Baltimore

 For about 45 years, I've known Baltimore as a reggae classic by the Tamlins, inevitably with the riddim section of Sly'n'Robbie, 'one of the biggest hits in Jamaica in 1979'.

And then last week I heard it by Nina Simone in what I took to be a cover version because it was reggae. And now Bob Harris has just played Randy Newman doing it. I might have been vaguely aware that he wrote it but, heaven knows, that gives you no right to be credited with the best version. He trails in a non-descript, almost tailed-off third of three, being far too pedestrian and soul-less. It doesn't even sound like a good song when he does it.

It's not going to be easy to displace The Tamlins, so imprinted on one's later formative years, as the preferred version but if anybody can do that, Nina Simone is one of the most likely to do so. Not that one has to choose. Not everything needs to be competitive sport.

One can be glad to have both. Not all three. Credit to Randy Newman for having written it but I know what it's like. I wrote a few songs, too, but it's best for their sake if I don't sing them.