Various Artists – John Lennon’s Jukebox

This collection of Lennon faves, from Chuck Berry and Smokey Robinson to Dylan and The Lovin’ Spoonful, aims to demonstrate how “his originality was born out of imitation”. For anyone around during the Beatles’ rise, most of this music is very familiar?”In The Midnight Hour”, “Be Bop A Lula” and so on. But less common tracks by Timmy Shaw, Derek Martin, Paul Revere and Barrett Strong hold the interest. And any passing kids just discovering the Fabs should hear this, if only to underline the influence of black music on key white artists?something the next generation largely ignored, hence the bloody ’80s!