Song of the Day: Following a series of gospel sings, let's move into a mixture of blues, soul and an even wider theme with song that brought this star back into the public eye in 2002, backed by The Blind Boys of Alabama
Read moreRay Charles – Rainy Night In Georgia
Ray Chalres
Song of the Day: After Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing in rainy Manchester in 1964, another great's rendition of a another wet weather number written by Tony Joe White in 1967 from his 1972 album Through The Eyes Of Love
Read moreSister Rosetta Tharpe – Didn't It Rain / This Train
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singing and guitar-playing superstar, in action at Chorlton station in 1964
Song of the Day: After the great Mahalia Jackson, another superstar who could not only sing, but whose guitar playing was a major influence on Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, and therefore everybody since them
Read moreMahalia Jackson - No Matter How You Pray / Lord Don't Move The Mountain / Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around
Mahalia Jackson
Song of the Day: Following a tribute to Aretha Franklin's passing, who could possibly follow that? Very few, but perhaps one of her inspirations, the great gospel singer, with three songs that show her extraordinary power and range
Read moreTinariwen – Toumast Tincha
Tinariwen
Song of the Day: After Ali Farka Touré's African-origin-blues crossover, another fork the musical track, from those Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, from their 2014 album Emmaar
Read moreAli Farka Touré – Savane
Ali Farka Touré (right) with Toumani Diabaté
Song of the Day: After Nigeria's Fela Kuti, let's move over to Mali, and enjoy some of the finest work from great multi-instrumentalist whose final album, recorded in 2004, marked a crossroads between African music and blues
Read moreThe Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man
An original single cover for Street Fighting Man (1968)
Song of the Day: After yesterday's Fast Fuse by Kasabian, a track that also quickly fires up passions, and is highly influential – recorded 50 years ago during an unprecedented period of demonstrations and riots
Read moreCanned Heat - On The Road Again / Going Up The Country
Canned Heat
Song of the Day: Leaping back out of Springsteen's Pink Cadillac, we continue our road journey with two 1968 hits by the Los Angeles blues band – a cover of a cover a cover – and also go back down the dusty track to see where it all came from
Read moreBruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Pink Cadillac
Going all the way? Pink Cadillac
Song of the Day: After yesterday's heart-racing number by Cake, let's pull in to a classic car song by The Boss that puts aside a certain amount of religious guilt and, with a little innuendo, gets straight down to backseat action
Read moreSpencer Davis Group – I'm a Man
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Stevie Winwood
Song of the Day: After yesterday's Helen Reddy track, let's compare that brave feminist anthem to a similar-era powerful man cry, performed here with Hammond-heavy brilliance by Stevie Winwood and co from 1967
Read moreSuper blue blood moon special: a selection of Tom Waits 'moon' songs
Howling, growling, tenderly looming: Tom Waits is a moon poet
Song of the Day: On this day of this rare astronomical eclipse event, and after a series of other lunar-related songs, we come to an artist who has, across the course of his career, described this celestial body in around 100 different ways
Read moreCaptain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Moonlight On Vermont / Tropical Hot Dog Night
Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet – musician, artist, visionary.
Song of the Day: With the recent passing of The Fall's Mark E Smith, and all the songs, tributes and stories that have followed, it now seems only appropriate to follow up with music Smith loved by one of his major influences
Read moreThe Moody Blues / Bessie Banks – Go Now
The Moody Blues in 1965
Song of the Day: As time goes on, this heartbreak song grows in meaning as we say farewell to more and more pop and rock stars, and there's none better than to pay tribute the recently departed Moody Blues frontman Ray Thomas
Read moreMel Tormé – Comin' Home Baby
From Atlantic single cover, 1962.
Song of the Day: For those facing what is often an arduous, weather-affected journey, travelling home after a Christmas visit, or waiting for their beloved to return with this 1962 classic
Read moreJimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady
Jimi Hendrix, out-foxing all other guitarists in 1967, and ever since.
Song of the Day: More foxiness, with different association, and today we're getting unashamedly sexy on SOTD with a number that may not even be Jimi's greatest, but shows off every aspect of his incomparable panache and technique
Read moreSonghoy Blues – Soubour / Bamako
Desert to Delta: Songhoy Blues were formed in Bamako, Mali.
Song of the Day: A special double, from each of their first two albums, Music In Exile (2015) and Résistance (2017), by the brilliant guitar band from Timbuktu, who were forced to flee Mali after war and Sharia Law. Beloved by many including collaborator Iggy Pop, their superb African funk-blues fusion echoes Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys, John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix
Read moreBlind Willie Johnson – Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
Blind Willie Johnson
Song of the Day: We began the week with Charles Mingus's Moanin', we end it with a song that needs no lyrics – a moaning blues number from 1927 of extraordinary beauty that expresses the pain and sorrow of centuries of black and African-American history, slavery, prejudice and poverty. If yesterday's Louis Jordan number is influential, Johnson's voice and slide guitar sound is even more so
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