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Why did Billie Joe jump?

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay… So begins one of the greatest, and most mysterious, hit songs of the Sixties, ‘Ode to Billie Joe’, recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a part-time swimsuit model from the wrong side of the

Let’s give it a spin

Keith Blackmore only went in for a record and ended up buying the shop … Last summer I bought a record shop. I didn’t expect to but I did. I tell you this not just to boast, nor, alas, to interest you in our fine range of products, but because I think it

Impossibly dreamy

To many theatregoers, the time is nigh to ‘right the unrighteable wrong’ … Later this month, after more than 40 years away from the London stage, the Tony-award-winning musical Man of La Mancha returns in a powerful collaboration with the English National Opera, with Kelsey Grammer (Dr Frasier Crane to many) in the lead

A celebration of film music

Let’s face it, everyone loves a list. We at The Record Album are no different. So, to mark the coming of the annual celebration of the film industry this weekend that is the Oscars, Pitchfork, the American online music magazine known for its ‘best of’ compilations, has put us in the mood by