Legendary British TV and music producer Jack Good and the Cary Grant film "Father Goose" - synchronicity strikes again!

I was watching Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in the WW2-set romcom Father Goose (1966) the other night in a fairly desultory fashion (it's an enjoyable film, but I've already seen it at least twice and it was past midnight). There are several scenes...

Pop concerts this real gone daddy would love to have attended

Taunton? Yes, Taunton. Wherever, I bet it was fun (although I might have given Vince Eager a miss). Cochran, 21 at the time, was to die following a car crash in Chippenham two months later...

From the Vipers to the Kinks: How British rock 'n' roll records caught up with the Americans, 1957-1964

Vince Taylor & His Playboys

Catching up took a while, but that's not surprising, given that rock 'n' roll was a purely American phenomenon, and that, while it boasted its fair share of jazzers and folkers, Britain wasn't exactly awash with performers steeped in the blues, country or bluegrass.

Farewell, Scotty Moore: the last member of the Elvis, Scotty and Bill trio has gone to glory - and left a great deal behind

I was so obsessed with politics last week that the news that one of my great musical heroes had died only reached me four days after it was announced. While making a cup of tea, I became aware that Radio 4 were playing Elvis records, interspersed with the dulcet tones of a gentlemanly Southerner: it could only be Scotty Moore. It took me a minute to realise he was being spoken of in the past tense. Yes, the man whose wonderfully playful, propulsive, echo-drenched guitar-playing graced dozens of Elvis's greatest recordings - from "That's Alright, Mama" to "Jailhouse Rock" - was dead, at the age of 84. A good innings. Yes, he was "only" the guitar player - but he was vital to Elvis's success, and every guitarist alive today owes at least some part of his style to the genius of Scotty Moore.

Diminutive Welsh guitarist, singer and producer Dave Edmunds is a giant of British rock music - I salute him

Yes, I've heard all the criticisms - he's derivative, predictable, stuck in a time-warp, hasn't written any classic songs, and, au fond, he's a heads-down-no-nonsense-mindless twelve-bar pub-rocker whose terrible twin, lanky Nick Lowe, was the truly creative force in their erstwhile partnership. Some of that's partly true, I think - but if it is, it's because Edmunds has always been a hugely obsessive music fan, in awe of the wonderful noise produced by his heroes and determined to discover how they managed it - and to recreate it using any means at hand, including his own considerable talents as a guitar-picker and a vastly under-rated singer.

Ten great Sun recordings unissued at the time - starting with "Put Your Cat Clothes On"

Stranded In The Jungle - with only jazz, exotica, R&B and rockabilly for company

15 toe-tapping tunes to help banish the January blues

Oh God! The news has been full of stupid politicians saying stupid things and lying through their teeth, we've just taken down our lovely Christmas tree, some idiot bumhole has dumped a bunch of crud on top of the black bin-bags waiting for collection around the lamp-post nearest our front door, so the foxes will be on the rampage all night long and the bin-men will as usual do everything in their power to leave an even worse mess in their wake, and the sky is grey and boring, and... well it's early January and I"M NOT GRUNTLED! So I've whacked on the light box and gone hunting for some insanely cheerful songs to take the edge off my mood, and - just in case any of you are feeling low as well - I've decided to share them with you. I'll start with possibly the most cheerful song I know, from 1946:

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

A tribute to Scotty Moore, the modest genius whose guitar still echoes around the world

I had recently bought my first Elvis Presley LP – Golden Records – when our downstairs’ neighbours at our second rented Wimbledon home agreed to lend me the EP Good Rockin' Tonight, which, apart from the title track, included “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, “Milk Cow Blues” and “Just Because”. I’m ashamed to admit that I never gave it back – in fact, I still have it, although the sleeve went AWOL many decades’ ago. This must have been 1962 or ’63. It fascinated me from the off – I knew that the music was somehow different from the tracks on my Elvis album (which consisted of songs recorded after Elvis had left Sun Records for RCA in early 1956) and very different from his more recent stuff (e.g. “It’s Now or Never”, “His Latest Flame”, “Good Luck Charm” etc.). It was lighter, more febrile, more playful and, despite the absence of drums, even more insanely rhythmic.

"The Strong Black Man", "Ten Horned Devil" and other weird and wonderful sounds I've been enjoying recently

A "Big Bad John"-style mining disaster rescue tale, with an African-American hero to save the day. This was the last single release (1969) from long-time Alabama-born country performer Hank Penny, and it was a doozy (WARNING: contains the "n" word - try not to faint):

Oxford Street HMV closes today after 27 years of satisfying my Jekyll and Hyde musical tastes

All the music that genuinely interested me in HMV's West End megastore was to be found in the basement. Down the escalator, turn left at the bottom, walk until you couldn't go any further and you'd find yourself in the rock 'n' roll/rockabilly section – the musical equivalent of a lap-dancing club. If, instead of turning left, you walked straight ahead past world music, folk, easy listening and country, after a mile or two you'd eventually reach the classical music department, which was like entering a church.

Child pop acts can be incredibly annoying - but the Collins Kids produced some sensational rockabilly

Those crazy cats The Fulminators are back with the rockabilly classic, "Long Black Shiny Car"

Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee and Joyce Green – the three great rockabilly fillies of the Fifties

"Ace of Spades", "The Passenger" and "Venus" - great rockabilly versions of non-rockabilly songs

Rockin' up a storm with "Teddy Boys' Picnic" - The Fulminators triumphantly rework an early classic

The Fulminators pay homage to the great Danny Gatton with "Rockabilly Rapscallion"

So farewell, country star George Jones - you may have hated rockabilly, but you were bloody good at it!

“The Shag is Totally Cool” and other great records banned by the BBC