[First thing this week is a PSA repeat. I’ve mentioned before that there seems to be a growing tendency for videos not to work, just giving you an endless looping white circle. It is happening to me a lot when I read others’ blogs, and even happened on the two songs I played on my own blog on Sunday! It’s an annoyance, but if you click on the ‘watch on YouTube ‘ link you get taken to a new tab, and closing it down after watching then brings you back to the blog you were reading. I have a theory as to why it happens, and it seems to be occurring more and more over the past month or so.]

Now onto today’s main event. We are at week four of my six week mini-series on the Five Ws and H of journalism, which means that it is the turn of where songs this time round. I’ve chosen the usual mixed bag for you, some of which I have played before but they are all good and worth hearing again.

I’m starting with a song that I’ve played twice before, once in a previous Tuesday Tunes post and also in a Listen To The Band feature on this guy, who is a long time favourite of mine. It is just so very good:

Cat Stevens originally released Where Do The Children Play? in November 1970 on his Tea For The Tillerman album. I saw him in concert in 2009 and he hadn’t lost it: the voice was still as mellifluous, as it is to this day. He opened with a new song and then played this. You could have heard a pin drop apart from the audience singing quietly along with him: we were all word perfect and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. A beautiful song which still carries so much meaning. On first release, the album only got as far as #20 in the UK, though it peaked at #8 in the US. To celebrate its 50th anniversary the album was reworked as Tea For The Tillerman 2, with new videos – like this one – for several of the songs. That September 2020 version made up for the previous chart placing, getting to #4 here, though only #85 in the US. A reflection of changing tastes over time? Or maybe it wasn’t possible to promote it over there in those pandemic days? Like just about everything he has done I loved it back then and still do: it is one of my ‘go to’ albums.

I’ve played this next band a couple of times before, but not this song, so it’s long overdue! This is the official video for it, which is a live event staged to promote their new album in a way reminiscent of something done nearly twenty years before. It has a long intro of the LAPD not shooting anyone while setting up the gig, so if you want to miss that go to around the 2’45” mark:

U2 released Where The Streets Have No Name as the opening track on their album The Joshua Tree in March 1987. The album went to #1 in the US, the UK, and several other countries, and has sold over 25m copies worldwide. This track was released as a single in August 1987, peaking at #4 in the UK and #13 in the US, and has been certified Gold in the UK for more than 400k sales. This video was shot on 27 March 1987, and won the Award for Best Performance Music Video at the 1989 Grammys.

This next one is a first appearance both for the song and the band. There is just something about the vocals on it which has always appealed to me:

The Calling were formed in 1996 in Los Angeles – the city’s second appearance today. They made two albums and released eight singles, then broke up and have subsequently reformed, though the only original member is Alex Band, the vocalist on this song. Wherever You Will Go was their debut single, released in May 2001, and as debuts go it fared pretty well: #5 in the US and #3 in the UK. It also topped the US Adult Top 40 Chart for 23 weeks. It went 2xPlatinum in the UK, for more than 1.2m sales. The track also featured on the first of their two albums, Camino Palmero, which was released in July 2001, getting to #12 in the UK and #36 in the US, and collecting certifications of Platinum in the UK, for 300k sales, and Gold in the US for 500k. The band seems to have been affected by the fickle hand of fate: they have never had another US hit single, though they had two further top twenty entries here in the UK. I wouldn’t claim to be a fan, but this song was – and is – pretty fine. 571m YouTube views tell their story, don’t they?

I played this next one less than a year ago, in June 2023, but I am a big fan of Sarah Darling and her beautiful voice, so it’s getting another airing today:

Where Cowboys Ride was a track on Sarah’s third album, Dream Country, which was released in February 2017. It didn’t make any charts but it is a lovely record. She has had very little chart success, which I think is a real shame, but her strength lies in touring and gaining steady sales on the back of that. She has played concerts in many countries, and for her – and us – the UK is a particular favourite: she speaks of this as being like her second home, and this was perhaps reflected in her 2019 album Wonderland reaching #1 in the UK Country chart. She was one of the artists who maintained a presence during the pandemic lockdown days, with regular shows from her home accompanied on occasion by Welly, her adorable dog. Those Sunday afternoons were a highlight of my weeks. She hasn’t released another album since then, but has been active in giving us new music in single and EP formats, both solo and in collaborations with Ward Thomas and the Six One Five Collective, the latter of whom she has recently toured with. I’d love to see her make it big, as I think she is very talented.

I was fairly sure that I had also played today’s final tune but don’t seem to have done, so it is receiving its first appearance. It was released in 1969 so it probably deserves my belated recognition. This might seem a little pop-py compared with my usual choices, but I loved this at the time and bought the album it was on – a lovely record. This is the album version:

Peter Sarstedt was born in India in 1941, to English parents who had long been resident there, due to his father’s Civil Service job, Both of his parents had trained as classical musicians, and the family moved back to Britain in 1954 after his father’s death. Peter was the middle of three brothers, all of whom had some UK chart success – his older brother went by the stage name of Eden Kane, and was a teenage heartthrob idol in the early Sixties. Where Do You Go To My Lovely was released as a single, in slightly shorter form, in January 1969, and spent four weeks at #1 here in March of that year, whilst reaching #70 in the US – it also made #1 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. It was included on his eponymous debut album, released in March 1969 – the one I bought and enjoyed, which got to #8 in the UK Albums chart. His follow up single, Frozen Orange Juice, peaked at #10 later in 1969 and after that his chart years were behind him. That is still a very good album to my ears, though, and this song won the 1970 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, so I’m not alone in that judgement!

That’s all for this week, and I hope you’ve enjoyed another eclectic mix from the depths of my musical tastes. Have a great week, and I’ll see you again in a couple of days 😊