Wondering what to choose for this week’s theme I was trawling through my notes on previous posts in this series, and realised that there were many for which I had created lists but only played a few. A lot of these were themes I enjoyed doing, and the ‘leftovers’ were all pretty good, so I thought I’d revisit some of those themes for another go round. I played two weeks of bird songs last November, and it seemed like a plan to share some more from my list, so for the third time my theme this week is birds. Apologies to anyone who already knew that after I inadvertently hit ‘publish’ instead of ‘save’ while I was writing this yesterday! This is a mostly rock-based selection, but a pop tune seems to have crept in there too while I wasn’t looking.

I’ve played a couple of tracks by this first band before, but not this one:

That is a relatively new video, published by the record company just under five years ago, though The Steve Miller Band originally released Fly Like An Eagle as their ninth album in May 1979. It peaked at #3 in the US and #11 in the UK – the first of their albums to make our chart. This was the third track to be released as a single, in August of that year in the UK and in December in the US. It got to #2 in the US but didn’t make our charts, even though the two previous ones did. We can be perverse at times, as evidenced by the fact that we gave them a #1 with The Joker three years previously, but the corresponding album wasn’t a UK hit! Go figure.

The next tune is the one I think of as the ‘pop’ one, but it is something of a masterpiece from a fairly successful band:

Last Saturday was the fiftieth anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest, when they burst onto the scene with Waterloo and launched a stellar career, so it seems fitting to play one of their songs to mark that. They have sold more than 150m records worldwide, and are one of the most successful acts of all time. Eagle was the opening track on their fifth album, ABBA: The Album,  which was released across Scandinavia in December 1977 but due to massive pre-orders the record pressing plants couldn’t keep up with demand in the UK so they missed the Christmas sales period, and it finally came out in January 1978. That didn’t appear to have damaged it too much, as it went to #1 here and was awarded a Platinum Disc for sales of more than 1m. It also went Platinum in the US, for sales of 1.3m, though it only got to #14 over there. Eagle was released as a single in only a few countries, and in France it was a double A-side with Thank You for the Music. It wasn’t a single in the UK, nor in the US: it was intended for release over there, but was withdrawn (for a reason I don’t know, as Wikipedia isn’t telling).

I was really torn as to which version of this next song to play you. The original, by Jimi Hendrix, is great, but the best known cover version just pipped it – a close-run thing, though:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience originally included Little Wing on their second album, Axis: Bold As Love, which came out in December 1967 and reached #5 in the UK and #3 in the US. Eric Clapton has played the song in various incarnations down the years, the first being when he began with Derek and the Dominos, as you can see from the video. Layla And Assorted Love Songs was a double album, released in the US in November 1970 and in the UK the following month. It peaked at #16 in the US but didn’t make the UK charts. It has sold consistently, though: the original release has gone Platinum in the UK and Gold in the US, and a 2008 re-release went Gold in the UK, and later spent one week at #68 in the UK Albums chart – in 2011! Only one track has been taken from it as a single, and this wasn’t it.

I played this next one last summer for a different theme, but I like it so much that you’re getting it again! It goes right back to Elton John’s early days, and is still in my view one of his most beautiful songs. There are numerous versions on YouTube of live performances, but even though it is audio-only I wanted to play you the original album version, as the harpsichord makes it something rather special:

I don’t know why the sound depth changes about two minutes in, sorry, but it seems to be that way on the record too! Skyline Pigeon was, as the video shows, a track on Elton’s debut album, Empty Sky, which was released in the UK in June 1969, but didn’t make the chart. It wasn’t released in the US until January 1975, by which time he had already become a star, and its chart position there of #6 reflects that, I think. It wasn’t a single, either, despite getting a good deal of radio airplay when the album first came out – which is when I first heard it and fell in love with it. Elton re-recorded it with a piano accompaniment during the sessions for his Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player album: it wasn’t included on the album but was issued as the B-side to the single of Daniel, and has appeared several times in that form since then. I still prefer the original for its simple beauty. Elton himself has said that this was the first song that he and Bernie Taupin had been excited about writing.

Today’s final tune is another getting a reprise even though I played it last summer, as it is also in the ‘too good to leave out’ category. It is a lovely song too, with a nice video made by a fan:

Bad Company released Seagull as the closing track on their eponymous debut album in June 1974. The album was #1 in the US and #3 here in the UK, and I like to think my purchase helped a little along the way – it spent a lot of time on my record player that last year at uni! Only two of the album’s tracks were released as singles, but this didn’t feature on either of them, even as a B-side. I’ve always loved the song, though, and it always felt like a nice relaxing way to end an album. Mind you, having been born and brought up in a seaside town my own image of seagulls is a little different: to me they were nasty, noisy birds who crapped all over you, swooped down and pecked at you and, worst of all, stole your chips if they had a chance!

That’s all for today. Next week I’ll be reprising another theme, with some more great tunes, and I’ll try to avoid any spoilers. Keep well, and I’ll see you again soon 😊