My Top Ten Dolphin Songs

Last week's post about vacuum cleaners had less hits than anything I've ever written here. Which I guess shows that nobody is particularly enamoured by pop songs about household appliances. (So I'll be revisiting that again soon, dead horses need flogging.) I'll surely be on safer territory this week... everyone loves dolphins, right? (Although...that one above...is it just me...or does it look a bit like the Alien?)



10. The Byrds - Dolphin's Smile

 A song about cutting your moorings and floating free away...sounds tempting, right?

9. Ian Brown - Dolphins Were Monkeys

Well, if anybody would know about being a monkey...

8. Prince - Dolphin

Leave it to Prince to write a sado-masochistic reincarnation fantasy about dolphins... weirdo. Of course, considering this was written during the Slave / Symbol / TAFKAP days, its lyrics are pointing straight at his record company...

U can cut off all my fins
But 2 your ways I will not bend
I'll die before I let U tell me how 2 swim
And I'll come back again as a dolphin

7. Martyn Joseph - Dolphins Make Me Cry

The grown-up world is seriously depressing Martyn Joseph... that's why dolphins make him cry.

6. Shed Seven - Dolphin

From the York yobboes' debut album, this was their first single to crash into the Top 30 at the dawn of Britpop in 1994. They'd go on to much greater things, but Dolphin stands the test of time pretty well.

The video features Rick and the band performing in a waterless swimming pool. Can't help but think it'd have been more interesting if they'd filled it up as the song went on... but I guess there might have been health & safety issues with that.

5. Terrorvision - Perserverance

From York to Bradford, and more brilliantly raucous Britpop hooligans... they were right about the whales and dolphins. (Terrorvision went on to name their greatest hits album after this very lyric, so it obviously meant something.)

4. Crosby, Stills & Nash - After The Dolphin

This Dolphin was the London pub where the first aerial bombing of WWI took place. Here, Graham Nash asks if the world was ever the same after that fateful night...? 

3. Ooberman - Dolphin Blue

Ah, Ooberman. They should have been so much bigger.We need more pop stars called Popplewell.

2. Beth Orton & Terry Callier - Dolphins

Written and originally recorded by Fred Neil (who also wrote the gorgeous Everybody's Talkin'), this is surely the most covered Dolphins song in history. Tim Buckley's is probably the most famous; Billy Bragg did a heartbreaking cover on Don't Try This At Home; but there's something about the dreamy combo of Beth O. and folk-jazz pioneer Terry Callier that just does it for me like no other...

I've been searchin'
For the dolphins in the sea
And sometimes I wonder
Do you ever think of me?

1. David Bowie - Heroes

Arguably Bowie's greatest moment, with a little help from Brian Eno, Tony Visconti, and Robert Fripp on feedback. Strangely, it wasn't that big a hit when it was first released in 1977, but time has been very decent to it. Shows what the recording buying public know!

I 
I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim...

Which is your Flipper?

My Top Ten Lean On Me Songs

Ten songs asking you to lean on me? Is that possible?

Turns out to be easier than it sounds. (I didn't even have to resort to Limp Bizkit.)

So lean on me... but not too hard. Remember my back!


10. Keith Richards - Eileen

Eileen... would you lean on me?

You see what Keef did there?

Yeah... man. That's, like, yeah...

Great guitar, though.

9. Dan Tyminski - The One You Lean On

The (singing) voice of George Clooney in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, Dan Tyminski is anything but a man of constant sorrow.

8. J.J. Cale - Lean On Me

Smoooooooth...

7. David Bowie - Suffragette City

Don't lean on me man, 'cos you can't afford the ticket...

Would have placed higher in the list if it'd been more on target... but I could hardly ignore one of Bowie's best.

6. Harry Nilsson - Lean On Me

Harry Nilsson's 1977 album Knnillssonn was due to be his comeback. After rupturing his vocal chords during a wild night of drinking and debauchery with John Lennon a few years earlier, his voice had suffered on subsequent recordings. But it was back on top form by the time of Knnillssonn and his record company were up for promoting the heck out of it. Then an artist on the same label sadly passed away just as Knnillssonn was due to be released... and the promotional budget went on flogging Elvis Presley's back catalogue to the grieving masses.

Poor Harry: he never had much luck.

5. Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Lean on Me, I Won't Fall Over

Smashing anti-suicide anthem from Jim Bob and Fruitbat...

I didn't want to be so dozy, darling
I should have promised you a rosy garden
And told you life is sweet, stick around and enjoy it
Flush that stupid nonsense down the toilet
And lean on me I won't fall over

4. Beth Orton & Terry Callier - Lean On Me

In the late 90s, Beth Orton recorded an EP with 70s soul/jazz legend Terry Callier, including this gorgeous take on Callier's own leaning composition. Their voices just go so well together.

3. Red Box - Lean On Me (ah-li-ayo)

Let me ask you a few questions...

Are we happy, are we scared?
Are we shouting never heard?
Are we running, running brave?
Are we fighting, making waves?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are you grew up in the 1980s. Red Box have now released three studio albums: one in 1986, one in 1990... and one in 2010 (which was a big hit in Poland). 

2. The Housemartins - Lean On Me

Everyone always goes on about how The Smiths threw away some of their greatest songs on b-sides (How Soon Is Now!!!) but Paul Heaton did the same with his original band, The Housemartins. I'd always assumed this was a cover version. Turns out when I read the sleeve notes that it is a Heaton original, written "on the spot as a filler" with Pete "18 With A Bullet" Wingield, and so good it ended up making its way onto their debut album. While it's not quite in the same league as today's winning tune, it's still an amazing recording. (And, as Martin said while commenting on my last post, we all need a little more Housemartins in our lives.)  

1. Bill Withers - Lean On Me

No prizes for guessing my Number One. A timeless soul classic originally released when I was one month old. Withers appears to have retired from music making in the late 80s, but I guess he still dines out on this song... and all its many, many successful cover versions.




Which one would you lean on?