Some spiffingly beat-tastic platters, from J.B. Lenoir and Slim Harpo to Simon Scott and Ronnie Hayward

I must have heard this poptastic British single from Simon Scott when it was released in 1964 - but, if so, I'd somehow forgotten all about it in the meantime. This Jonny Kidd-style bopper only got to No 37 in the charts, but I guess we were spoiled for choice back then. 

Mind you, Simon Scott did better than Edwin Starr managed with the classic "Agent Double-O Soul", released the following year - it didn't chart at all over here, but managed to get to 21 in the US:

Another UK chart no-show was Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood's first duet, "Summer Wine", which only made it onto a B-side in 1967. I assume it's age, but this stuff's beginning to sound a lot better than it did back then. And it could be my eyesight, but  Ms Sinatra looks severely deformed at the start of this video:

Canadian rockabilly Ronnie Hayward features mandolin, dobro and slide-guitar on this this superb track released in 2000:

No dobros or mandolins in sight for Fleetwood Mac's tender lyrical ballad, "Somone's Going to Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight", the B-side of 1969's "Man of The World":

I came late to Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins, but Lordy he was superb. Here's "Lightnin's Boogie" from 1954:

The line "I been to New Orleans and I sure had a wonderful time" has been bouncing around in my head since I first heard Mississippi bluesman J.B. Lenoir sing "The Mojo Boogie" on Paul Oliver's The Story of The Blues Vol. 2 compilation album. Still works a treat:

Anothern insanely rhythmic blues maestro was Baton Rouge's Slim Harpo. Here he performs a variant on "I'm a King Bee":

Here's Chicago-born Billy Boy Arnold with a cover of Slim Harpo's "Shake Your Hips" that's in the same league as the great original:

I'll finish this blues section with Jackson, Mississippi's Otis Spann doing "Must Have Been the Devil". I'm not that keen on his piano-only version - but this full-fat one rocks like a mother!

Phew!

I'll end with Californian rockabilly star, Hank C. Burnette - no, I mustn't lie: his real name's Sven-Åke Högberg and he's Swedish - doing a great version of "The Dirty Boogie". He plays all the instruments and does all his own production, by the way - Sven's dead clever!

Oh hell, surely there's room for just one more? Okay, here's British rockabilly band The Big 6 with their version of "Twentieth Century Boy", which was featured in the 1998 film, The Truman Show: