Popular Nostalgia

Music brings memories flooding back, remember your favourite bands, artists and songs here.

The Muppets were the biggest sewn people for a decade or so in the 1980s and early 90s – and there isn’t a much more nostalgic show than “A Christmas Carol” when it comes to feeling christmassy, so it isn’t really that amazing that the “Muppet Christmas Carol” evokes in me all kinds of twinkly, [...]

This track, Coco Jamboo, came out in 1996 courtesy of the German reggae style outfit known as “Mr President” – this was an instant summer classic which spun us round and round the waltzers in the summer of ‘96.
Another treasured memory.

This song will probably place you in a certain period of your life, at the dawn of a new Millennium, when things like the “Bomfunk MCs” were just a new group of people who you hadn’t really heard of.
The latter part is still true, but this track, “Freestyler” is one of those pieces of music [...]

Strike a pose and dance like Madonna. Arms all over the place. You can now even go and dance to 80’s music in a modified nightclub aerobics class. Everyone’s done it and there are a thousand Youtube spin-offs of the complicated mime-style poses which make up the Vogue dance. The difference between Vogue and other [...]

“Jingle Bell Rock” was first released in 1957 and was played in the “Rockabilly” style rather than Rock and Roll. Bobby Helms released several recordings of the track and it was covered by Bill Haley & His Comet. Some of you may remember the Muppets version played by “Electric Mayhem” – the Muppets’ band with [...]

Vaughn Wilton Monroe was born October 7, 1911 and showed an early talent for the trumpet. He wanted to be an opera singer, but the Depression made that ambition impractical. Instead, he sang with several bands, among them Austin Wylie (who later worked for Artie Shaw), Larry Funk (for which he made his recording debut), [...]

Released in December 1994, this song reached number 1 in several countries although it lost out to East 17’s “Stay Another Day” in the UK. It sold eight million copies and was belted out by many a hen-night up and down the land. In December 2006 “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became the [...]

Johnny Mathis had to choose between becoming an Olympic athlete and starting his recording career after both opportunities came along at once. He stuck with the latter and became a record breaking success, nicknamed the “velvet voice”, yet his athletic records still remain at San Francisco State University. This track has to be the cheesiest [...]

Boney M were a West German pop and disco group who toured extensively throughout the 1970’s. The line-up of singers has changed many times over the decades, but the singers who performed and lip-synched on this single were: Maizie Williams, Bobby Farrell, Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett with Frank Farian as manager and behind-the-scenes vocalist. [...]

“Two Little Boys” is a song written by Theodore Morse and Edward Madden in 1902 about the experiences of two men in the US Civil War.
In 1969 it was revived by good old Rolf Harris, who hobbled his way through the notes and made it all sound like there was a punch line coming up. [...]

“Christmas Alphabet” was Christmas #1 in 1955. He had been named Top UK Male Vocalist in 1952 and 1954. He could impersonate many famous singers and had sung with the top big bands of the era. Dicky appeared on “CALLING DICKIE VALENTINE” (ATV) in 1961. This series for the popular fifties and early sixties singer [...]

“Mistletoe and Wine” got to number one in the UK in 1988. It features a choirboy, brass band and some dodgy graphics on the video. Check out the 80’s bouffant hair and the long grey shapeless coats. Anyone who can sway with as much gusto as Cliff Richard deserves a number one.
The original was sung [...]

“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” was written and first performed in 1934. The original was more instrumental than vocal. There is a version by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, which was one of the first covers. The best part about this song is the latitude for jazz and big band antics, which is [...]

“Stop the Cavalry” was released in 1980 for Christmas. This track was originally written as an anti-war song but a line about about a soldier wishing he was home for Christmas led the record company to add tubular bells and turn this tune into a yuletide staple. Thanks to the brass band arrangement, the track [...]

Mud’s cover of the Elvis hit was a glam rock success. Rob Davis (lead guitar) went on to write “I just can’t get you out of my head” for Kylie Minogue and “Spiller” for Groovejet. Les Gray (vocals) died in February 2004 after taking his show “Les Gray’s Mud” around the UK. Mud were big [...]