Recently in Song of the Day Category

You probably have to listen to Sink or Swim by Bad Lieutenant for about, ooh, 26 seconds to know that it is the new band of New Order singer Bernard Sumner.

A bit less dancey and a bit more guitary than his previous band, it has that same sense of slightly melacholic melodicism and slightly rubbish lyrics. It is rather good, I think.

The rather excellent Word magazine has a monthly feature in which one page is given over to the 20 worst of a particular topic, with the 20 best over the page.

This month they're doing love songs and it's hard to argue with many of those chosen in the worst category (I Just Called To Say I Love You, More Than Words, Flying Without Wings - wretched songs one and all.)

There's some great ones in the best of list too, not least Rainy Night In Soho, a sometimes neglected Pogues bit of the Pogues' back catalogue described by Word as "Macgowan's real masterpiece, with all of his obsessions (London, booze, doomed love) collided amid a glorious string arrangement."

In honour of Ellie Greenwich - the great Brill Building songwriter who died recently - today's song is Da Doo Ron Ron by the Crystals.

Ellie Greenwich wrote a ton of classic songs in the 1960s for what would now be dismissed by some as "manufactured" pop bands. Among her most famous were Be My Baby (for The Ronettes), Leader of the Pack (The Shangri-Las) and Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High.

There is something utterly joyous about Da Doo Ron Ron, not least its nonsense refrain. It was written by Greenwich and her husband Jeff Barry, though producer Phil Spector also got a songwriting credit and it often said that Da Doo Ron Ron is where he first perfected his "Wall of Sound" style.

It seems unlikely, I know, but I'm pretty sure that Fade into You by Mazzy Star - a song whose loveliness is matched only by its obscurity - was used in a wedding scene on Coronation Street.

Mazzy Star were (are?) an American indie band in the 1990s and though Fade Into You was their biggest hit, it didn't make the Top 40 here or in America. It was pleasantly surprising, then, to hear it in the background of Steve McDonald's wedding to Becky on The Street.

No doubt Roy Cropper is a big fan...

Further proof that no-one tells stories better than Loudon Wainwright III: the not quite three minutes of OGM are alternating devastating and hilarious.

After yesterday's choice, I am in sore need of restoring my credibility, so I'll opt for the none-more-cool Lambchop.

Up With People is from their 2000 album Nixon, which is very much their creative peak, I reckon.

I saw the band live a couple of years later at the Journal Tyne Theatre and was thrilled at the fact that they jameed about 14 musicians onto what seemed like a very big stage.

No, honest. Mona, by Craig McLachlan (and his band Check 1-2!!!) is today's Song of the Day.

I realise that you should probably never pick Craig McLachlan - Neighbours' Henry Ramsay, of course - if you want people to respect your music blog.

But what can I say? This is catchy, I used to sing it all the time in the summer of 1990 and at least the song is by Bo Diddley (phew, some cred saved at the last there...) Mona was the B-side of Bo Diddley's seventh single Hey Bo Diddley! and was also covered by the Rolling Stones on their first album.

Lucinda Williams is best known for her 1998 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, but you would be a fool - a fool, I tells ya - to ignore Passionate Kisses, from her 1998 debut LP.

Like quite a few songs on this blog, I first it heard it on the old Andy Kershaw show on Radio One. It is two-and-a-half minutes long, which is great, and pretty close to being pop perfection.

Williams has loads of great tunes worth checking out, but for a none-more-drawly bit of singing, I would also point to you to her duet with Steve Earle, You're Still Standing There.

There are certain songs that you find yourself singing along to even though you haven't got a clue what they mean; one of these is Cannonball by The Breeders.

The lead single from their 1993 album Last Splash - and NME's single of the year - Cannonball has a twisty bassline, some great guitar and then a great tune on top.

But they lyrics? "Spitting in a wishing well/Blown to hell crash/I'm the last splash." That would appear to be nonsense but I've still sung it at the top of my lungs many a time...

Not quite sure how it's taken me 127 songs to pick something by Tom Waits, but I hope this will make up for my tardiness.

Downtown Train is from Waits' 1985 album Rain Dogs, which no home should be without. (It was described by one critic as "bony and beautiful" which sounds about right.)

The video was directed by trendy Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Mondino and features the boxer Jake LaMotta, whose life was the basis of the film Raging Bull.