Tuesday Tunes 185: The Five Ws and H

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Last week something I was reading reminded me of the ‘Five Ws.’ I knew what these were but looked them up on Wikipedia just to be sure. Their page tells us:

“The Five W’s and H is a checklist used in journalism to ensure that the first paragraph (the “lead”) contains all the essential points of a story. As far back as 1913, reporters were taught that the lead should answer these questions:

  • Who?
  • What?
  • When?
  • Where?
  • Why? and
  • How?”

I’d forgotten about the H! And it may come as a surprise to any GOP-supporting American readers that it doesn’t stand for ‘Hunter.’ But these struck me as being great themes for Tuesday Tunes, the only problem being how to do them justice. I debated doing a six song post with one for each word, but even getting down to five songs for each word was hard, so just one? Not a snowball’s chance in Hell! Today therefore sees the start of a six week mini-series, featuring each of the words in turn, leading off with five songs with the question Who? in their title. They are my usual mixed bunch, of some you’ll know and at least one that you probably won’t.

The first band are probably remembered for just one of their songs, which was a huge hit. This one, however, was the opening track on the album the other one was on:

Men At Work were an Australian band, which if you didn’t already know is the basis for their megahit Down Under.  That was actually the second single released from their debut album, Business As Usual: Who Can It Be Now? was the first. Both singles were actually released just before the album, which came out in November 1981 in Australia and June 1982 everywhere else. Both went to #1 in the US, with Down Under also achieving that in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Norway. Who Can It Be Now? reached #2 in their homeland, but only made #45 in the UK. I actually prefer it, as I love the sax theme that runs through it. I bought the album at the time, and loved it too: it is one of the best debut albums I know. It didn’t do badly in the charts, either: #1 in the US for fifteen weeks, #1 in the UK for five weeks, nine weeks at #1 in Australia, and also hitting the top in New Zealand, Canada and Norway, on its way to selling more than 10m copies worldwide.

Back to my own country for my next choice. This is probably an obvious one for me to pick, but that isn’t stopping me:

That was a video of The Who playing Who Are You in May 1978 for a documentary called The Kids Are Alright. I’ve played one from that performance before, as it is a good source of quality recordings of the band. The Who Are You album, for which this is of course the title track, was released in August 1978 – as it happened, just three weeks before the death of drummer Keith Moon. It was their first new record for nearly three years, and it did quite well in the charts, making #6 in the UK and #2 in the US. The single came out slightly ahead of the album – in July in the UK and earlier in August in the US – and peaked at #18 in the UK and #14 in the US. I think we were waiting for the album!

A complete change of approach for this next tune. If you’ve seen my posts before you’ll know that I am a huge fan of the English folk singer-songwriter Kate Rusby. This song was originally a track on her 2001 album Little Lights, but the version I’m playing is from June 2020 when Kate, along with many others, was keeping us entertained during lockdown. Her weekly ‘Singy, Songy Sessions’ were a treat, and this is herself and husband Damien O’Kane in their home. As usual, Kate gives us one of her delightful introductions, but if you want to skip that the song starts around the 2’30” mark:

Who Will Sing Me Lullabies? is a gorgeous song, so typical of what Kate does. Little Lights was her third album, released in June 2001, and was the first to give her a UK chart entry, reaching #75 in the UK Albums chart. Like all of her records it is about as close as you can get to musical perfection, to my ears, and the poignancy of the song – written, as she explains in her intro, for a deceased friend – just adds to the beauty. Kate re-recorded a duet version of the song with Richard Thompson for her retrospective album 30: Happy Returns in 2022, and actually made the singles chart – a solitary week at #92! Some things are just too good to be big hits bought by the masses.

My next song was written by Bo Diddley back in 1956, since when there have been numerous versions. This is one by the man himself, though considerably later:

Bo Diddley has recorded Who Do You Love? several times, but has never had a hit single with it. Several cover versions have made the charts, though, notably Quicksilver Messenger Service in the US in 1967, and Juicy Lucy in the UK in 1970. For me, though, there is no beating the original, which still sounded great thirty years on, helped by a guitarist friend he borrowed from another band who probably owe him a debt for their early style. As far as I can tell they only ever recorded one of his songs, but not this one.

I’m closing today with one from a favourite band, who released their first album in 1975 and enjoyed a lot of success in the US but much less so here in the UK, until things suddenly took off for them in the mid Eighties. This was one of their hit singles – one of their best, to my ears:

Who Will You Run To was the opening track on Heart’s ninth album, Bad Animals, which was released in May 1987, peaking at #2 in the US and #7 in the UK, their first to make the UK top ten. The first single taken from the album, Alone, was a massive hit, making #1 in the US and Canada and #3 in the UK. This was the follow up, released in August 1987, and it got to #7 in the US but only #30 in the UK. I think it deserved better from us, but everyone probably had the album by then: I certainly did!

That’s all for this week. I think this series could go well, and I’m already looking forward to next week! I’ll see you again in a couple of days and then again for Song Lyric Sunday. Take care 😊

53 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 185: The Five Ws and H”

  1. Pingback: February | Take It Easy

  4. What a fun idea! The Men at Work Tune would fit nicely into your instantly recognizable openings that you did a couple of months ago. The first one I thought of was Who Are You by The Who. (Great minds think alike.) My favorite this week has to be Heart, who I consider one of the best groups of all time. (Probably my top female band, but I’d have to give that further consideration. I love the Wilson sisters. I just listened to Mistral Wind last night.

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    • Thanks, Pete, glad you like it, as it gives me six weeks of themes! You’re right about that first one, but I didn’t even think of it for the intros theme! Heart are fantastic, aren’t they, and Ann in particular is a real powerhouse of a vocalist.

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  5. what a clever idea for a series, and a great way to get things started. Thank you for playing another Australian song for me while I am in the land down under! And that video of The Who is phenomenal. And in a coincidence, I happened to ask my students just yesterday if they knew who Roger Daltry was. Not a single one of the twelve! And when I mentioned he was the singer for The Who, it seemed as if most of them had never heard of the group either – unbelievable! They asked if I could play one of their songs in class, which I plan to do tomorrow. I’m not sure which one it will be but this one is certainly a candidate. And what a change to go from Roger to Kate, but what a voice she has.

    By the way, it also seemed like less than half of the students had heard of Bob Dylan…

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    • Thank you. It came to me as I was reading a newspaper article and I thought it worth a go. There are loads to choose from! A happy coincidence that I played Men At Work too – I hope your students have heard of them! That they didn’t know of The Who or Dylan is a bit scary – they must have been raised on a diet of pop pap! Why not give them My Generation and follow it up with the version by The Zimmers – that should hopefully keep them interested 😊

      Kate Rusby is very much a favourite of mine. She was in both my Advent series and the New Year posts, and I’m always happy to share her beautiful voice. I’ve seen her in concert and the way she chats between songs gives the same feel as this video, that we are with her in her front room!

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      • Given that my students are US students, I would say that if they weren’t familiar with The Who or Dylan then the odds are high that they havent heard of Men at Work. I’ll ask them next time I see them.

        I also like performers who chat a bit between songs – it’s one of the things I like about Bruce…

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