Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne are one of my favourite bands of all time. Ever since their versions of Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart and The Field Mice's Kiss And Make Up I've been madly in love with their mix of melancholy nostalgia and dance sensibilities. And amazing summery pop music.

And like a lot of my favourite artists their magpie touch is very strong.

Sounds On Sunday this week featured four tunes whose connection isn't simply that they're great tunes. They're also connected to Saint Etienne by way of that magpie touch.

First up was The Four Tops In A Different World which was sampled by Saint Etienne for a track on their first album Foxbase Alpha:

Saint Etienne - She's The One

Next was The Temptations' I Wish It Would Rain. Back on their album So Tough, Saint Etienne 'borrowed' the piano riff and sparkled some glitter on it and turned it into the violin in the chorus of this:

Saint Etienne - Mario's Cafe

The Shirelles' Don't Go Home (My Little Darling) only came into my life this week. It's a marvelous little tune, and knowing Saint Etienne's love of Sixties girl groups I shouldn't have been surprised by the 'influence' on this:

Saint Etienne - You're In A Bad Way

And finally Justine 'Baby' Washington's version of I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face. There are also fantastic versions of this by Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield. The flute and trumpet intro from the Dusty Version by way of the sampler found it's way onto this:

Saint Etienne - Nothing Can Stop Us

The thing is, I love it. I get 8 songs out of this that I absolutely love! And all of them sound amazing in the sunshine. Amazing!