That good old song again..

When you hear a favourite pop song on the radio you often find yourself singing along with it (under your breath if you are tone deaf and sensitive to the pain of others like me). But every now and then a song is played that does more than just tickle the ears it belts one in the nostalgia centres of the brain. Yesterday I heard three such numbers in quick succession.

The first was “The Boys are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzie. Ah, memories of being at Silverstone with dozens of Formula One engines roaring and this playing on the loudspeakers. Heaven.

Then came “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies. This 1969 hit was not exactly a favourite of mine but it did instantly take me back to my college days in Leeds. It always seemed to be playing as Jane (a fellow student) and I walked down the alleyway to Whitelocks for a lunch which consisted in my case of a Scotch Egg and a brown ale. Later The Vic (Victoria) was to become my local for the next three years but that didn’t have music in the room we used so no particular songs bring that to mind.

The third song in the row was “Bus Stop” by The Hollies. One of a number of tunes from 1966 when I spent some time in hospital after a road accident. There were no TVs in the ward in those days and we relied on three things for our amusement – betting, pretty nurses and Radio Caroline. (This was a year before Radio One came into existence to make up for the fact that Caroline and other pirate radios were made illegal.) Others from that era included - “Pretty Flamingo” by Manfred Mann; ”Michelle” by the Overlanders; “These Boots were made for Walkin’” by Nancy Sinatra; "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" by The Walker Brothers; "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band; "California Dreamin" by Mamas and the Papas; “Paperback Writer” by The Beatles; and “Sunny Afternoon” by The Kinks. One song guaranteed to cause a groan from all around the ward as it was announced on our headphones was Tom Jones “Green, green grass of home”.