'Why worry?' was released in 1991 as the second single from Clannad's 1990 album 'Anam'. Being the masters of breezy Celtic pop, it's another of their trademark songs that seems to woosh by without too many memorable hooks.
Rod McKuen had been no stranger to the singles charts: in 1971 he had two number 1 hits in the Netherlands with 'Soldiers who want to be heroes' and 'Without a worry in the world'. After one more hit single in 1972, he disappeared until the release of 'Amor' in 1978, at the height of the disco craze.
'Where were you' by Flash and the Pan is one of those songs that seems so familiar but you can't quite remember where you know it from. It was a track on the band's third album 'Headlines' and released as a single in certain territories only (which might explain why it's not listed in the discography on the band's Wikipedia page).
'People, people' was released as a single from Donna Summer's 1983 album 'She works hard for the money'. The song was produced by Michael Omartian and written by Donna Summer, Michael Omartian and B. Sudano.
Racey formed in 1976 in Weston-super-Mare by singer Phil Fursdon and Clive Wilson. In 1979 they released their debut album 'Smash and grab', which sold about 500,000 copies worldwide. Their hit singles were written by the famous duo Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Their biggest hit was 'Lay your love on me', which became a number 3 hit in the UK and a charttopper in the Netherlands.
Duncan Browne wrote and recorded 'The wild places' in 1978 and had a reasonably big hit with it. Six years later, Ian Matthews thought he might have similar success with his cover. Ian Matthews? Who? Well, I didn't know him either. Turns out it's Ian Matthews who was previously part of Fairport Convention and the band Matthews Southern Comfort.
'Vincent' was written and recorded by Don McLean as a tribute to the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The song includes references to his landscape works, in lines such as 'sketch the trees and the daffodils' and 'morning fields of amber grain' - which describe the amber wheat that features in several paintings. Several lines may allude to Van Gogh's self-portraits: perhaps in 'weathered faces lined in pain / are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand', McLean is suggesting that van Gogh may have found some sort of consolation in creating portraits of himself. There is, too, a single line describing van Gogh's most famous set of works, Sunflowers. 'Flaming flowers that brightly blaze' not only draws on the luminous orange and yellow colours of the painting, but also creates powerful images of the sun itself, flaming and blazing, being contained within the flowers and the painting.