- published: 26 Sep 2015
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Sounds of the '60s is a long-running Saturday morning programme on BBC Radio 2 that features recordings of popular music made in the 1960s. It was first broadcast on 12 February 1983 and introduced by Keith Fordyce who had been the first presenter of the TV show Ready Steady Go! in 1963. Since 1990 the presenter has been Brian Matthew. The program is also broadcast on 98.1 MHz Eastern FM – Eastern Suburbs (community radio) in Melbourne, Victoria.
In the mid ’80 the format changed and each week the programme was presented by a different artist from the Sixties. Many famous names were involved, including: Alvin Stardust, Eddy Grant, Herb Alpert, Graham Nash, Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tom Jones, Neil Sedaka, Donovan, Mike Stoller, Bruce Welch, Duane Eddy, Bill Medley, Roy Wood, Mike Berry, David Crosby and many more. "I Love SOTS" car stickers were given free to listeners.
In December 1988 the then producer Stuart Hobday re-discovered Simon Dee the first voice to have been heard on Radio Caroline in 1964, and persuaded him to present a listeners’ all-time-favourite Top 20. The response from the public was so great that Dee was booked for a three-month run early in 1989. His success led to another three-month contract later in the year, but his constant demands for the show to go live and to move from Bristol to London, along with a growing list of complaints to BBC top management, meant that his contract was not renewed.
James Last (also known as "Hansi", born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015) was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist in Germany in each of the years 1950–1952), his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. His composition "Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark.
Last is reported to have sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime (figures vary widely, for example British Hit Singles & Albums (2006) reports 100 million at that time), of which 80 million were sold by 1973 - and won numerous awards including 200 gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) in 1978. His album This Is James Last remained a UK best-seller for 48 weeks, and his song "Games That Lovers Play" has been covered over a hundred times. Last undertook his final tour months before his death at age 86, upon discovering in September 2014 that an illness (the exact illness was never disclosed) had worsened. His final UK performance was his 90th at London's Royal Albert Hall, more than any other performer except Eric Clapton.