On the Beat doo wop special featuring interview with Little Anthony available on BBC iplayer until 29th March

I have now listened to the On the Beat doo wop special and it can be thoroughly recommended. I think it's possible for US readers to access it too, so click here, wherever you are, if you want to hear an engrossing interview punctuated by lots of doo wop. The programme, which is on BBC Radio Merseyside and presented by Spencer Leigh, lasts two hours. I don't have the time to give a blow by blow account but will add a few thoughts here.

Crying My Heart Out For You

Staying in Brill mode (see previous post), thanks to the magic of the internet I have just been listening to a recording I haven't heard in about twenty five years: Crying My Heart Out For You by Neil Sedaka. Here's the best-sounding version I could find on youtube:



Not one which seems to feature on compilations and I don't want to splash out on the Bear Family box set - I like his pop confections but I don't want heartburn. Was it intended, like The Diary, for Little Anthony and the Imperials? The keening falsetto with which the lament begins and ends suggests it might be.

But why, with so much Sedaka material otherwise available, have I hungered for - well, not hungered, exactly, but certainly thought about and scanned many an identikit Sedaka CD compilation in many a record shop over the years for - this recording?