That’s my approach – I think they’re pointless, but whatever floats your boat, I guess. Yesterday I promised you a second set of tunes to mark the New Year, and here they are. As before, these are all songs that I have played before, which have become a regular part of my New Year music, so I reiterate yesterday’s apology for repetition. But they are all great, so why not?

I’ve led with this one before, so it seems like a plan to do that again:

ABBA released Happy New Year on the album Super Trouper in November 1980, just in time for me to buy it for my now ex-wife for Christmas. I wouldn’t have claimed to be an ABBA fan – that was her job – but I have to admit that they made some fine records. The album reached #1 in the UK, Sweden, and three other countries, and made the top ten in another seven. It got as high as #17 in the US where, for some reason, the band were never as successful as elsewhere, though chart placings like that still meant massive sales. It was eventually released as a single, but not until 1999 as a trailer for a compilation album, and only reached #34 in their native Sweden. This lyric video is relatively new, though: it was released in late 2022 and included an enhanced version of the original video. Some find this a depressing song, but I disagree: I think that the two people involved are looking ahead and not wanting to make the same mistakes again: a good place from which to begin a new year.

I’m following the same pattern as the past couple of years, when I played a song written by Gretchen Peters in my first selection and felt it right to include one that she both wrote and performed in my second set. I should probably have played this yesterday, but oh well, here goes anyway:

That is an achingly beautiful song about love, loss, and the promises that we make as New Year resolutions, but rarely keep. Like everything Gretchen does it matches a lovely tune to intelligent words, and that is why I’m such a fan of hers. This was one of two tracks on a September 2019 single release called The Need To Know Vinyl Session, which was obviously such a big deal that her Wikipedia entry has no mention of it. It’s a safe bet that it wasn’t a chart hit, I think.

Up next is an obvious choice for today, but that isn’t stopping me, even though I know that one of you hates it! Another return visitor:

I was trying to think of what to say about U2 and this one. I looked back to the first time I played it, and I think I said it all then: “That was the lead single from U2’s third album, War. It was released in January 1983, a month ahead of the album: the single reached #10 in the UK and #53 in the US, the album was #1 in the UK and #12 in the US, and has to date sold more than 11m copies. The power of this song, which refers to the Solidarity movement in Poland, still gets me whenever I listen to it. Maybe it is just me, but I thought U2 were far better in their earlier days, before Bono began to believe his own publicity and disappeared up his own fundament.” I still stand by that!

Anyone who has seen my posts before will know that I love the music of several female singer-songwriters. I’ve already played one, and here’s another regular visitor for today:

For several years I had given you the ‘official’ video of this from her record company, which has slightly clearer audio than this live version. But this video of Mary Chapin Carpenter performing the song includes her explanation of its background, and I decided to go with it a couple of years ago and to play it again now: the track is based on a dream about a meeting with a friend, which she noted down and turned into the most beautiful song. As she says, “We dwell on possibility on New Year’s Day.”  The song originally featured on her album Ashes And Roses, released in June 2012, which reached #26 in the UK and #72 in the US. Like everything she does, it is a beautiful record, and comes highly recommended by me.

This is another I really should have played yesterday, but for ‘next year’ please now substitute ‘this year!’ I’ve played this one a couple of times before, but not recently, so I think it is due another airing:

The Foo Fighters are another long-time favourite band of mine. This is very much a stylised ‘looking ahead’ song, and I love its video. They may be one of the loudest rock bands on the planet but when they go into softer mode I think they really excel. This one reached #17 in the US Alternative chart and crept up to #42 in the UK: criminally underrated, in my view. It was also a track on their third album, There Is Nothing Left To Lose, released in November 1999, which peaked at #10 in both the UK and the US. If you never thought you’d see a rock band on the Moon, this is your chance.

As I have done several times in the past I’m closing the regular set with this one. This is a standard traditional New Year song, and I have played my favourite recording of it on several occasions, so with absolutely no apologies for playing the same version again, here it is:

You may well remember Mindy Smith from my Advent Countdown. I can never get enough of her beautiful voice, though, and this is so lovely. For the video to accompany her version of the song she asked fans to send her photos of those they loved or had lost, or maybe both. The resulting collage is absolutely wonderful, and is made even better if you watch it on YouTube and see the heartfelt comments from people whose photos were featured. This really does capture the end of year reflective mood so very well.

I promised you a bonus video, didn’t I. Over the years it has become my custom to give you an encore which is a reminder of my childhood. One of my earliest memories of New Year’s Day is the televised concert of Strauss family music from Vienna, which my late Mum loved and we watched with her and Dad, along with the ski jumping from Garmisch-Partenkirchen which followed it. These were both rare treats in the late 1950s/early 1960s, when daytime TV was still a novelty and before wall to wall TV took over. The closing delight of the concert was always the final encore, the Radetzky March, during which the conductor would turn to the audience and conduct their hand-clapping. This has always seemed to me to be the epitome of the joy and hopefulness that the start of a new year can bring, and I think it is a suitable way to bring my compilations of New Year music to a close.This is the performance from New Year’s Day 2018, conducted by the great Riccardo Muti: he has taken this role six times previously, and is scheduled to be doing so again today for the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss’ birthday. Enjoy a little touch of class to close today’s selections:

Time for me to take my leave of you for today. Now that the BBC is televising the whole concert from Vienna, rather than just the second half, as they used to do, I now have two whole hours and more of it! This always brings back so many happy childhood memories for me of lovely times with my parents: Mum, who passed in May 2008, and Dad, who sadly left us in January 2023. My joy in the music is tinged with sadness but with those lovely memories to sustain me. All that remains is for me to be