Playlist: Languages

Today's playlist celebrates some of the languages of the world, albeit very loosely.

Yes, all of these song titles do have a language in their title, but probably have very little to do with that actual language in the songs themselves. What we can guarantee though, is ten great songs in many cases with some interesting stories behind them.

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1. The Darkness: English Country Garden

This was the penultimate track from The Darkness' second album, One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back. This was always going to struggle a bit in comparison to the hype that surrounded debut LP Permission To Land, although it still hit the UK Top10 and sold a million copies. They brought in Roy Thomas Baker to produce, who had worked with Queen (five of their 1970's albums), a big influence on The Darkness. Bass player Frankie Poullain left early in the recording sessions, with most bass parts ending up being played by guitarist Dan Hawkins, although he had actually played six of the songs that eventually featured (including English Country Garden) as they had already been played in earlier live sets.

The Darkness: English Country Garden (Audio only)

2. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: American Girl

Firstly, American English is its own language and I will brook no further discussion on the matter.... Which means we are free to include this classic rock track from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers self-titled 1976 debut, which failed to chart in the US, but did just about crack the UK Top40. Despite the lack of initial success, it remained one of the fan favourites whenever Petty played live. Rumours persisted that the lyrics were about a girl who committed suicide at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Petty refuted that version, later saying it came to him while he was living in California; "I was living in an apartment where I was right by the freeway. And the cars would go by. In Encino, near Leon Russell's house. And I remember thinking that that sounded like the ocean to me. That was my ocean. My Malibu. Where I heard the waves crash, but it was just the cars going by. I think that must have inspired the lyric."

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: American Girl (Live on Fridays - early 1980's)

3. Elvis Presley: King Creole

I'm going to get the other potentially contentious one out of the way now. Creole is a language family, rather than one specific language - it refers to a language that has developed from other differing languages that have mixed together into a new, stable form - crucially becoming a fully-fledged native tongue in a relatively short space of time. An example would be Carib, which blends African and Amerindian languages together. Now onto the tune itself. It was written by the legendary song machine of Leiber and Stoller, recorded by Elvis Presley in 1958 and it became the basis for his musical drama film of the same name. It is about a Creole street singer and guitarist in New Orleans, who "holds his guitar like a tommy gun."

Elvis Presley: King Creole (Version from the movie, I think)

4. Malcolm McLaren: Double Dutch

Double Dutch was the African flavoured follow up to the successful Buffalo Gals single from the 1983 debut album, Duck Rock, by former Pistols Svengali Malcolm McLaren. The song is about the skipping game with the same name and name checks several well known New York troupes, like the Ebonettes. He was sued by South African group The Boyoyo Boys for plagiarism of their 1975 song, Puleng. After a lengthy legal battle in the UK, it was eventually settled out of court. The video includes several troupes from the American Double Dutch League performing in a school gymnasium.

Malcolm McLaren: Double Dutch (Original video)

5. Wall Of Voodoo: Mexican Radio

This song, from second album Call Of The West, got heavy rotation on fledgeling MTV in 1982, pushing it towards, but not quite into the Billboard Top40. It is about the unregulated radio stations the other side of the Mexican border, so-called Border Blasters, that would get picked up on AM radio sets on the US side. Stan Ridgway and Marc Moreland used to listen to these in their car on the way to rehearsals, being more to their liking than the regular L.A. stations. Much of the instrumentation on the record like the synths, usually recorded through microphones, was played through amps instead giving a distinct sound and atmosphere to the record. Ridgway also improvised a bullhorn for some of his vocals.

Wall Of Voodoo: Mexican Radio (Official music video)

6. Billy Joel: Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

Although never released as a single, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant has always been a firm live favourite. Joel says that the second side of The Beatles' Abbey Road (Here Comes The Sun, Because and the You Never Give Me Your Money medley) was a big inspiration for the song. Clocking in at just over seven and a half minutes, it is the longest studio cut Joel made. It was influenced by several restaurants - Fontana di Trevi (opposite Carnegie Hall) and Benito Two (Little Italy). Musically, it is a song in three parts, which were fragments of various songs he weaved together. There is the piano ballad about two classmates reuniting in the titular restaurant; the upbeat jazzy bit, as they start to reminisce about the good old days; and the third rock n roll part, about a pair of high school sweethearts who marry young and soon divorce.

Billy Joel: Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (Live in Long Island)

7. Debbie Harry: French Kissin' In The U.S.A.

Photo: Andy Warhol

French Kissin' In The U.S.A. (or just plain old French Kissin' as it was released in some countries) provided Debbie Harry with the biggest solo hit in 1986 - making the Top10 in the UK, Australia, NZ and Ireland. It was actually a cover of a song written by well known TV producer and executive Chuck Lorre (Cybil, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men), and originally recorded by Carol Chapman.

Debbie Harry: French Kissin' In The USA (Official music video)

8. The Passions: I'm In Love With A German Film Star

This gorgeous post-punk classic by London's The Passions, was written by singer Barbara Gogan about Steve "Roadent" Connelly, a roadie who had worked with the Sex Pistols and The Clash, but who also had minor roles in several German films, hence the song title. It is perhaps most notable musically for guitarist Clive Timperley's distinctive use of the Echoplex tape delay machine that had been developed back in the 1960's, giving the song plenty of atmosphere.

The Passions: I'm In Love With A German Film Star (Audio only)

9. The Dubliners & The Pogues: The Irish Rover

The Irish Rover is an Irish folk tune about an improbably large ship with 23 masts (although that has increased to 27 on this version) that depending on who you read, was possibly written in the 1930's… or the 1880's. Legendary folk band The Dubliners, invited punk-folk icons The Pogues to contribute to their 25 Years Celebration album in 1987. Their wonderful collaboration on this ditty produced a UK Top10 hit, and an appearance for them all on the famous British tv show, Top Of The Pops.

The Dubliners & The Pogues: The Irish Rover (Live in 1987)

10. The Clash: Spanish Bombs

Although containing imagery harking back to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the song was initially inspired by stories Joe Strummer heard on the radio in the late 1970's about bombings by Basque nationalists, ETA, and those by the IRA in Northern Ireland. It compares the horror of the war and the "trenches full of poets", with the beach holiday destination that Spain was becoming in this post-Franco era. Strummer specifically also namechecks anti-fascist poet Federico Garcia Lopez, who was assassinated by Franco's forces in 1936.

The Clash: Spanish Bombs (Live in 1980)