Gertcha! A dozen of this Londoner's favourite London songs - from "Play with Fire" to "We're the Sweeney"

Not normally my kind of music, but it's a lovely performance of the most romantic song I know about my home town.

Slight change of tone for my next pick, which was made in 1998, but which, for obvious reasons, is redolent of the '70s:

And this is about as 1960s London as it gets. (especially the couplet, "Now she gets her kicks in Stepney/Not in Knightsbrige any more"):

Warren Zevon - crazy name, crazy guy! This might just be the coolest record ever made:

The next was the poignant, minimalist B-side of Nick Lowe's "Cracking Up" single in 1978. Despite being sung in a pseudo-American accent, it feels very London to me. Basing Street is near Ladbroke Grove:

Back in Sweeney territory here, with 1979's "Cool for Cats":

I should really have chosen Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing" - but there's already a lot of other stuff from the late '70s here, so I've picked Mark Knopfler's seedy "Junkie Doll" from 2000, on the basis that it's the only song I know which mentions my local tube station, Turnham Green:

Shortly after my next choice came out, I started a long-term relationship with a girl who lived in an enormous mansion flat just round the corner from Baker Street, so this is loaded with associations:

Incontrovertibly, the best TV advert of all time was the one for Courage Best featuring Chas & Dave's "Gertcha!". Here it is:

You can hear the full version of the song (worth it for the lyrics alone) here. 

I could have chosen "Waterloo Sunset", of course, but I've always had a soft spot for "Dead End Street". The video was shot in Kentish Town:

Dickensian London now, with a rendition of the folk son, "Ratcliffe Highway":

1978, and a reminder of just how delightful public transport used to be back then - and  of our weird culinary habits (wine with curry???), and of the fact that there used to be such a things as white youth gangs:

I've had to leave out so many favourites that  I'll produce a Part 2 at some stage - and a classical version, of course. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with Noel Coward's wartime celebration of our city. Gets me every time: