"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock and roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955. It is considered one of the first rockabilly (rock and roll) records and incorporated elements of blues, country and pop music of the time.

I was priviliged to see Perkins in concert at Newcastle City Hall back in 1965 when he was on the same bill as Chuck Berry and the Animals. Very, very good performance.

Here's an absolute cracker. Just stumbled upon this by chance.

After taking the demo of "Stay" to Al Silver at Herald Records in New York, the song was pressed and released in early 1960. Now then here's one for you trivia freaks - Stay is the shortest recording ever to reach number one on the charts in the United States - one minute 39 seconds.

Later versions of "Stay" by The Four Seasons (1964) and Jackson Browne (1978) also reached the Top 20, each selling over one million copies in the United States alone. The inclusion of "Stay" on the soundtrack to the film Dirty Dancing in 1987 led to the song selling more records than it had during its original release.

Maurice Williams continued recording, touring, and releasing music through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He is still active on the music scene, and lives in North Carolina.

This is by way of an apology. It was our clip of the day for May 20th but doesn't appear to have worked. It's too good a song to miss-out on. It was recorded live on NBC's Today Show, July 3, 1998.

I think if I seriously sat down and wrote-out a top ten of all-time favourite hits this would be up there with the best. Fogerty and his Creedence Clearwater Revival band were very special.

I remember buying this one at Mrs Kovari's in Cockermouth (next to the Grand Theatre in those days). I thought she was very similar to Brenda Lee in singing style and also a bit of early Lulu in there as well. Couldn't tell you of any more notable records by her but this was certainly a cracker. This was recorded live but obviously a fair bit past the date of the record.

Now aged 71 she is sometimes called the first female rock and roll singer as she began recording in 1954.  In 1960 she saw chart success when Capitol re-released her 1958 rendition of "Let's Have a Party." She switched over to country music in the 1960s, racking up a few hits there as well. She has often been hailed as the "Queen of Rockabilly".

 All the current news about statues to Stan Laurel in Ulverston, Bishop Auckland and North Shields (in reverse order by the way) we thought it was appropriate for a short clip to remind you of Stan in his prime working alonside Oliver Hardy in the 1930 film Blotto

As you have been reading in our news section, Torpenhow Village Hall has landed a major coup - they have booked Amy LaVere, one of the bright young things on the Americana music scene who is on a major UK tour in October.

Reds director Alec Graham, who has organised the concert on October 20, first saw Amy LaVere performing at the Basement in Nasshville earlier this year. This is where "Killing Him" off her second album, "Anchor and Anvils" was recorded on May 18, 2007. Her two albums are available for purchase at www.archer-records.com.

Doin't forget the date - Monday, October 20 - a world singing star comes to Torpenhow.

I blame Dapper Derek really. He dashed over at the end of the Reds match on Saturday to collect his draw money from me. Said he was in a hurry and going to Carlisle to see Kasabian.

Now to be fair I've got Derek down as more Jethro Tull than Kasabian but he has some good musical tastes - a stalwart of the Carnegie's Monroe's bar.

Our Sean plays Kasabian a fair bit so I knew what Derek was on about. One of the modern bands worth a listen.

Wasn't sure about them when reading their wikipedia entry though. Apparently the band took their name from Linda Kasabian, the young pregnant girl who drove the car in which Charles Manson escaped after the gruesome murder in the house of Sharon Tate, the wife of Roman Polanski.

The band members are from the Leicestershire villages of Blaby and Countershope (now there's a mouthful, but not as good as Baggrow and Blennerhasset). They met whilst attending Leysland High School and Countesthorpe Community College.

^{They sound fine though and the video to this clip is mighty interesting as well.}

We used to wear caps made popular by Donovan in the 60's. I used to have a favourite wine-red one with a button you could undo and release the peak and wear like a Johnny Reb hat. Remember going to the Pavilion at Keswick one Saturday night and having it pinched.

Donovan  - full name Donovan Phillips Leitch, now 62 - was one of the most popular British recording artists of his day, producing a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Bruce Springstein and the Beatles, and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the Beatles.

He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time.

He continued to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s, but gradually fell from favour. His gentle musical style and hippie iimage was scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his career, but he underwent a strong revival in the 1990's with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain. Late in the decade, he recorded a successful album with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and released a new album, Beat Cafe, in 2004.

I think is one of his best early songs.

This was a belter at the time, and still is. We've managed to find an actual live performance by Pickett and he sounds very good.

A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the pop charts as well.

Among his best known hits are this In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 dances", "Mustang Sally", and "Funky Broadway". The impact of Pickett's songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He died in January 2006 aged 65.

One of the many good bands of the sixties from the USA who never really made it in Britain were the Young Rascals - later just the Rascals and this was probably the record they are most famous for.

Three-quarters of the group  had previously been members of Joey Dee and the Starliters and when Atlantic Recordsd signed them, they discovered that another group (Borrah Minevitch's and Johnny Puleo's Harmonica Rascals) objected to the release of records under the name Rascals. To avoid conflict, manager Sid Bernstein decided to rename the group the Young Rascals.

Their first television performance took place on Hullabaloo in 1965 where they performed the debut single, "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore." The track was actually more successful in Canada where it reached 23. This modest hit was followed by the US/Canada number one single "Good lovin.'

Their first two singles were covers, but after that the band's songwriting team began providing most of their songs, and the hits kept coming for the next two years. Their immediate followups to "Good Lovin'", including "I've Been Lonely Too Long", "You Better Run", were only modest hits, but "Groovin' (No 1 in US/Canada, 1967), returned them to the top of the charts.

After that, the group reeled off a succession of US top 20 US hits, including "It's wonderful", "A Girl Like You", "How can I be sure" and "A beautiful morning" (1968). Outside of the US, the band was exceptionally popular in Canada, but they struggled in the UK, where they only twice reached the top 75 in their entire career (both times in 1967) with "Groovin'" (no 8), and "A Girl Like You" (no 35)

In early 1968, the group dropped the "Young" from their name.

The (Young) Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and fFor the first time in years, all four original members appeared together. For their "jam session" they performed "Good Lovin'", "Groovin'", "How Can I Be Sure", and "People Got To Be Free".