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Scott Walker, 1943-2019
Song of the Day: A short musical tribute to the great and now sadly late American-born British singer and composer with that extraordinary baritone voice, from his Walker Brothers pop era to a solo career of great influence, innovation and experiment
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Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, 1955-2019
Song of the Day: A triple-song tribute the Mark Hollis, founder songwriter and frontman of the extraordinarily innovative and influential 80s band, whose death, at 64, was recently reported
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Monstrous talent: Akira Ifukube and Godzilla
Song of the Day: Following on from Hikaru Hayashi, we dip into the next Japanese composer, a prolific writer of film scores best for the famous Godzilla monster movies, as well hundreds of other classical pieces
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Nobuko Otowa as the mother in The Naked Island (1960)
Song of the Day: Following Joe Hisaichi, another distinguished Japanese composer who among his many works wrote the beautiful theme from a 1960 film without dialogue directed by Kaneto Shindo
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A scene from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, with music by Joe Hisaishi
Song of the Day: Moving from Ryuichi Sakamoto to another great Japanese pianist and composer, the man behind the beautiful music to the animated Studio Ghibli films directed by Hayao Miyazaki
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David Bowie and Ryuchi Sakamoto on the set for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
Song of the Day: Linking our last entry with not only the recently deceased director Bernardo Bertolucci and also David Bowie, some exquisite music by the great Japanese composer, pianist and actor
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Lest we forget …
Song of the Day: Simply a song, a piece of music and a poem to mark 100 years since Armistice Day 11 November 1918, the end of the First World War, in which there were 40 million casualties
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Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976)
Song of the Day: It is hardly a stab in the dark to pick out the great American composer’s film work as the next entry in film score music, but here is an artist surely among the greatest for matching image and sound
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Sweet Smell of Success (1957), starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, with a equally sharp Bernstein score
Song of the Day: More outstanding film theme music, this time with three contrasting examples from the New Yorker with a huge, award-winning repertoire, reaching deep into the American and British psyche
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Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
Song of the Day: Moving on from Britain’s John Barry, two pieces of work from the highly versatile US composer and conductor here showing contrasting styles that equally express the dark and disturbing
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Now listen to me … Michael Caine is accompanied by one of John Barry’s finest soundtracks
Song of the Day: Completing a Michael Caine leading role trio, the beautiful, haunting theme composed by one of film and TV’s all-time great composers who is best known for the James Bond films
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Oscar Peterson and friends
Song of the Day: Continuing from yesterday’s jazz ode to freedom by Billy Taylor, with a version by Nina Simone, let’s move onto another piano great, and an instrumental number from 1963 that definitely echoes it
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John Schroeder
Song of the Day: After three belters from Quincy Jones, today let’s move on to full fat funk TV and movie orchestra sounds from the 60s and early 70s, with tracks rarely recognised, but whose still hits home instantly
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Bullitt (1968)
Song of the Day: Continuing the funk-orchestral movie-theme thread, another colossus of the genre, the Argentina-born American composer and conductor famous for so many outstanding film and TV soundtracks
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Minnie Riperton in 1971
Song of the Day: After our previous Manchester late-80s dance tracks, when flower power returned with a new chemical twist, we hark back to another petal-infused and influential song by the vocalist linked to our previous Rotary Connection selection
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Millicent Fawcett campaigns for the vote in London's Hyde Park
Song of the Day: Two very contrasting songs to celebrate the centenary of the first legal step into women's suffrage in Britain - the Representation of People Act 1918 - followed by the eventually ratification across the US in 1920.
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Moondog in Manhattan
Song of the Day: After Captain Beefheart, could there be any musical figure more influential, eccentric, strange and innovative? Louis Thomas Hardin, aka the Viking figure who for years silently stalked New York's 6th Avenue, is a strong contender
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From the cover of Renaissance's 1978 album A Song For All Seasons
Song of the Day: After yesterday's mention of northern lights in a Laura Gibson song, let's turn back the clock to 1978, and a beloved hit by the prog rock band with a symphonic, soaring chorus and cascading bass line
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Tindersticks
Song of the Day: Following yesterday's Prince of Tears by Baxter Dury, let's move onto another deep-voiced, orchestral-backed song of wonderful melancholy by the Nottingham band from their second album in 1995
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Few people do Christmas like Sufjan Stevens
Song of the Day: Christmas is a time of tradition and cliches, but if there's one artist who manages to address the festive season with full enthusiasm but in a altogether alternative manner, it is the Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based singer
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