As I have already said, I am not not a massive fan of 60’s music. I can appreciate some of it, but even then it is music I heard a lot later. All of which makes the 1965 entry quite special because I think I did hear this in the 60’s, although not in ’65 obviously, and loved it as soon as I heard it.I was either listening to Radio Caroline or a radio documentary about Radio Caroline, sometime in the late 60’s and this tune came on and grabbed me straight away. I still don’t know why, but it just did. Maybe it is the way that the phrasing of the chorus works.

What makes it so much better is that, in later years I came to appreciate Russ Ballard, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone and their various projects, and this is an early record that Ballard was involved in.

Looking at the other big songs of the year, there are some that are more influential and objectively better, but none that have such memories. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard Concrete and Clay: in our old lean-to in Laindon.

If I didn’t have such a connection with this song then I might have gone for Baby Please Don’t Go, All Day and All of the Night, Go Now, Iko Iko, My Generation or one of the many Beatles, Stones or Beach Boys hits in 1965 but I really didn’t develop those tastes until much later.