The secret of Chic's success, revealed by Nile Rogers on BBC4 - start your song with the chorus!

Strictly speaking, most of Chic's hits start with the instruments establishing a groove for anything up to 30 seconds - but what follows is the chorus (i.e. the  rousing, chanty bit where everyone usually sings the song's title - the part listeners tend to remember), rather than the verse (usually a single voice setting the scene, telling a story etc.): it's normally the other way round. Chic's first hit, "Le Freak", goes straight into the chorus ("Ahhhhh...FREAK OUT! - Le Freak, c'est chic"):

This is to grab the listener's attention...

In case anyone needs cheering up - 100 Movie Dance Scenes Mashup

I don't really know whether Kraftwerk are geniuses or charlatans - but their music is great to be ill to

If you've been visited by the virus that's been on the rampage since the start of the year, you'll probably know what my family's been going through. First there was the feeling lousy, then the sneezing and coughing, then mainly coughing - a truly maddening cough that doesn't bring anything up, but drives everyone mad and keeps you awake. Then the cough becomes productive and less frequent and you start to feel better and find yourself humming tunes and whistling and getting enough sleep - and then the dry cough returns, followed by the sneezing and the feeling lousy and the lack of sleep all over again. Hell-fire! 

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

White Man’s Overbite - my Top ten “dancing Dad” records

I have just discovered I don’t have to fill in a tortuous tax form by 31st January - so I’m celebrating by doing a silly post with no justification and no genuine definable theme... but here goes: we all have tracks, I suspect, whose great big thunking beat we find irresistible and which make us dance around the house when no one’s looking, doing the White Man’s Overbite (Copyright: When Harry Met Sally).  These songs don’t have to have any other merit except making us want to dance.