Seven Songs for the Week #56 - 1st May 24

It's a hit, an old-school number one hit. In the USA, in the UK, all over the world... a number one hit. Well done Hozier. Just before Taylor took over the charts. Yes, it sounds like Gnarls Barkley's Crazy at times but it's infectious and it will hang around. Hozier now has two massive hits 11 years apart.

Thomas Walsh is Pugwash. He's been releasing melodic pop records for over a quarter century and they sell in the hundreds, even though his list of endorsements is huge. Last week he played his first Dublin gig since before the pandemic in Whelan's. I was expecting it to be in the main venue, but no, it was in the upstairs room with less than 100 people. The support act had a terrible "the music business is shit" rant because his mind in the 90s missed an opportunity to get signed in the US or something. The support managed to knock over Thomas' acoustic guitar - cut to: Thomas comes on stage, realises his guitar is out of tune, then finds out his tuner has no battery - cut to: I'm standing on stage holding up my mobile phone trying to help him tune up, but I hadn't noticed he had a capo on so it didn't work.

Towards the end he does this song and tells the story of how he played it for Jeff Lynne who gave him a thumbs up at a lovely chord change. Anyone who spots the chord change, said Thomas, could win an album. I put up my thumb at the chord change, and was identified by Tosh (Divine Comedy /Pugwash guitarist) and got my free record.

I am still getting to grips with the new VW album. This song is on it.

Saw someone recommend this track online. Had a listen and now nI recommend it too.

Was having a conversation at the weekend about songs that copied or ripped off other songs. I would like to point out that when William Orbit introduced this song to Madonna, she fully credited the writers when it became Ray of Light.

New Dave Gilmour album alert Part One. He'll always be Dave to me. He announced a new album last week due out in September called Luck & Strange, which isn't a clunky title whatsoever. One of the tracks is a cover version of this song which I had not heard before. It's a bit of a boring Blue Nile rip-off, but I can certainly see how Dave would make it better.

New Dave Gilmour album alert Part Two. The lead single we have to sample the album is called The Piper's Call (Piper, a very Floyd word). I have to admit, I didn't really like it, so how about Pink Floyd's best song instead?