I was thinking of recording "Morning Dew" - then realised the whole of the rest of the world had already done so

The composer

I'll admit that "Morning Dew" isn't exactly up there with "Summertime" (26,000 recordings), "Yesterday" (4000), or "Amazing Grace" (God knows how many!) - but for a modern-era song not written by The Beatles, it's done pretty well. I found 60+ versions during a trawl of YouTube, without breaking sweat. For a number ignored (as far as I can see) by black artists and middle-of-the-road performers alike, it has prospered across a host of genres, including acoustic folk (where it originated), guitar-based pop, psychedelia, folk-rock, hard rock, Gregorian chant, techno-disco and Southern Rock - there's even a death metal version out there (at least, I think that's what it's meant to be - whatever it is, it's bloody horrible).

My favourite story songs, Part 2: from Creedence and Kassenetz-Katz to Sufjan Stevens and Fairport Convention

My fifteen favourite Bob Dylan tracks

I listened to an awful lot of Bob Dylan tracks before writing my post on The Basement Tapes, and, as it's my wife's turn to host her book group and I'm stuck in my top-floor eyrie this evening, I've been messing about coming up with a list of my favourites. I've gone for performances rather than songs - i.e. this isn't primarily about hipster coolness or political messages or about songs that changed the direction of popular music: these are the Bob Dylan tracks I still listen to for sheer, instant, visceral enjoyment. There's nothing after 1973 (although I have practically everything he's released since then), and there's a preponderance of tracks from his magnificent quartet of mid-to-late-'60s masterpiece LPs.

The great, lost ‘60s’ album wasn’t “Smile” – it was Bob Dylan's "Bottle of Bread"

Today saw (yet another) release of highlights from The Basement Tapes, the recordings Dylan made with his old backing group, the Hawks, in Woodstock in 1967, when he'd dropped out of sight following a motorbike accident (at least, that was his story - his disappearance may simply have been the result of cumulative drug-induced frazzlement). I first heard some of the songs in, I think, 1969 when a friend who loved Dylan but didn't seem to enjoy or understand any other music bought the grand-daddy of all bootleg recordings, Great White Wonder. I wasn’t hugely impressed, but, then, it’s usually taken my ears a while to attune themselves to Bob Dylan’s stuff.

A list of my favourite pop music tracks from each iTune category - I don't waste my Sundays!

Four things convinced me to fritter away Sunday afternoon on the singularly pointless task of choosing my favourite (not necessarily the best) song in each of my self-created iTunes categories: (a) the Telegraph is running a two-part "500 Must-Have Music Tracks" this weekend, which got me pondering, (2) Whispering Bob Harris was on Desert Island Discs this morning, and I found myself singing along to most of his picks, (3) I spent most of last week writing articles for an actual print magazine, which, given the slothfulness of my normal existence, was surprisingly like hard work, and (4) I needed a mindless reward for having recently completed a week-long wheat exclusion diet, and having subsequently started a lactose-exclusion one (don't ask).

The strange, sweet, keening sound of Don and Phil’s harmonies will forever remain one of popular music’s true glories

You’ll have heard the sad news that Phil Everly has died, aged 71. He was the fair-haired brother with the psychotic eyes who sang the high parts on Everly Brothers records (generally a third above Phil, for musicologists). I immediately thought of their 1960 Transatlantic No.1 hit, “Cathy’s Clown”, which I first heard on Radio Luxembourg in my bedroom (you had to hold the bare wires at the end of the aerial to get a decent reception). I can still remember being transfixed by the piercing, chiming, descending harmonies of the thrice-repeated chorus:

1960s singer Judsy Henske passed me by at the time - pity, because she's one the best female singers I've ever heard

Not just singing pullovers with adenoids and ear-ache – my all-time favourite acoustic folk performances

Scrub my last music post – 1972 was almost as good as 1971 for albums, even better for singles!

Okay, I’ve got my excuses ready. The reason I was so wrong about 1972 is… the cat ate my homework! Will that do? Oh, the hell with it – I just got so over-excited by becoming re-acquainted with the glories of 1971, that I began dissing its younger brother without doing proper research. Truth is, ’72 – bless it! – was only a gnat’s behind ’71 in terms of albums, and actually ahead when it comes to singles.  The singles list alone is actually awe-inspiring – and I thought the early ’70s was meant to be the era of the long-player.

"Good morning, America, how are you?" - train songs are the best

Skiffle and Rockabilly - what did they put in the water in 1954?

"Want to have my good time fun" - "White Lightinin'" and other favourite songs about booze

Harry Smith’s “Anthology” - the greatest roots music compilation of them all

I’m ambivalent about much old-timey roots music: I start off listening to compilations of field or commercial recordings of blues and folk performers from the 1930s and 1940s with the best intentions – but after two or three tracks my brain starts saying, “Anyone fancy a pint?”

Murder, mystery and heroics - my all-time favourite story songs