My Top Ten

In 1959, The Sparks were a backing band for Nashville songwriter Boudleaux Bryant (the man who wrote Love Hurts and a bunch of hits for the Everly Brothers, with his wife and co-writer, Felice).

Boudleaux Bryant & The Sparks - Hot Spot

THE SPARKS #7

Also in 1959, the genie gets out of the bottle via these New York Sparks...

The Sparks - The Genie

LOS SPARKS #8

Mexican Sparks from 1960...

Los Sparks - La Borrachita

THE SPARKS #9

Trinbagonian* Calypso group active from 1962, changing their name to Wild Fire in the 70s.

(*The AI Gods tell me that "people from both Trinidad and Tobago are collectively referred to as Trinidadians and Tobagonians, or colloquially Trinbagonians".)

The Sparks - Don't Climb Picker Tree

THE SPARKS #10

Next up, some Canadian Sparks from 1963.

The Sparks - Kid Stuff

THE SPARKS #11

And some soulful Philly Sparks from the mid-60s.

The Sparks - Don't Be A Fool

THE SPARKS #12

Dutch Sparks from 1966 with a half-decent cover of a Van Morrison / Them song.

The Sparks - If You And I Could Be As Two

THE SPARKS #13

Cool New York funk/soul band from 1967...

The Sparks - Cool It

THE SPARKS #14

Meanwhile down in Brazil around the same time...

The Sparks - Ilusao

SPARKS #15

Ron and Russell. From LA, 1969 to now. You know the rest. With apologies to every other featured band this week - this town ain't big enough...

Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us

THE SPARKS #16

Zimbabwe Sparks from 1971...

The Sparks - Ndaive Ne Mukadzi

THE SPARKS #17

A Jamaican reggae act (with his pals) from 1975, singing about something that makes him feel happy...

Sparks, Marcus & The Soundations - 100 Pounds Of Weed

THE SPARKS #18

Nigerian Sparks from 1988. I dig their groovy sci-fi uniforms.

The Sparks - Special Love

SPARKS #19

Also from 1988, these South African Sparks were taking out the trash...

Sparks - Garbage Bin Man

THE SPARKS #20

AKA Gregg and Rebecca Sparks of Pittsburgh, bothering God since 1989.

The Sparks - U Tell Me

SPARX #21

Also starting their career at the end of the 80s - and still going today, by all accounts - these New Mexican sisters were Sparx.

Sparx - No Soy Robot

SPARKS. #22

English singer-songwriter active from 2020, who's clearly never heard of Ron & Russell, or thinks sticking a full stop on the end of his name somehow differentiates him.

Sparks - Time To Change

SPARKS #23

And finally, some Sparks from Minneapolis. According to the Camp of Bands, they're playing three UK dates in August, but I'm not sure I believe that.

The Sparks - Oh Wow

Which ones start a fire in you... and which ones leave you cold?

Monday, 17 August 2026

One Track Summer #17: Cliff's Girlfriend

Cheers is probably my all time favourite sitcom, and the annoying, know-it-all postman Cliff Clavin, played by John Ratzenberger, is one of my favourite characters.

If you ever watched Cheers, you may remember that Cliff had a recurring on-again, off-again romance with a fellow postal worker, Margaret "Maggie" O'Keefe. Well, I just discovered that the actress who played Maggie was actually Annie Golden, lead singer of New York new wave band The Shirts.

(That's a great album cover.)

Here's Annie / Maggie a few years before she met Cliff...

Sunday, 16 August 2026

Snapshots #461: Dance Records

Shall we dance?

15. Pretty Woman Ltd.

Julia (Roberts) and company.

Julia & Company - Breakin' Down (Sugar Samba)

14. I'm guessing it's a Time Out.

Chocolate Watchband - Uncle Morris

13. Cursed by their own trendiness.

The Tragically Hip - Flamenco

12. Carbon Copies.

CCs.

CCS - Tap Turns On The Water

11. Redding hates jazz - what a performance!

Otis Redding, Johnny Hates Jazz.

The Johnny Otis Show - Willie & The Hand Jive

10. Lead, Pot, Under...

Leadbelly, pot belly, underbelly...

Belly - White Belly

9. Building made out of trumpets.

Brass Construction - Ha Cha Cha (Funktion)

8. Mostly conducted via Tinder.

Modern Romance - Everybody Salsa

7. Gone for a Burton over his miniature mountain.

Richard Burton, his small mountain is a hill.

Richard Myhill - It Takes Two To Tango

6. Mark E. Smith wrote most of them, Man.

The Fall sang How I Wrote Elastic Man.

Elastica - Line Up

5. Athletic gear used by fish when working out.

Jim Gilstrap - Swing Your Daddy

4. Signing on.

UB40 - Don't Break My Heart

3. Devours golden skin... then puts a bloodsucker on a male sheep.

Tan-eater. Ti(c)k - a ram.

Tanita Tikaram - Twist In My Sobriety

2. High, Hay, Hot...

Highwire, haywire, hotwire...

Wire - Three Girl Rhumba

1. Keeping up with the Coroner.

Keeping up with the Jones's... meets Quincy ME.

Quincy Jones - Soul Bossa Nova

Shall we dance again next Saturday?

Saturday, 15 August 2026

Saturday Snapshots #461

Here are today's headlines...

Saturday Snapshots returns in a blaze of glory!

BONG!

The race is on to identify the people pictured below!

BONG!

Police try desperately to find a link between their crimes!

BONG!

I thought about holding off today's Snapshots until Nine O'Clock... but I couldn't have handled the uproar.

15. Pretty Woman Ltd.

14. I'm guessing it's a Time Out.

13. Cursed by their own trendiness.

12. Carbon Copies.

11. Redding hates jazz - what a performance!

10. Lead, Pot, Under...

9. Building made out of trumpets.

8. Mostly conducted via Tinder.

7. Gone for a Burton over his miniature mountain.

6. Mark E. Smith wrote most of them, Man.

5. Athletic gear used by fish when working out.

4. Signing on.

3. Devours golden skin... then puts a bloodsucker on a male sheep.

2. High, Hay, Hot...

1. Keeping up with the Coroner.

Tune in tomorrow morning for all the hits and headlines.

Friday, 14 August 2026

One Track Summer #16: DMC

I'm reading a collection of true stories compiled by The Moth, a non-profit storytelling group from the US. Some of them are very good, some of them are rather annoying, some of them are full of self-aggrandizing bullshit... but I guess that's a pretty accurate representation of the human race.

One of the stand out stories for me came from Darryl McDaniels, aka the DMC of Run DMC. He tells how at the height of his fame, he found himself suffering from chronic depression, and the only thing that made him feel even slightly better was the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. He met her at a showbiz party and behaved like an embarrassed schoolkid, but she recognised him, knew his music, and that made him like her even more. After a while, he discovered the source of his depression, after learning that he was adopted and he had no idea where he really came from. That's when he had the idea of recording a song about how it feels to find out your parents aren't your birth parents, basing it on the old Harry Chapin tune Cat's In The Cradle... and what he really, really wanted was for Sarah McLachlan to sing the chorus. So he called her up and she agreed, inviting him out to her home to record it. And that's when she told him that she was an adopted child too.

DMC tells the story a lot better than that, obviously, but it was a really sweet tale, and the last thing I expected from one of the godfathers of hip hop.