From 1990's "Born to Sing", this funky little masterpiece shows how brilliantly #EnVogue could do harmonies. Very minor hit this side of the pond, and by far the best song I've discovered while researching #FirstLastEverything.

Next month: Now, that's what I call an album collection!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9MvCX55Qk

Working in a record shop in summer 94 had its highlights. One of them was reminding people what was that tribal / African / calming song they'd heard.

Lunchtime after they'd sung on #TOTP, we sold all 23 copies. Could have sold them five times over.

Struck a nerve with a lot of people - number one in France for One Full Bryanadams and MTV Europe's video of the year.

#FirstLastEverything #YoussouNDour #NenehCherry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqCpjFMvz-k

From 2020's "evermore" album, when young Swiftie compared her life to a willow tree, bending before the winds of love.

Sparked a lot of discussion amongst fans, and also amongst musicologist anoraks. They say "ooh, common time at 84bpm".

Some fans think "bless, cosy with Joe." Some think "stronger than a 90s trend, obviously a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference."

What does it mean? Who knows? That's the fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsEZmictANA
#FirstLastEverything #TaylorSwift

A burst of chillout brilliance from 1995. Joanna Law's cover of "The first time ever I saw your face" is chopped up and reassembled over a gentle ambient beat.

Sounds as good with your posse on the dancefloor as cuddling with your cutie under the stars on a warm summer's evening.

#FirstLastEverything #WayOutWest #Joanna Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6-Rnq9P_wM

It started as "Mbube", translated as "Wimoweh", hit big for The Tokens.

"The lion sleeps tonight" was a number one hit for Tight Fit - model Steve Grant with singers Denise Gyngell and Julie Harris.

They looked great on #TOTP, with literal choreography. And they could sing! But management didn't pay wages, and the group split within months They've reunited for the nostalgia circuit.

#FirstLastEverything #TightFit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhhFYHFSW_8

You are a travelling big band. You play the same standards every night. You get bored and uninspired, so you mix things up a bit.

The William Tell Overture on kitchen implements! A song called "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"!

This "Rudolph" was a top ten Billboard hit from 1950, just one year after Gene Autry's syrupy original.

https://archive.org/details/78_rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer_spike-jones-and-his-city-slickers-rudolph-himself_gbia0018975b

#FirstLastEverything #SpikeJones #Metetricious

From 2015, the breakthrough track for the singer / songwriter / hunk. Nothing difficult, nothing flash, it's simple and catchy pop with more handclap than vocal dexterity. The performance comes from BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

#FirstLastEverything #ShawnMendes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56D_BXMzbBk

1979 marked a change of direction for the Mael Brothers, working with hip-and-happening producer Giorgio Moroder.

It's a musing on disco culture. And hedonism, and mortality, and drugs, and commercialism.

Released at the moment disco music jumped the shark: after summer '79, fashion changes and Sparks moved to be a heritage act.
#FirstLastEverything #Sparks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6I6yr7WDeg

From 2019's "Living Mirage" album, a song to celebrate diversity and find a common core to humanity. The whole album is about personal growth, and was written when one of the band had his struggles with addictions.

#FirstLastEverything #TheHeadAndTheHeart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA85-bQtDuk

The original Sugababes line up had some wonderful harmonies, never clearer than on this song.

It's a chilling and dark work, the trio literally hide in the shadows and do not want to face the world.

The world of songs and performers that start and end with the same letter has some wonderful people in it.

#FirstLastEverything #Sugababes #MutyaKeishaSiobhan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA85-bQtDuk

Rock week concludes with a song from 2018. By now, the Stone Temple Pilots have a new singer - Jeff Gutt from Yankee X Factor - and less of the internal tension from Scott Weiland's era.

This is a bluesy song, the sound of a band getting to be at ease with itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuJVd7kh3mQ

#FirstLastEverything #StoneTemplePilots

Pete Waterman's answer to Michelle McManus, a four-piece group who could sing a bit, dance a bit, and looked cute on Saturday morning telly.

The video is shot on a massive Twister mat, the song builds step by step to a textbook PWL climax, all melodrama and bombast.

The group's only substantial hit, because Pop! was not where 2004 was at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5aja5GgULA

#FirstLastEverything #PopExclamationPoint

"Begin to Hope" is Regina's most accessible album, showcasing her ability to move from sound to sound, skip from soul to show tune in a heartbeat.

Lead single "On the radio" is a song about maturity, growing from youthful indescretions to the meaning of life. Grief is the price of love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHAhnJbGy9M

#FirstLastEverything #ReginaSpektor

Rock week continues with one of the best bands I've ever seen.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin rocketed to fame on the back of Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wonderstuff, the closest we got to a Stourbridge Scene.

Their brand of funk-punk may not have sold huge quantities, but their Christmas shows at the #Wolverhampton Civic became legendary parties, crowds of merry festive debauchery.

#FirstLastEverything #NedsAtomicDustbin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPCQ_D7GTgU

After almost two decades on the fringes of success, metal-prog band Magnum had broken through in 1988 with hits "Start talkin' love" and "Days of no trust".

Their next album was an effort to break the States, but "Goodnight LA" broke the fans, who called it too commercial; it ended up costing them their record deal.

Magnum have split, reunited, changed lineups, and still perform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS67unSK5tE

#FirstLastEverything #Magnum

Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy were the core of The Cult, a very hard rock band from the late 80s. This song's about someone Astbury once knew, and we mean that in the biblical sense.

This single came from the 1987 album "Electric". Rick Rubin produced, and crushed much of the musical genius out of the mix. Energetic, fun, but they've done better and they'll do better.

#FirstLastEverything #TheCult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZUABAirbE4

I expect lots of #FirstLastEverything players are stopping at this Depeche Mode classic.

This version's from #LacunaCoil's 2006 album "Karmacode". The Italian goth-metal band are still active and recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx58hXh4pVA

#FirstLastEverything puts on its playsuit.

This 2001 single's about the various ways things orbit a planet. Communication. Pollution. Radioactivity and traffic and debris and everything.

#SuperFurryAnimals were the heavier, less fashionable rock band from Wales. This album sees them at their most solid - they're not polished, are properly on top of their game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc82Qqcyha4

#FirstLastEverything 6 • E

E-Zee Possee & MC Kinky - Everything Starts With An 'E'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv1_epNEK5s

#FirstLastEverything gets prefabricated.

#TakeThat were assembled by Nigel Martin-Smith. Five likely lads from the Manchester area, hyped to high heaven, and eventually found a suitable audience - both gay men and tweenage girls wanted to be with the band.

Barry Manilow wrote the song, Donna Summer covered it in the late 1970s, and Take That made a version of Donna's song. Their stomper of a single for Christmas 1992.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVBIfSt0lAo