Just when you thought it was safe to come out, as I had brought my Five Ws And H mini-series to an end, I am reprising it for this week. I have another theme in the works, suggested by one of you good people, but it isn’t quite there yet, so I’m returning to the mini-series for another week. You may recall that last week, when I played How songs, I said I had another set ready for that. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss out on them, so here is a second week of How for you. They are quite a mixed bag, even by my standards, so I hope you find something to enjoy amongst them.

I’m leading off with a pop classic from way, way back:

Gerry and the Pacemakers released How Do You Do It? as their debut single in March 1963, and it spent three weeks at #1 on the UK Singles chart in April of that year. Their first three singles all went to #1, with the fourth narrowly missing out at #2, though it did make #1 in some charts – we had quite a few variants in those days! It did nothing in N America on first issue, but was re-released in July 1964, when it got to #9 in the US and #6 in Canada. Gerry’s cheeky chappy, one of the lads image served them well, though two of my favourites of theirs are actually ballads. The Beatles also recorded this song and it came very close to being their debut single in the autumn of 1962, but they went with Love Me Do instead and the rest, as they say, is history. It was also offered to Adam Faith and Brian Poole – both big names here at the time – but they turned it down. More fool them!

Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of Richard Thompson, one of the best singer-songwriters this country has ever produced. He has recorded several How songs, but this is my favourite. It is heartbreakingly beautiful:

How Will I Ever Be Simple Again was originally released on Richard’s Daring Adventures album in June 1986, which reached #92 in the UK and #142 in the US. The album seems to have disappeared: it isn’t featured on his YouTube page or in iTunes or Apple Music, and I only had it on cassette so can’t import it into my library. Fortunately, this live recording was included on an album called Celtschmerz, which was a special release for fan club members of a UK tour in 1997, and which I bought from iTunes, back in the days when we did things like that. The song has long been a concert favourite – I’ve seen him play it solo and you can hear a pin drop while he sings it. Wikipedia says that it is one of his most covered songs, but doesn’t mention by whom, though I did find a duet version of Richard playing this with Emmylou Harris in concert. Much though I am a fan of hers, I think her voice is too strident for the delicacy of the song, so I offer no excuses for playing this audio-only clip.

And now for something completely different, as Mr Python used to say. How about a 1970s one-hit wonder:

Sherbet were an Australian band who enjoyed huge success in their homeland and neighbouring New Zealand, but Howzat was their only song to make the UK Singles chart. It was released in May 1976, and made #1 in both Australia and New Zealand, #4 in the UK and even got to #61 in the US. It was also the title track of an album they put out in July of that year, which got to #1 in Australia and #12 in NZ, but didn’t make the charts anywhere else. I rather liked this one at the time, as much for the fact that the band, who were big cricket fans, wrote it to get a well known phrase from the game as a song title, as for the song itself. It was fun, and was a good backdrop to one of the series of long hot summers we enjoyed here in the mid 70s.

I’m going back into British singer-songwriter territory now, for another beautiful song by one of my favourites:

Cat Stevens included How Can I Tell You on his fifth album, Teaser And The Firecat, which came out in October 1971. This was his third more ‘grown up’ album and, like everything he did, I bought it, loved it, and played the vinyl to within millimetres of its life. It peaked at #2 in both the UK and the US, and spent fifteen weeks at the top of the Australian chart. It sold more than 3m copies in the US alone, going 3xPlatinum there and Gold in the UK. I’ve watched this live performance many times over the years and never fail to be moved by the song’s beauty. That’s two in that category this week – do you see now why I wanted to play this set?

I’m going back into Monty Python mode for today’s closing song. This is one which brings back fond memories of one of the times my daughters and I actually enjoyed the same music – those were rare! It’s one which I still like, and I have the CD tucked away somewhere:

Nickelback are a Canadian band, and they released How You Remind Me in July 2001 as the lead single for their third album, Silver Side Up, which came out on a fateful day that September. Their two previous albums had got to the lower levels in the charts in both the UK and the US, but this was where it all took off for them. The single topped the charts in both the US and Canada, reached #2 in Australia and #4 in the UK. It has gone 4xPlatinum in the US, where it has sold more than 4m copies, and 3xPlatinum in the UK, for sales of 1.8m, together with many other awards around the world. The album peaked at #1 in Canada and the UK, as well as several other countries, and at #2 in the US. It has gone 8xPlatinum in Canada, 6xPlatinum in the US and 3xPlatinum in the UK, and was estimated as having sold more than 8m copies worldwide in its first year. It became fashionable to decry the band as derivative and dull, but people seem to like them: all of their subsequent seven albums have reached the higher levels in the US and UK charts, all but two have been #1 in Canada (the others got to #2), making them one of the most successful Canadian bands of all time, having sold more than 50m records. I doubt they care about the critics!

I said that would be today’s last song, but I’m adding in a bonus one. It has nothing to do with the theme, but is my way of marking the passing of Steve Harley on Sunday morning. He was the epitome of cool in his younger days, and will forever be remembered for this classic from his band Cockney Rebel:

A 1975 #1 in the UK and Ireland, but only #96 in the US. You guys need to do some catching up! I can’t say I was a huge fan of the band, but I always liked what I heard by them, and this was the very best of them. It has sold more than 1.5m copies worldwide, been awarded a Gold Disc in the UK, and has been covered more than a hundred times. None of them could do it quite like Steve, though, together with that iconic acoustic guitar solo played by Jim Cregan, formerly of the band Family and later part of Rod Stewart’s band. May Steve rest in peace.

That’s all for this week’s slightly extended offerings. I’ll see you again soon, and hope that you have an enjoyable week 😊