L'amour s'en va - Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy was born on January 17, 1944. She grew up in Paris. She had her breakthrough when she was just 18 years old with the hit 'Tous les garçons et les filles', which sold 700,000 copies in France alone.

She represented Monaco during the 1963 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. 'L'amour s'en va' is a chanson, popular in the early years of the Contest. Hardy sings about a relationship which is conducted in the knowledge that love is a fleeting thing - however this does not seem to matter to either of the lovers involved, as they 'chase after it'. Hardy also recorded the song in Italian and German. She finished 5th in a field of 16 competitors.

My collection: 7" single no. 5808
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, November 21, 2015
Cost: 5 euro
Tracks: 'L'amour s'en va', 'Je pense a lui' / 'Comme tant d'autres', 'L'amour d'un garçon'

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Don Quichotte (The remixes) - Magazine 60

Once you get that line 'No señor, Don Quichotte y Sancho Panza no están aqui', you may fall victim to actually liking this song. The original single of Don Quichotte, released in 1985, has already been in my collection for almost 15 years, but this version was a new find for me.

Released in 1992, this single features two remixes of the track created by Yannick Rosco, a remixer and producer who was most active in the early Nineties. The cd-single, also released at the time, features two further versions: the original mix and a remix from 1990.

My collection: 7" single no. 5805
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, November 21, 2015
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Don Quichotte (Underground mix)' / 'Don Quichotte (Espagna mix)'

Listen to the song & Listen to the B-side

Writing's on the wall - Sam Smith

With the latest installment of James Bond movies, 'Spectre' in the cinemas right now, these are exciting times for James Bond fans. Less so for the lovers of Bond themes: 'Writing's on the wall' was co-written and performed by Sam Smith, and we can only know him from his style of singing, which resembles the sound of a man who's in constant pain. Inexplicably, this song became the first James Bond theme to reach number one in the UK singles chart, although these days you can easily get to number one in the singles chart if you get more than a hundred downloads.

If after all this you think I hate this song, that's not necessarily true. It's nice enough but it is a bit too restrained for a James Bond theme, and although it easily surpasses the all time low of Another way to die, this song won't exactly be remembered in a decade from now. Unlike, of course, Adele's Skyfall.

My collection: 7" single no. 5803
Found: Amazon.co.uk, received November 11, 2015
Cost: £6
Tracks: 'Writing's on the wall' / 'Writing's on the wall (instrumental)'

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The same old way - Frankie Vaughan

Frankie Vaughan was born on February 3, 1928. He made a name for himself singing easy listening and traditional pop music, starting with 'The old piano roll blues' in 1950. Between then and the end of the Eighties, he released more than 80 singles. In 1955, he recorded what was to become his trademark song, 'Give me the moonlight, give me the girl'.

One of his singles, released in 1959 was 'The same old way', which like most of his singles after 1958 didn't become a hit. But I didn't buy this single for that song, I wanted to have it for the B-side, which was written by Marty Wilde and Ronnie Scott: 'You can't stop me dancing'. Vaughan died from heart failure in Oxford in 1999.

My collection: 7" single no. 5802
Found: Discogs.com, received October 28, 2015
Cost: £ 1
Tracks: 'The same old way' / 'You can't stop me dancing'

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Yo soy aquel - Raphael

One of my favourite singers of the early years of Eurovision is Raphael. He's got a voice that cuts through your soul and songs to match. I bought his Hablemor de amor years ago, but never found a reasonably priced copy of his other Eurovision smash, 'Yo soy aquel' ('I'm that one').

Raphael was born as Miguel Rafael Martos Sanchez in Linares, Spain on May 5, 1943. His musical career started in 1965 and continues to this day. 'Yo soy aquel' was a reasonable success: it finished 7th in a field of 18 competitors at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966. He returned the next year with that other song, and finished one place higher.

My collection: 7" single no. 5799
Found: Revolver Records, Barcelona, September 22, 2015
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Yo soy aquel', 'Es verdad' / 'La noche', 'Hasta venecia'

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June bride - China Crisis

China Crisis recently returned with a crowdfunded album, and it's one of the best releases of this year I think - even if it didn't cause much of a media storm. Such is the nature of the band: they've gone on making their music quietly even after the massive success of songs like 'Wishful thinking' and 'King in a catholic style' had gone.

It was a big surprise to find a promotional 7" single for this band in a Spanish record shop. The song on it is even more of a surprise: it's 'June bride', a song from their 1986 album 'What price paradise', which was never actually released as a single anywhere. It could have been a single, and perhaps even a hit, because it's quite catchy, actually!

My collection: 7" single no. 5798
Found: Revolver Records, Barcelona, September 22, 2015
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'June bride' / 'June bride'

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Que tiempo tan feliz - Mary Hopkin

There are a lot of Spanish singles with translated titles on the sleeve - Bobby Goldsboro's Autumn of my life is an example - but when a sleeve announced 'canta en espanol', you can be sure that the artist has re-recorded their song in Spanish.

Mary Hopkin did this with her 1968 hit single Those were the days. I couldn't pass up on 'Que tiempo tan feliz', because the original is so beautiful and it would be interesting to hear it in a different language. All I need now is the Japanese version of The Police's 'De do do do de da da da'.

My collection: 7" single no. 5796
Found: Revolver Records, Barcelona, September 22, 2015
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Que tiempo tan feliz' / 'Gira, gira, gira'

Listen to the song