Now and Then
The Beatles have set a record 54-year gap between UK number one singles with “Now and Then”, the third and final John Lennon demo they’ve completed as a band.
The Last Day of Our Acquaintance
The news about Sinead O’Connor in recent years hasn’t been good, so sadly her death last month wasn’t as much of a shock as, say, Dolores O’Riordan’s, but it’s still awful. She would have made a brilliant elderly firebrand. An interview with Shirley Manson of Garbage on how the world destroyed her idol rings so true.
The video of her cover with the late Terry Hall of 1970 Eurovision winner Dana’s “All Kinds of Everything” is lovely, especially the moments where her face lights up. It’s available on her Collaborations album of 2005, if you’re wanting to track down a clean recording.
I hope we’ll get to hear her delayed—and now final—album, No Veteran Dies Alone.
Fanfare for Cardinal Fang
Last week we once again caught the train to London to see our son perform with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for the 28th concert of this year’s Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. It was another great concert, with engrossing performances of works by Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss and Aaron Copland, most of which I hadn’t heard before (apart from “Fanfare for the Common Man” incorporated into Copland’s third symphony); and rousing encores at the end of each half. We were sat above the orchestra, looking down on them and the rest of the audience—an excellent view, although it meant the sound was sometimes heading away from us. If you’re curious, the BBC Radio 3 broadcast is available online for the next two months, and the concert will be on BBC television and iPlayer in a week or so.
Popularity Contest
“Here Comes the Sun” is the first song by the Beatles to hit a billion streams on Spotify (via Mefi). Fascinating that a Harrisong got there first: almost twice as many as Lennon’s contender “Come Together” in second place and McCartney’s “Let It Be” in third. Further evidence, as if any were needed, that the Beatles had three incredible songwriters, not two. (And a fourth who did write at least one great Beatles song in “Octopus’s Garden”, although as Peter Jackson’s Get Back revealed, he had a little help from his friend.) The Beatles’ most popular streaming songs, album by album. How “Come Together” became one of their most streamed tracks (archived).
Poison Paradise
After a year off, Popular has returned, and has reached one of my favourite number ones of the 2000s—it’s a few years until my next 10 out of 10, and I missed commenting on the last one, so it’s worth marking the moment.