I have a new theme in mind but I’m saving it for the new year. I still have some wind songs to play you, before December arrives and brings my annual Advent offerings, so I’m going with those for today, completing the trio. And in any case, with us having been battered by Storm Bert for the past few days you have to admit that this is topical, right? A couple of these may well be familiar but I’m betting that at least one will be new to you. We’ll see!

I’m starting with one which is likely to be better known on this side of the pond, as despite the fact that he has made some superb records his level of success in the US doesn’t come near what he has achieved elsewhere. The sound quality on this isn’t perfect but the song shines through it:

Chris Rea released Windy Town on his ninth album, Dancing With Strangers, in September 1987 and at that point it was his highest placing in the UK chart, peaking at #2 and going Platinum for 300k sales: his next two albums both went to #1 here. He has to date had twenty five albums, fourteen of which have reached the UK top 20, with nine of them in the top 10. He has had some huge health problems dating back to the 1990s, when he had pancreatic cancer which he survived after a major operation, and then suffered a stroke in 2017. He still managed to make more records and tour, though his last release was in 2019 and I’m guessing we won’t be getting any more from him as he enjoys what I hope will be a long retirement. I have every single one of his albums, and he has given me much musical enjoyment over the years.

Going right back to the Sixties for my next one, which you may well know. Donovan originally released this as a solo in 1965, but this duet with Crystal Gayle from 1981 is so lovely I can’t resist it:

Catch The Wind was Donovan’s debut single, released in March 1965, peaking at #4 in the UK and #23 in the US. A re-recorded version was then included on his first album, What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid, released in May 1965 in the UK and June in the US: that reached #3 in the UK and #30 in the US. It is a beautiful little love song, written and first released when he was 18, and as I said I love this duet performance. The song has been used as background for episodes in many TV shows and advertisements, and has been covered around forty times. I think it stands the test of time well.

My next tune is the one I am expecting that few, if any will know. It is from a band I have written about before who have a special place in my heart, and who make lovely records like this one. There are several videos of them playing the song live but they all seem to be shot from in the audience and are of dubious quality, so I’m going with the recorded version:

As the video clip shows, Changes With The Wind was a track on Great Lake Swimmers’ album New Wild Everywhere: this was their fifth, released in April 2012 reaching #33 in their native Canada, though I don’t think it made the charts anywhere else. The record came out towards the end of the long period I was off work with depression: I already had some of theirs and bought this in the hope that it would aid my ongoing recovery. Did it ever! I got the extended version and played it to bits, and it is still an album I hold dear. The special place the band has in my heart is, as I have previously written, because they were the first live concert I attended after that long spell off, some four months after I returned to work. It was on a cold, wet November evening, 12 years ago yesterday, in one of London’s smaller concert halls. They had a loyal following: well over a thousand of us crammed in there, and they were an absolute delight.

Up next is one from a big name band, but it may not be one that you know. It’s well worth a listen, though:

Hickory Wind was a track on The Byrds’ sixth album, Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, which was released in August 1968. It was written by Gram Parsons, who takes lead vocal. By the time the album was released he had left the band, whose move away from rock and pop towards country music met with a great deal of resistance and hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment, who viewed the band as “a group of hippies attempting to subvert country music.” Although it was generally well-received by critics they also succeeded in turning off a large number of their rock and pop followers, and the album is their poorest performer in terms of sales: it only reached #77 in the US and didn’t make the UK chart. Despite that, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is today considered to be a seminal and highly influential country rock album. And I liked it too!

Today’s final song is another from the Sixties – just three of five today, then! This was a pop hit that I liked back then and still do:

This one was suggested in the comments on the first of my wind posts, but it was on my list anyway. The Association released Windy as a single in May 1967, and it reached #1 in both Canada and the US, and #53 in the UK. My memory is that it got a lot of airplay here on the pirate radio stations before the government closed them down later that year. Maybe if the BBC had played it more it would have been a bigger hit here – who can tell? The song was also included on the band’s third album, Inside Out, which came out in June 1967 and peaked at #8 in the US. As was common in those days, despite the fact that the band had six members most of the song was played by the session musicians who came to be known as The Wrecking Crew. The Association have kept going to this day: they are still a six piece band, including two of the original members and a son and a brother of former members. Zimmerframe rock lives!

That’s all for this week, and for my selections of wind songs. Next week sees the start of December and the beginning of my usual Advent extravaganza, though I may be doing it slightly differently this year: I have yet to make up my mind on that. You’ll just have to come back to find out, won’t you!

I’ll see you again in a couple of days, so until then stay safe and warm 😊