The Song For Today by Jimmie Oliver (free ebook reader for ipad TXT) 📖

which effectively paved the way for Oasis and the britpop phenomenon of the mid-1990s. Prominent among The Stone Roses' impressive legacy is this five minute B-side of 'She Bangs The Drums'. It opens with what can only be described as John Squire's elephant-like guitar riff before evolving into a delicious love song, decorated with Brown's trademark hushed vocals, culminating in a truly ambient one and a half minute outro. They just don't make them like this anymore.
{Also on this date, a new English football Premier League is formed in 1992}

FEBRUARY 21ST
Take Me To The River by Talking Heads (1978)
from the album More Songs About Buildings And Food
New York's Talking Heads were nothing if not creative. Purveyors of a plethora of quirky songs, the quartet rarely felt the need to draw upon other artists' material. One glorious exception was when they chose to cover Al Green's 'Take Me To The River' for their second album, 'More Songs About Buildings And Food' in 1978. Boasting one of the greatest intros to any recording, here was one of the few occasions when justice was done to an original classic. A live version appears on 'Stop Making Sense', but it would be more sense to concentrate on the studio version recorded in the Bahamas five years earlier. Today marks the date of birth of the foursome's Jerry Harrison in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1949.
{Also on this day, Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City in 1965, aged 39}

FEBRUARY 22ND
Where Did Our Love Go by The Supremes (1964)
from the album Where Did Our Love Go
On this day in 1976, Florence Ballard tragically followed fellow American songbirds Mama Cass and Janis Joplin into an early grave, at the age of thirty-two. She was one of the three original Supremes, but once the trio became re-branded as Diana Ross And The Supremes, Flo Ballard felt marginalised. She subsequently exited the group in acrimony and then slid into oblivion, while the act continued to flourish in the charts. 'Where Did Our Love Go?' was the first of an astonishing haul of twelve chart-toppers in the United States. In the case of Florence Ballard, it might be more apt to ask: where did her talent go?
{Also on this date, a coup is launched against President Marcos in the Philippines in 1986}

FEBRUARY 23RD
Im Nin'Alu by Ofra Haza (1987)
from the album Shaday
Today marks the anniversary of another tragedy when Israeli chanteuse Ofra Haza succumbed to the ravages of AIDS in 2000, aged only forty-two. It is rumoured that the singing sensation contracted the illness from her husband. Twelve years earlier she narrowly failed to reach the Top Ten in the British singles chart with the unusual 'Im Nin'Alu'. First, it was a rarity to find an Israeli in the UK charts and secondly the song itself (championed by Radio One disc jockey Garry Davies) sounded like nothing else on the airwaves. The track also found fame when it was sampled on the chart-topper 'Pump Up The Volume' by MARRS.
{Also on this day, the Spanish parliament is stormed in a failed coup attempt in 1981}

FEBRUARY 24TH
Pretty Flamingo by Manfred Mann (1966)
from the album Mann Made Hits
This British Number One hit was the kind of single that most music critics scoff at. For my part, the second of Manfred Mann's three UK chart-toppers is just an excellent pop song. It represents all that was colourful and good about the 'swinging 'sixties', before the music scene became dominated by artists who drew their considerable inspiration from frequent drug use. On this the birthday of the group's vocalist Paul Jones in 1942, why not dig out one of your 'sixties CD compilations and appreciate this jolly tune which brought its beauty to record buyers back in the spring of 1966.
{Also on this date, in 1981 the engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana is announced}

FEBRUARY 25TH
Something by The Beatles (1969)
from the album Abbey Road
Ironically this was the first Beatles single that failed to reach the Top Three in the British singles chart for seven years, yet it is arguably superior to any of its illustrious predecessors. Frank Sinatra rated it as one of the best love songs ever written. It was actually the new Beatles manager Allen Klein who decreed that this outstanding track should be lifted from the 'Abbey Road' album in an attempt to raise extra revenue for the Apple business corporation which was losing money almost as quickly as the Fab Four had accumulated it. Released as a double A-side with John Lennon's 'Come Together', 'Something' was something that John and Paul might have been proud of. Rather like Derek And The Dominoes' majestic 'Layla', this item was penned reportedly for George Harrison's first wife, Pattie. The song's author was born this day in 1943. If George had been in any other group, he would have been hailed as a genius.
{Also on this day, Gamal Abdul Nasser becomes the Premier in Egypt in 1954}

