Bob Stanley from the band Saint Etienne has fashioned a parallel career as a chronicler of pop music history. He’s written two epic books, either o

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2024-12-01 07:30:04

Bob Stanley from the band Saint Etienne has fashioned a parallel career as a chronicler of pop music history. He’s written two epic books, either of which could double as a doorstop. Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History covers recorded music up to the late ’50s and Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music From Bill Haley to Beyoncé picks up where the other one left off.

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Bob writes about music on Patreon. Every day begins with a brief song story and a link to YouTube, but otherwise he’s mostly just writing about music that interests him. Sometimes he makes a playlist, and this week he wrote about Petula Clark’s ’60s records with producer Tony Hatch, making the case that the pair is the UK parallel to the USA’s team of Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach.

Clark is not in Warwick’s class as a singer, but Tony Hatch made some incredible pop records and deserves more attention as a songwriter, producer and arranger.