Mark Pentleton

I’ve always loved the Frank Sinatra version of this song – it sort of represents an ideal image of Christmas for me: “frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside…”. It was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne and the Sinatra recording dates from 1954.
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Having spent much of today in Glasgow at a meeting, returning home to watch The Apprentice and updating the latest episode of News Time Spanish, I had switched off my computer, only to realise that I’d forgotten to upload today’s song. And on this, the 300th day of the year, too! I recorded this song [...]

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This Whitney Houston song dates from 1988 and was included on her first album. It went to #1 on the Billboard charts in the US, but only reached #14 in the UK.
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This is probably not the best-known song of my 365 collection, but I’ve always liked its simplicity. It was recorded by Abba’s Agnetha Fältskog in 1975 and featured on her album Elva kvinnor i ett hus (Eleven women in one house). The title of the song means “thanks for a wonderful, ordinary day” and in [...]

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This morning Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Scotland to begin a historic visit to the UK. I was trying to think of something appropriately Scottish to play and I’ve just seen Siân Williams from the BBC reporting from Edinburgh’s Princes Street where the Papal procession will take place later. In the background the pipe [...]

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Today’s song is from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin and was written by Tim Rice (lyrics) and Alan Menken (music). The less said about Peter André and Jordan’s version the better…!
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On New Year’s Eve 1999 Billy Joel performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. I would have loved to have been there (though we had a very enjoyable and memorable night at Glenda and Brian’s!) and one of the most poignant songs from the concert is the song 2000 years. The lyrics of the [...]

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We’re staying with an Italian theme today, but I don’t know very much about this song! It was performed in the 1989 Festival di San Remo, the Italian song contest, and I remembered it from a CD I bought of that year’s festival when I was working as a language assistant in Menton, France, just [...]

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Today’s song is the Michael Bublé hit Everything from the 2007 album Call me irresponsible. Apparently written for his now ex-girlfriend Emily Blunt, this song was nominated for a Grammy. It also topped the charts in the US (adult contemporary), Poland, and twice in Italy, with more than a year in between each time!
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Another Diane Warren “power ballad” today with this Aerosmith song from the soundtrack of the 1998 film Armageddon. It’s especially for my sister-in-law Fiona who celebrates her birthday today and who is a wonderful person (yes, she told me to say that…) and undoubtedly my favourite elder sister-in-law Happy birthday, Fiona!
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It was touch and go there… I’ve had a really busy day with meetings in Glasgow most of the day then Parent Council at the school tonight and I almost completely forgot about 365songs! I normally have a few songs stored away in cases like this, but not tonight, so I’ve just recorded the 1974 [...]

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I just heard last night that the musical Chess is coming to the Edinburgh Playhouse in September so I thought I’d do something from Chess for today’s song. Anthem is the powerful hymn-like song which is the first act finale from the show. In this song Anatoly Sergievsky (”The Russian”) sings “my land’s only borders [...]

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I don’t know how to love him features in the 1970 musical Jesus Christ Superstar and is sung by Mary Magdalene. It first appeared with different lyrics in 1967 as Kansas morning, but it was rewritten for the musical, and the rights for the song were purchased for £50! I hope you enjoy today’s performance.
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When you’re making tea you tend to make it not just for yourself… Mum will understand where I’m coming from here, and this will hopefully remind Catriona to make tea for two next time!
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Last night we were at Strictly Come Dancing Live at the SECC. I’d bought Catriona tickets for Christmas and I have to admit that I enjoyed it much more than I expected! One of the songs to which the professionals danced was Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and this reminded me that Maureen in Canada had asked [...]

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This song dates from 1935 and I’ve always enjoyed playing it. Written by Harry Link, Holt Marvell and Jack Strachley, the song has been covered by lots of performers including Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, and Bryan Ferry, but I think my favourite has always been Ella Fitzgerald’s version.
I hope you enjoy today’s performance!
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Today’s song is the beautiful Fields of Gold, written by Sting, although my performance is much more in the style of Eva Cassidy’s version. The last time I played this song was in the Café Rohan in Strasbourg when we were there in November with East Dunbartonshire. On that occasion the song was sung by [...]

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There’s no particular reason for this one today. It’s the song On My Own from Les Misérables, sung by the character Éponine. The musical Les Misérables, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, was written in French by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil in 1980, but wasn’t staged in London until 1985 with English lyrics [...]

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