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It's Friday! It's about three o'clock! It's time to Boogie At Your Desk!

Friday afternoons need a little something. I think they need a Top Tune. Something to make you shuffle in your seat and, if possible, Boogie At Your Desk. I'll be endeavouring to fill this gap some Fridays this year.

I'm not claiming that any track provided to enable At-Desk Boogying is one of the world's best or most profound pieces of music. It will, however, be one of the tunes which make me smile, and which have at some stage made me surreptitiously Boogie At My Desk.

Desks are not compulsory, of course. Feel free to boogie through your office, in your bedroom, round your lab, across your classroom, on the train - wherever you find yourself on a Friday afternoon.

If you like the track, go out and buy the album it belongs to - I'll try and recommend a suitable CD to purchase for any BAYD track.

This link will expire at some point in the future.

Today you are invited to Boogie At Your Desk to:

Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra - Dr Jazz

Today, I find myself in a dilemma. You see, last night I was listening to an album and suddenly realised what an utterly wonderful track for At-Desk Boogying Dr Jazz would be. It's bouncy, it's cheerful, it practically reeks of the coming summer, and it's an interesting change in musical direction for BAYD. It comes off one of my favourite albums, and was perfectly suited to the purpose.

Sadly, the track available for download up there is not it.

Why not ?

Well, you see, I was listening to A Round And A Bout, a live Squeeze album, which I originally acquired for coppers from a bric-a-brac stall last year. And what does that mean ? Yup, it's on tape. And I have not yet sussed out the requisite wires and dongles for making little oblong cassettes turn into things with a .mp3 suffix.

I bought the Squeeze album largely because it was there, and cost nowt, and I wanted a copy of Up The Junction. Knowing only that song, I regarded them as a bit of a joke band. I was disappointed that it was a live album, because live albums are almost always bobbins. I shoved it on in the car, and very rapidly discovered a few things:

1) I knew a lot more Squeeze songs than I thought I did.
2) They were a long way from being a joke band.
3) They were amazing live.
4) That wonderful piano-playing, which sounded so familiar, turned out to be some guy called "Julian Holland".

I keep meaning to try and acquire some proper Squeeze albums, but haven't yet run into any in bargain basements or dirty second-hand disc dives. If the live album is anything to go by, they should be great. The music is intelligent, and carefully crafted, and involving, and singable, and boogieable, and fun - and you don't get all those at once very often.

The version of Dr Jazz offered above is still pretty good, but it's longer and lacks the punch of the Squeeze version. I dunno, use your imagination. Stop listening half way through or something. Or, better, go and buy A Round And A Bout because it's bloody marvellous.