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...

Happy 66th Birthday, Jonathan Richman, you splendidly goofy musical misfit!

Very Velvet Underground - but minus the heroin and the gloom. "Roadrunner" is from 1974, and it's still his finest recording, but I have huge affection for this instrumental chart hit from 1977 (even if you can't abide the song, you'll enjoy the video):

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 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.

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

Cecil Ingram Bastardo sprinkles some magic dust over The Fulminators' version of "Train Leaves Here This Morning"

The Fulminators cover "Stampede" - the raucous 1959 instrumental that may very well have been the first surf music single

So farewell then, J.J. Cale – thank you for being so absolutely ridiculously brilliant

Listen to these bits of classical music - and figure out which famous pop songs were based on them

Okay - a peasy one to start with - Friedrich Silcher's "Muss i denn zum Städle hinaus":

So, farewell then, Jerry Leiber - the greatest rock lyricist of them all

There are more lyrics penned by Jerry Leiber knocking around inside my bonce than those of any other 20th Century songwriter. He was – without the shadow of a doubt – the greatest lyric writer in the history of Rock. Chuck Berry comes close – but he was writing for his own voice and in one style: Leiber was writing for dozens of performers in a whole variety of musical genres.

Handsome Family, John D. Loudermilk and Hank C. Burnette all deserve greater recognition