The Carpenters, John Lee Hooker, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Beach Boys Together On One Album...

Well, not exactly. This morning I thought I need to change my album of the week; it's been too long. What to use? I turned on my itunes and was about to scroll through the library to see what was what. It can be a long haul as I've got close to 50,000 tracks loaded onto the hard drive (yes, it's also backed up). I often just set the whole library to random play and just listen to what comes up; it can be bizarre and very eclectic. So I thought why not just have an imaginary compilation of the first 12 tracks when set to 'shuffle play' and here they are....

Bacharach Medley – The Carpenters
I Know There’s an Answer – The Beach Boys
Wheel and Deal – John Lee Hooker VeeJay recording
Daughter of the Night - Santana
Precious Love - Al Jarreau & Randy Crawford
At the Window - Jimmy Yancey
Just Once in my life - Phil Spector
Whispering - Les Paul
You’re No Good - Linda Ronstadt
Do Right Man - Dan Penn
Drinkin Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee - Jerry Lee Lewis
How Insensitive - Frank Sinatra

The Carpenters medley is from their third album, the one that includes the wonderful Leon Russell song, ‘Superstar’. The Beach Boys is the ‘a cappella’ version from the Pet Sounds sessions; just great to hear all those voices unsullied by instrumentation. Hooker is from a Vee-Jay compilation and it was recorded in the late 1950s. Santana is from a compilation and is a rehearsal session from 1982.

‘Precious Lov’e originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell is one of my favourite Motown records, and this version is pretty good too. Jimmy Yancey's blues piano was an inspiration to many and this slow rolling tune was cut in the 1940s. Phil Spector recorded the Righteous Brothers in 1965 on this song and it was a Top 10 hit in the USA. This is his demo vocal - suffice to say it's not as good as Bill and Bobby. Les Paul is a guitar legend and this tune demonstrates his brilliant studio trickery in recording multi track on none too sophisticated equipment.

Linda Ronstadt, gorgeous looking and a pretty good singer. This was her only No.1 in the US and it's just brilliant. Dan Penn is a legendary songwriter from Memphis and many people have covered this song. I've always enjoyed songwriters doing their own material; it’s great to hear their take. Jerry Lee lewis, one of the true great musicians to come out of the rock and roll era whose personal life has sometimes got in the way of his music. It's a shame when it does, because there are few better.

Nice to end on a Frank tune. It's one from his collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim. It's from one of his very best albums of the Sixties and shows Sinatra in a very different 'setting'