A dozen of my favourite car songs which mention brand names and are mostly about cars

The first time I heard "Jaguar and Thunderbird" was on the Chuck Berry On Stage LP in a friend's bedroom in Thornton Road, Wimbledon, circa 1964 (the album was released in '63). The long-player consisted of 13 already released tracks with a fake announcement at the start and audience noise throughout (my friend actually figured out the subterfuge - not bad for a 13-year old). Presumably Berry's record company decided to recycle his old stuff in this way because he was in prison for transporting a 14-year old girl across a state line. "Maybelline" was on the same album, but I've always preferred "Jaguar and Thunderbird":

I salute the mighty organ - the instrument that went from zero to hero in 1960s pop music

Organs became big in 1959 when they featured as lead instrument in three major pop hits – Dave “Baby” Cortez’s chart-topping “The Happy Organ” (not to mention "The Whistling Organ" - now there's a novelty!), “White Silver Sands” by the Bill Black Combo, and Johnny and the Hurricane’s “Red River Rock”. Within a few short years, organs had shaken off their cheerful, vaguely comic “novelty” tag and were all over the pop charts: by the mid-Sixties, they were dead hip.

The Fulminators don baggies and Huarache sandals and get funking with "Funky Surfer"

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

The agonising wait is finally over - The Fulminators are back with moody surf masterpiece "Repeat Prescription"

If you love Sixties US pop music, you’re a fan of drummer Hal Blaine – whether you’ve heard of him or not

No, honestly - Hal Blaine was so brilliant, so versatile and so ubiquitous, I guarantee that you know and love dozens of the records he played on. Elvis, the Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, The Byrds, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Sam Cooke, anything produced by Phil Spector, Johnny Rivers, Roy Orbison, Johnny Rivers, some Love tracks, Richard Harris (okay – that’s stretching it!)… well, you get the idea. He was everywhere!

The Beach Boys - the shocking truth revealed at last

"Misirlou", "Walk, Don't Run", "Rock Around the Clock" and other originals that were no such thing

"Misirlou" (1927) by Tetos Demetriades

Blues meets Rockabilly meets Surf - the Fulminators go all eclectic

How the Beach Boys stayed great even after America lost faith

Okay, there is no excuse for this posting, except that it’s been a rather irritating few days, and I need to indulge in some truly mindless fun. And when I need my spirits lifting, the nerdy blokes in the stripy shirts never fail me.

The Fulminators latest recording see them head North, South and West

I’m not going to apologise for posting yet more of my music – as I’ve said before, it guarantees that I’ll finish the tracks to a reasonable standard: my erstwhile guitar teacher, Leo Coulter, was always very disapproving of my sloppy recording techniques - and I want to prove I paid heed!