Sometimes the idea for a theme just drops into my lap, which is what happened with this one. Last week, Keith asked me in a comment if I knew of a song which he had just heard on the radio. Not only did I know it, but it was from a band I really liked, and one which has a tragic back story. I thought about working it into one of these posts, and as the word day is in its title (twice) I thought that would make a good theme. After not much thinking I came up with a list of more than thirty possible day songs – five by The Beatles alone – so it seemed a no brainer to go with it. And if nothing else crops up in the meantime I may well share some more with you next week, as I’ve had to leave out a lot of good tunes this time to keep the numbers down. And that includes all of those Beatles songs!

This is the one Keith asked me about:

Originally named The Iveys, Badfinger were the first band signed to Apple Records, the label set up by The Beatles. They renamed themselves after the working title for The Beatles’ 1967 song With a Little Help From My Friends (which was Bad Finger Boogie). From 1968 to 1973, Badfinger recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple’s dissolution. They had three top ten hits in both the UK and the US between 1969 and 1972, of which Day After Day was the third, peaking at #10 in the UK and #4 in the US after its November 1971 US release, and appearing in the UK in January 1972. The record was produced by George Harrison, who shares the slide guitar playing on the song.. Sadly, the problems with the record label took a severe toll and Pete Ham, who sings lead vocal on this, committed suicide in 1975, and the other main member, Tom Evans, also took his own life, in 1983. They have left us with some great songs, but probably their best known was a hit for someone else: they wrote Without You, which was a 1970 #1 for Harry Nilsson in both the US and the UK, while Mariah Carey screeched her way to a UK #1 with it in 1994.

As I said at the beginning, I found no shortage of day songs to play you. Another band which has more than one is up next. They had a quiet, introspective one and a real stormer. Guess which one I’m playing? Yep, this one:

The Kinks released All Day And All Of The Night in October 1964, but you can probably tell why I couldn’t resist this video of a later live performance – recorded in 1980. The song reached #2 in the UK and #7 in the US. There has since been a good deal of controversy over the apparent similarity between this track and The Doors’ 1968 song, Hello I Love You, which has been resolved by a UK court so that any royalties earned in this country by The Doors’ song are now paid to Ray Davies of The Kinks, who wrote this one. Once you notice it, it is difficult to un-hear, I think.

I’m following up that stormer with another. This one is from a band who, in their heyday, were often consigned to the ‘folk music’ bin by snobby critics, but this shows they could rock with the best of them, I think:

The Levellers didn’t really have much success outside the UK: a few hits in other European countries was the sum total, and they never dented the US charts. There is a clear ‘English-ness’ about them which probably decided that for them! What A Beautiful Day was a track on their fifth album, Mouth To Mouth, released in August 1997 and peaking at #5 in the UK. This song was released as the first single from the album and got to #13. I’ve mentioned before that I used to have a long car commute to work around the North Circular Road in London: this one cranked up to max volume with me singing along was a part of that. I loved the band, and still do. And the line “nothing is impossible in my own powerful mind” is a mantra we should all adopt.

That was one Beautiful Day song – how about another:

Beautiful Day was released on 9 October 2000 as the lead single from the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind, which followed three weeks later. The single went to #1 in the UK, Ireland, Canada and several other countries, but only got to #21 in the US. The album reached #1 in 32 countries, including the UK, but only made #3 in the US. It has to date sold more than 12m copies, though. This song has been played in every U2 concert since they first included it in their set in 2001, and even has the dubious distinction of being used here by ITV as theme music for their football shows for a few years in the Noughties.

I’m slowing things down a little with the next two songs. This is one you may well know, given that the video has more than 435m views on YouTube:

Phil Collins released Another Day In Paradise in October 1989 as the lead single from his album But Seriously. The single topped the charts in the US and many other countries, and got to #2 in the UK. It won the Best Single award at the 1990 Brit Awards and also the 1991 Record Of The Year Grammy award. The album came out the following month and was a massive success, making #1 in both the UK and the US, plus more than twenty other countries. To date it has sold well over 15m copies worldwide. Phil Collins was one of those artists that both my ex-wife and I enjoyed, and this album was played a lot in our house – when our then three year old allowed it!

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of Richard Thompson, and one of my favourite songs of his was also recorded by Bonnie Raitt. Both versions are superb, and I was really torn about which to play. So why not go for a live version of them playing it together? This is wonderful:

Dimming Of The Day first appeared in November 1975 on Pour Down Like Silver, the third album by Richard and Linda Thompson when they were recording as a duo. It was written by Richard, and though it was sung by Linda on the album Richard has continued to play it in his own concerts since then. The album didn’t chart anywhere, so far as I can tell. Bonnie Raitt’s version was on Longing In Their Hearts, released in March 1994, which topped the US chart and reached #26 in the UK. This track wasn’t released as a single, though. To see them play it together is magical for me, and I’m happy I found this video to share with you. I’ve commented in the past about how raucous American audiences can be, but they were, like me, spellbound by this and you could have heard a pin drop. As I said, simply wonderful.

For today’s penultimate song I’m going for a real piece of classic pop nostalgia. This is also a song with a great cover version (by Linda Ronstadt) but I thought I’d give you the original, in a slightly shortened version from the Ed Sullivan Show of 1 December 1957:

That’ll Be The Day was a track on Buddy Holly and The Crickets’ debut album, The “Chirping” Crickets, which was released in November 1957 in the US and in 1958 in the UK. It reached #5 in the UK but didn’t get into the US chart – I find that very surprising, as the single version of this song had topped the charts in both the US and the UK when it was released in May 1957. An earlier version of this song, without The Crickets, was released as the title track of an album in April 1958 to cash in on the success of his new recordings, and also made #5 in the UK. I just love this old clip, and it is such a shame that the plane crash in February 1959 took him from us before he really had the chance to fulfil his potential. Those classic recordings live on, though.

Today’s final tune is from a band I love, but who haven’t really had the chart success in this country that I think they deserved:

Day By Day is a track on The Hooters’ second album, Nervous Night, which was released in April 1985 and reached #12 in the US chart. The band has never had a chart album in the UK, which I find disappointing as I bought several and really enjoyed them. This track was later released as a single and peaked at #18 in the US during 1986. Again, it didn’t chart here – they have only had two singles in our top hundred, the best of which was the superb satirical song Satellite, which got to #22. If you enjoyed this one do try some of their others: the video for Satellite is particularly good, and the one for And We Danced runs it a close second.

That’s all for this week. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite from these – could you? Do tell! I have a load more day songs to play for you so I will be back with more soon. Until then, have a great day and take good care of yourself and those you love 😊