Wonderful you

I have been deep in concentration all day today, at home on study leave - studying the esoteric end of the "leadership and management theory" spectrum, if you really need to know; lord knows I wish I didn't!

Despite the steam that has been rising from my brain-cells since 9am, I have not forgotten that today is a Tacky Music Monday, dear reader; our traditional "opening number" of the week from the glitzy world of showtunes - however, the epithet "tacky" is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes down to the array of talent I have in store...

On Saturday, our beloved Dame Cleo Laine (she of the estimable, and still clear as a bell, jazz tonsils) turned 90 years old. Just this July, she was up and performing at her annual "Dankworth Family Festival" alongside daughter Jacqui, guitarist John Williams, musician Earl Okin and vocalist Lorna Dallas. I couldn't imagine being that energetic if I were her age. Nor even at my age.

And here is the great lady herself - alongside Margaret Whiting, Maureen McGovern, Dionne Warwick, Jack Jones and John Raitt!

Margaret Whiting, Maureen McGovern, Dionne Warwick, Jack Jones, Cleo Laine, John Raitt, Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops - It Had To Be You

Imagine being in that audience...

Many happy returns, Dame Cleo Laine (Lady Dankworth DBE, born Clementine Dinah Bullock, 28th October 1927).

Have a good week, peeps!

Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm

Timeslip moment once more, and yes! We're heading back four decades again - on this chilliest of days - for a bit of a warm-up...

In early June 1976: the Lebanon, Uruguay, Angola and Palestine were all hot-beds of warring factions; Idi Amin, the "Black Panther" murderer Donald Neilson and PM Harold Wilson's "Lavender List" of Resignation Honours were in the headlines; the breakdown of Chinese-Soviet relations and strikes in Poland began to show the cracks in the Communist Bloc, while unrest in Soweto was beginning to do the same for apartheid in South Africa; and (of course) the notorious "long hot summer" in the UK had begun in earnest. On telly: Nationwide, Kojak and Survivors. In cinemas: The Omen, Bugsy Malone and To the Devil a Daughter.

In the charts this week forty years ago? Novelty songs abounded, with the godawful No Charge by JJ Barrie at No 1, The Wurzels at #2 and a cover version of the Hoagy Carmichael song My Resistance Is Low by Robin Sarstedt at #3; and also riding high were Abba, Wings, Rolling Stones, Bellamy Brothers and Gladys Knight and her faithful Pips. But hovering in the outskirts was another vintage cover - here, with the estimable terpsichorean talents of Ruby Flipper, is Maureen McGovern and The Continental:

Maureen McGovern – The Continental

Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm
It's something daring, the continental
A way of dancing, that's really ultra-new
It's very subtle, the continental
Because it does what you want it to do

It has a passion, the continental
An invitation to moonlight and romance
It's quite the fashion, the continental
Because you tell of your love while you dance

Your lips whisper so tenderly
Her eyes answer your song
Two bodies swing, the continental
And you are saying just what you're thinking of
So keep on dancing, the continental
For it's the song of romance and of love

You kiss while you're dancing
It's continental, it's continental
You sing while you're dancing
Your voice is gentle and sentimental

You'll know before the dance is through
That you're in love with her and she's in love with you
And you'll find while you're dancing
That there's a rhythm in your heart and soul
A certain rhythm that you can't control
And you will do the continental all the time

Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm
Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm