GUEST: Lin - ‘The Three Bells’ is a.k.a. ‘The Jimmy Brown Song’, and was a hit in 1959 for a group called The Browns, just when my awakening to ‘the devil’s music’ (as my Salvation-Army-regulars grandparents described R&R and Doo-wop) was in its early throes. It’s of it’s time, and great for that - I still love it, along with the aforementioned Platters’ songs, and Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers’ ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love’ and ‘Juvenile Delinquent’.

When I hear any of those songs, I’m back on the fairground across the street from my grandparents’ place, with the sights, sounds, and smells of the funfair!

Although I love folk music, the pop music of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s has far more relevance for me than songs about jolly ploughboys, drowned fishermen and broken-tokens from 200 years ago.