Mark Pentleton

I couldn’t end my 365songs project without including this classic. Originally a French song, Comme d’habitude, by Claude François, the English lyrics were written by Paul Anka after he heard the French version while on holiday in the south of France. Anka wrote the song for Frank Sinatra and it was recorded on 30 December [...]

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The Stevie Wonder version of this song is one of my all-time favourite songs, although the Tony Bennett/Frank Sinatra/Ella Fitzgerald slow version suits my 365songs project a bit better!
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This is another of those songs which I was sure I’d already played, but it turned out to be You’ve lost that loving feeling. The song was written in 1955 and was originally used in the soundtrack of the film Unchained in that year. However it was in 1965 when the Righteous Brothers recorded it [...]

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Today’s song dates from 1966. It was written by John Denver and recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. Leaving on a jet plane has been covered by various artists including Chantal Kreviazuk in the 1998 Armageddon soundtrack and more recently by Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester in the pilot episode of Glee.
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Bit of a random one today! I was doing some improvisation on my piano this morning and it suddenly turned a bit Greek and before I knew it I was into Zorba’s Theme and then Never on a Sunday, so I ended up playing this for you today! It’s from the 1960 film of the [...]

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Before September ends I thought I’d better squeeze this song in! It’s actually been quite a nice day here in Dundalk, Ireland, where I’m working for Apple on the K20 Roadshow, but I’m not sure if the weather at home was quite as nice. I hope therefore that September in the rain was an appropriate [...]

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Today’s song is Van Morrison’s Brown eyed girl dating from 1967 and it was requested by my sister Clare who celebrates her birthday today. I hope you’ve had a great day and that you enjoy this song!
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It makes a change to be posting this in the middle of the day rather than at a few minutes to midnight! We’ve been doing some work in the house and I’ve set up my piano again in a slightly different way, so the sound may be a bit different in today’s recording. Anyway, today’s [...]

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This song was written by Paul Simon in 1964 in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it was the song which propelled the duo to fame. I hope you enjoy my version which marks the 250th song in my collection!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:34 — 3.6MB)

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This beautiful song is especially for Frank and Johanna in Canada who apparently tune in every day at breakfast to my songs. I missed Frank and Johanna’s wedding anniversary in August, so I asked them what they’d like me to play for them and this is what they came up with. Both sides now was [...]

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Today’s song is dedicated to Fiona and Andrew who celebrate their wedding anniversary today. I promised them something cool yet romantic, so I hope this fits the bill! The song dates from 1967 and was first performed by Frankie Valli and soon after in 1968 by Andy Williams. It’s probably Andy Williams’ version we’re most [...]

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As promised yesterday, this song is dedicated to my sister Clare and her husband Eamon who celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary yesterday. I am reliably informed by my wife that their first dance was to this song (I have no idea how she remembers these things…) so I hope I’ve got all the details right! [...]

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As I reach the end of my sixth month here on 365songs I’ve chosen the “most played song of the 20th Century” in the US, according to Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). You’ve lost that loving feeling by The Righteous Brothers was first released in 1964, although I think I only got to know the song [...]

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Today’s song comes from the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. First performed as a 15-minute “pop-cantata” in 1968, the show has grown into a full-length West End and Broadway production featuring performers such as Jason Donovan, Philip Schofield and Donny Osmond.
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It wasn’t until I listened to the evening news on the radio in the car last night that I realised the significance of yesterday’s date. For many years my Italian grandmother would reminisce about the sad events which happened on 10th June 1940 when Churchill infamously gave the order, “Collar the lot!”, referring to Germans [...]

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Today’s song is the 1965 Petula Clark song Downtown. Hope you enjoy it. Sorry if you were hoping for a long story about what this song means to me – I’ve had a really busy day and Junior Apprentice is on in 5 minutes!
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In Scotland it always seems that we get our best weather in May, so I thought this would be an appropriate song to begin a new month with. It was written by George Harrison one afternoon in 1969 as he walked around Eric Clapton’s garden, playing one of his acoustic guitars!
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Today’s song is Up on the roof, written by Carly Simon and Gerry Goffin. It was first recorded by the Drifters in 1962, and later by various artists including James Taylor, Little Eva and Carly Simon herself. Hope you enjoy today’s performance!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:33 — 6.3MB)

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Tomorrow we’ll conclude the Kristina från Duvemåla series, but I wanted to do something different today: Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World is dedicated to Catriona – today is our wedding anniversary and I wanted to play one of her favourite songs.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 6:17 — 8.7MB)

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Ok, so I couldn’t resist doing a special performance for April Fools’ day! Here’s the real version of the 1968 Beatles classic, Hey Jude. I hope you enjoy this a bit more than my earlier post!
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