Occasionally, on my travels for work I'll switch from my playlist to a brief listen to Radio 2, always avoiding Zoe Ball and Scott Mills, but retaining a soft spot for Sara Cox and the legend that is Jo Whiley.
I have no shame in admitting that I'd also catch a bit of Ken Bruce's show, though less for his music picks than for his Popmaster quiz and subsequently, sessions from the BBC Piano Room.
Whilst Ken has long departed (the BBC, not life in general, I hasten to add) and taken Popmaster with him, the Piano Room sessions have continued with his successor, Vernon Kay. I've not really bothered listening to any of Vernon's run to be honest but I have been dipping into the Piano Room via YouTube and BBC iPlayer.
The Piano Room title is literal if a little misleading. Yes, there is a piano present, but so is the BBC Concert Orchestra, so what you get to listen to are lush, cinematic arrangements rather than stripped back versions. The format is generally the same each time: one new(ish) song, one old song and one cover version.
Today's selection of a dozen songs is a mix of all three, mainly from the last coupel of years.
Beverley Knight tackles Radiohead's Just, not a million miles from Mark Ronson's take back in 2007, but packing a vocal wallop that only Beverley can deliver.
Bruce Hornsby revisits his best known song (well, in the UK at least), contradicting what I've written above by presenting a pared back piano version, occasional bum notes and all.
Alison Moyet performed Such Small Ale in June this year, a song so new that she'd only released it the week before delivering this version for the BBC.
Not every version works: Rick Witter from Shed Seven struggles a bit with Planet Earth by Duran Duran; Suzanne Vega's new version of Tom Diner could have lost a minute or two; Pet Shop Boys' take on All The Young Dudes is okay though cannot hope to match Mott The Hoople. Poor ol' Mott also suffer the ignominy of not even being name checked, the descriptive blurb crediting the song as a cover of David Bowie. Yes, he wrote it and gave the song to them, but...!
My one concession to a Ken Bruce-era Piano Room oldie is The Real Thing's take on Blinded By Your Grace by Stormzy, as delightful as it is unexpected.
1) Just (Cover of Radiohead): Beverley Knight (2024)
2) The Way It Is: Bruce Hornsby (2024)
3) Would I Lie To You (Cover of Charles & Eddie): Texas (2024)
4) All The Young Dudes (Cover of Mott The Hoople): Pet Shop Boys (2024)
5) Sundown (Cover of Scott Walker): Depeche Mode (2023)
6) Oh Hi: Crowded House (2024)
7) Tom's Diner: Suzanne Vega (2023)
8) We Have All The Time In The World (Cover of Louis Armstrong): Elbow (2024)
9) Planet Earth (Cover of Duran Duran): Shed Seven (2024)
10) Such Small Ale: Alison Moyet (2024)
11) Summertime Sadness (Cover of Lana Del Rey): Marc Almond (2024)
12) Blinded By Your Grace (Cover of Stormzy): The Real Thing (2020)
