A Birthday Greeting Playlist

Introduction

When I get a Facebook notification that it is a friend's birthday, I always try to share a music video with them. It is always a song I like and I hope that they will like so I thought it would be fun to gather them together in this playlist.

The only connection is that I have shared them as birthday greetings and they are songs that I like.

This also probably says something about my musical tastes, and I have friends who like following the birthday greetings I post to see what songs I share.

I hope you enjoy this list and I hope everyone can hear them, but YouTube's licensing can be a bit annoying at times, but you may be able to find other copies on that platform if the ones in here don't play for you.

So here goes with two that I shared today, March 11th 2025.

OK Go - "This Too Shall Pass"

My friend Matt introduced me to this song because of the video, which he said was done in one take. I have since heard that it wasn't, but is still an amazing joyful video and I never tire of seeing it. It always raises my spirits and is a great song too.

The Dropkick Murphys - "Spicy McHaggis Jig"

This is a hilarious, raucous, wonderful song, with a great video about the effect of alcohol on a date. I loved this the first time I heard it and still play it often. Always makes me smile.

ABBA - "Dancing Queen"

I love ABBA and this was one I chose for a friend who sings and runs many dance-based events. These are three of my favourite ABBA songs:

Big Daddy - "Once In A Lifetime"

Big Daddy do modern music in a nineteen fifties style and I use many of their covers for birthday greetings, but this is probably my favourite.

If you want to hear more Big Daddy, here is a playlist I did a while back.

This is a song I wrote for my friend Catherine nearly fifty years ago, from a demo we sent to John Peel who described us as a bit primitive. When we played it to Rabid Records, they asked us what studio we used, we were a bit shocked because we recorded it direct to a two-track cassette. The lineup for this was:

The Bok

Me - Guitar, Vocals , Writer

Andy Marshall - Guitar

The Hippy Mark Lester - Bass

Dave Topping - Drums

Frankie Ford - "Sea Cruise"

This was a favourite of my friend Chris, who we lost to cancer a decade ago, but it's a great song and I always use it (or a variation) for a friend who is almost always on a cruise, and sometimes for Chris's family who I am close friends with.

Ezra Furman - "Restless Year"

Ezra Furman is an amazing gender-fluid artist and this video is so joyful, a great to share with my friends all over the gender spectrum.

Sir Christopher Lee - "My Way"

This is a slideshow that I put together when I found out Sir Christopher Lee had made a heavy metal album. His words are enunciated rather than sung, but this knocks Sid Vicious' version out of the ballpark and is my most watched YouTube video with 127K views. People are often pleasantly surprised when they hear it and it includes a lot of information about the great man in the slideshow.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - "Red Right Hand"

I found these amazing pictures by an artist called Dr Faustus and thought these should be a slideshow. Nick Cave in the style of Dr Seuss, what's not to like.

Alex Harvey - "Billy Bolero"

This is the penultimate one, and I love this song and it's great to share with friends on their birthday, especially if they are from Scotland.

Spoon and The Abominable Showmen (SAS) - "500 Miles"

Me and my mate Jim on vocals from way back, and this is another that I think is a great birthday share.

Thank you for reading and listening, I hope you have enjoyed this.