Another superb instrumental track which had vanished from my mind during the last few years, but which I found again yesterday during a self-indulgent marathon record-listening session. This is a very memorable theme, produced by Joe Meek. There's a cool opening with a catchy drum pattern. The rest of the instrumentation is organ, bass, and some very cool twangy guitars, often with some heavy reverb.

This sounds like it should be a generic bossa nova cash-in film song, but instead, it's strangely haunting and gripping to my ears. While it's a sweetly orchestrated piece (a bossa nova guitar and beat, a flute melody, and a Stan Getz-esque tenor sax, backed by a subdued orchestra) I feel as if there's something menacing just beneath the surface. However, it's so subtle, this could be in my head. It's taken from the 'The Glass Bottom Boat'; maybe I have to see the movie and decide.

Clocking in at around 2 minutes, this B-side is very simple, but beautiful. It was something of a 'holy grail' to me as a young Smiths fan, hidden as it was on the rare 'Suedehead' single (cassette and CD singles only!). I managed to procure a tape of it via my brother, and was instantly entranced. Morrissey has recorded many songs which are catchier and more intense than this, yet it has a unique power. The lyrics are entertaining - 'I found the fountain of youth and I fell in', and the accompaniment is delicate and sparse, with some great guitar playing from Vini Reilly. It ends with something rather lovely - it's nothing really, but it's one of those little details which when I was young, I used to pick on in songs - as Morrissey repeats 'I'll never learn', a spooky, echoey sound comes in and envelopes the entire song. Such little things used to please me...

An unusual sounding piece from a recently reissued Library LP, the overall sound here reminds me of the lush tropical easy listening/rock hybrid which Les Baxter achieves on his superb 'Que Mango' LP from 1970. However, on this track the strings and guitar sound very slightly out of tune in a way which our man Les would never have tolerated. Still, it’s a very pleasant sound, which takes some unexpected turns (e.g. the wild guitar solo in the middle).

From the same album which spawned the mindblowing 'Im 80 Stockwerk' comes this superb track. It opens slowly, with a moody guitar/vocal introduction. Soon the heavy Burt Bacharach influence of 'Stockwerk' returns, as the strings come in and the song develops. The beat is funky in a gentle late-sixties pop kind of way. I have no idea what Hildegard is singing, but it sounds rather positive and uplifting, and I’m a big fan of her smoky voice.