: climate change deniers are idiots.

² The unmistakeable, utterly irresistible stock music track that, from 1978 right up to the present, has served as the title theme to BBC2’s winter sports magazine show Ski Sunday – and opened each day’s BBC coverage of many a Winter Olympics, too. Composed for the Boosey & Hawkes music library by Sam Fonteyn and recorded in 1970 by the Cavendish Orchestra (Bob Sleigh and the Downhill Racers being their playful moniker for a 1988 single release), Pop Looks Bach is so named because of the influence of Bach’s Fugue in D Minor on its awesome melody.

³ Originally intended as a tune for a Roger McGuinn-orchestrated stage musical adaptation of Peer Gynt (which would have been nattily titled ‘Gene Trypp’), this whimsically idiosyncratic tune instead ended up on The Byrds’ 1970 ‘Untitled’ album and hit a high of #19 on the UK Singles charts; the 2026 Chinese Lunar Year – the Year of the Horse – begins today, February 17th.

⁴ From the soundtrack of Taxi Driver, the definitive cinematic meditation on the post-conflict Vietnam vet experience from Martin Scorsese, which opened in US cinemas exactly 50 years ago on February 8th 1976

⁵  The opening (and closing) theme of the Beeb’s Ian McShane-headlined, quirky Sunday-night antiques-themed comedy-drama Lovejoy; although enjoying huge popularity in its early 1990s heyday, the show’s first episode was originally broadcast 40 years ago, on January 10th 1986

⁶ A classic Simon & Garfunkel tune, of course, originally released in 1966, this rollicking Bangles version from 1987 (#2 in the US; #11 in the UK) is notable on two fronts; it was recorded for and features in the forgettable Robert Downey Jr.-James Spader drug addict movie Less Than Zero, and is a rare instance of a Bangles tune without the sensational Susanna Hoffs on lead vocals; instead, the vocals are harmonised by all four Bangles throughout, in fitting Simon & Garfunkel-style. 

⁷ The unforgettable and iconic UK #2 dance anthem that helped, musically at least, to define mid-’90s British youth culture along with the feature film phenomenon in which it featured, Trainspotting; hard to believe it may be, but the latter exploded on to British cinema screens all of 30 years ago on February 23rd 1996

⁸ This winter marks the 25th anniversary of the peak of the Eva Cassidy phenomenon; in particular, the popularity of her timeless take on this most timeless of tunes and her album Songbird, which eventually scaled the summit of the UK album charts. A Washington D.C. native, Cassidy died in 1996, aged 33, from melanoma, her touchingly beautiful singing talent unknown to any wider public until, from 1998 onwards, her recordings were championed in the UK by several presenters on the BBC’s Radio 2, including the one-and-only Terry Wogan.

Alex Petridis nailed it on the head when, in 2002, he wrote of Eva Cassidy: “There’s an undeniable emotional appeal in hearing an artist who you know died in obscurity singing a song about hope and a mystical world beyond everyday life”.

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