Got my sun-roof down, got my diamonds in the back

It's apple blossom time!

I have been busy (again) lumping around the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, potting on seedlings, squishing pests, and most of all - enjoying the brilliant sunshine! However, I haven't forgotten that it's the weekend again, and time for a boogie.

Today would have been the 80th birthday of a very influential woman indeed - Miss Sylvia Robinson. Who? I hear you ask...

Well, not only was Miss Robinson one half of the inspirational rhythm and blues duo "Mickey & Sylvia", whose big hit Love is Strange was latterly a hit for The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly, she also went on to co-found Sugar Hill Records, which launched the "rap" genre on an unsuspecting world. And, in between, she also wrote this - it's that archetypal Studio 54 classic, Shirley and Company and Shame, Shame, Shame!

Get the queen in the cravat...

Shirley & Company - Shame Shame Shame

Don't stop the motion
If you get the notion
You can't stop the groove
'Cos you just won't move
Got my sun-roof down
Got my diamonds in the back

So put on your shaky wig baby
If you don't I ain't comin' back

Shame shame shame on you
If you can't dance too

Such true words. Get your shaky wigs on, babies - and Thank Disco It's Friday!

Got my sun-roof down; got my diamonds in the back

Among a raft of birthdays today - including such odd bedfellows as poet William Cowper, "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz, playwright Eugene Ionesco, Pat Phoenix ("Elsie Tanner"), George Segal, DJ Paul Burnett, Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn, John McVie, La Cicciolina, Jean Terrell and Queen Maud of Norway - one name stands head and shoulders among the rest.

Just today, one of our Patron Saints paid tribute to another, as Cher said:

“Tina Turner was, is, and always will be, a Goddess to me‼️ It's impossible to stand next to her on stage, and not feel a little bit eclipsed.”

Indeed.

And here they are together with Shame, Shame, Shame:

Tina Turner and Cher - Shame Shame Shame

Don't stop the motion
If you get the notion
You can't stop the groove
Cause you just won't move
Got my sun-roof down
Got my diamonds in the back
So put on your shaky wig baby
If you don't I ain't comin' back!

Many happy returns Mrs Tina Turner Bach (nee Anna Mae Bullock, born 26th November 1939)!

Just because...

...it's a grey and miserable day, and we need cheering up (and because Paul Burston is hosting a House of Homosexual Culture event on the history of gay clubbing at the South Bank tonight), here are two of our favourite divas Tina Turner and Cher with their version of that Disco classic Shame Shame Shame - enjoy!

Tina Turner and Cher - Shame Shame Shame