FEBRUARY 26TH
There's Always Something There To Remind Me by Sandie Shaw (1964)
available on the album The Golden Hits Of Sandie Shaw
The extraordinary emergence in 1961 of fourteen-year-old Helen Shapiro almost certainly inspired other young teenage girls to follow in her footsteps towards chart success. First Dusty Springfield, then Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw appeared on 'Top Of The Pops' to provide a challenge to the male-dominated hit parade. One notable triumph for the ladies was this marvellous chart-topper from the autumn of 1964. Born on this day in 1947, Sandie Shaw will be remembered as the bare-footed lass who won the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Puppet On A String'. However, I rate 'There's Always Something There To Remind Me' ( a Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition) as the best of Sandie Shaw's three British Number One singles.
{Also on this date, a bomb explodes at the World Trade Center in New York in 1993}

FEBRUARY 27TH
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) by Steve Harley& Cockney Rebel (1975)
from the album The Best Years Of Our Lives
Steve Harley was born on this day in 1951. His biggest claim to fame is undeniably the chart-topper 'Make Me Smile'. Not only was it one of the best singles of 1975, but the song can stake a claim to be one of the best UK Number One hits of the 'seventies. The advent of psychedelia, progressive rock, and then punk may have prompted many musicologists to disdain 'pop music', but here was one rather self-indulgent chart single which merited a modicum of respect. Decorated by a stop-start rhythm, fine guitar picking, female backing vocals, and a fabulous instrumental break, this track is rarely omitted from any nostalgic 1970s radio show. No 'seventies compilation disc is complete without this cockney-inspired slice of joie de vivre.
{Also on this day, in 1991 President announces that "Kuwait is liberated"}

FEBRUARY 28TH
Little Red Rooster by The Rolling Stones (1964)
available on the album Rolled Gold: The Very Best Of The Rolling Stones
In the early days of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were in awe of Brian Jones. By the end of the decade, they felt contempt for him. Before Cheltenham's finest blues guitarist descended into self-destruction, he remained sufficiently 'together' to knock out a brilliant display of slide guitar on this, the Stones' second Number One of 1964. Meanwhile, Jagger excels himself on harmonica as the (not so) 'fab five' do justice to this Willie Dixon composition. Led Zeppelin and Cream would also help themselves to Dixon's song catalogue. This chart-topper was knocked off its perch by The Beatles, but thereafter (in recognition of the rise of the Rolling Stones) an unwritten agreement between the two rival groups' record companies ensured that their singles would not be released around the same time - such was their respective pulling power. Today marks the birth of Brian Jones in 1942. Play this tune in loving memory of him.
{Also on this date, Sweden's Prime Minister, Olof Palme is assassinated in 1986}

FEBRUARY 29TH
Gimme Hope Jo'anna by Eddy Grant (1988)
from the album File Under Rock
Gosh it's hard to choose a tune for this day, because there are only a quarter of the opportunities to plunder something from the archives that impacted upon popular music. In the event, I have opted for 'Give Me Hope Jo'anna' because on this date in 1988, the venerable Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of Cape Town, was arrested during a five-day protest against the injustice of the South African apartheid regime. This hit single represented something of a departure for Guyana's Eddy Grant, who had enjoyed previous chart success with 'Baby Come Back', 'Do You Feel My Love', and 'Electric Avenue'. Although 'Living On The Frontline' is arguably his best song, 'Give Me Hope Jo'anna' is worthy of note as being the latest in a growing list of protest songs against minority rule in South Africa, including 'Nelson Mandela' by The Special AKA and Labi Siffre's 'Something Inside So Strong'. 'Jo'anna' in this song referred to Johannesburg. Eventually hope was realised when apartheid disintegrated a few years later.
{Also on this day, 3,000 people are killed in an earthquake in Morocco in 1960}

MARCH 1ST
I Can See For Miles by The Who (1967)
from the album The Who Sell Out
Roger Daltrey, the frontman for The Who, was born on this day in 1944. The Who, along with Led Zeppelin, were arguably the most highly acclaimed music act to never reach the top of