3. 'Absent Minded Me' - Barbra Streisand - Columbia 43127 - 1964. Contrary to revisionist history, not every American female was screaming for the Beatles in 1964. Those over the age of 18 weren't screaming at all, and many were listening to traditional female fare - such as Streisand's first entry into pop immortality, the leadoff cut to the zillion-selling People LP. The whole tune - custom-crafted for the singer - is structured to build suspense and hit the highest peak, the bignote. In the rock world, only Freddie Mercury could approach this level of belting.

4. 'On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak To Me' - Van Dyke Parks - Warner Bros 7409 - 1971. Here comes the triumphantly snob occasion you rightfully apprehended: the utterly unavailable-on-CD, unavailable-on-LP, ultra-rare single. Who better to represent my good fortune (and taste) than Mr Esoteric himself? This lovely 45 sounds like an out-take from the delusional Song Cycle although, as a collection of covers from the Edison era, it anticipates the more modest vision of Discover America. This B-side, a Caribbean spiritual, is dipped pretty far in the psychedelic palette, though.

5. 'Quiet Village' - Martin Denny - Liberty 55162 - 1957. Here's the first - perhaps best - showing of the 'exotica' sound. It's 100% kitsch - with Tiki Hut jungle sounds, faux-world beats and a real gone broad on the sleeve, it's Brubeck under the influence of a Mai Tai. Discernibly under-rehearsed, this track nevertheless topped the charts, spawned bachelor-pad 'mood music' and even served as progenitor to New Age. Recorded in Hawaii.

6. 'Generation Landslide' - Alice Cooper - Warner Bros 7673 - 1973. Calling all nihilists, anarchists and fruitcakes: here's the last edifying slab of petroleum from the Alice Cooper group. Forget the lame-ass A-side ('Hello Hooray'), this folk spoof retains the original spark of weirdness that brought the band to their prime point of fame and fortune in the cynical Watergate era. 'They looked just like humans at Kresge's and Woolworth's but decadent brains were at work to destroy.' Indeed.

7. 'Strangers In The Night' - Frank Sinatra - Reprise 0470 - 1966. Defintely not Sinatra's best, this is degenerated Sinatra - and that's why it's a keeper. Only The Lonely, his uncontested pinnacle, was, amongst other things, drinking music. I have simply followed that logic to its ultimate conclusion. Here, then, is Frank's most alcoholic song. Or was that 'My Way'? 'Something Stupid'? Never mind, it's Frank's first #1 for the 1960s - an ominous indication that the 'silent majority' was down, but not gone.