Six degrees of Shirley Bassey

Now here's a wonderful example of "Six Degrees of Separation". How do you work out a path that links Glen Campbell with Shirley Bassey (via Tina Turner)? I did...

I heard Glen Cambell's original Wichita Lineman playing in our mate Sally's pub the other night, and that got me thinking. Not just how brilliant the song is, but I remembered a version of the song that was recorded in the early 80s by the British Electric Foundation (BEF).

The BEF was a project that emerged from the split of the original Human League, and their album Music of Quality and Distinction was a musical landmark, re-launching the career of none other than Tina Turner in the process (Tina did a cover of Ball of Confusion, and the BEF boys Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh went on to produce her comeback single Let's Stay Together). Together with Glenn Gregory, the BEF became Heaven 17.

Convinced that the vocalist on their version of Wichita Lineman was Billy MacKenzie, I went searching. It turned out that the vocalist was in fact Glenn Gregory on this track, but in the process I managed to get hold of some of the tracks they did with Billy, including Roy Orbison's It's Over, Bowie's Secret Life of Arabia and Deniece Williams' Free.

Now, Billy MacKenzie and his band The Associates were a major influence on my life. I had a huge crush on him, and love his semi-operatic vocals - Party Fears Two remains one of my all-time favourite songs. I was distraught when he took his own life in 1997. Thus stimulated, I went on a search for more stuff about Billy and found out that he had some other interesting collaborations, not least as a songwriter on a couple of albums by that fab electro duo Yello (another fave band of mine).

Among the songs he wrote for Yello (he even sang a version of the song) was the sensational Rhythm Divine - which, of course, became one of the best songs ever recorded by none other than... Shirley Bassey!

Whew! And just to complete the circle, here's the song that began this quest, followed by the one that ended it...

Glenn Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Yello feat. Shirley Bassey - Rhythm Divine