No shimmying after the Abbaye but still obsessive after all these years

Well, of course I can see there is something magnificent about Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, or miserere mei, Deus – 'Have mercy on me, O God' – but it does go on a bit and hardly perks you up the morning after Signs Of Blessing has beaten only one home in the Prix de l'Abbaye.

They've revamped Essential Classics on Radio 3 and instead of a quiz question they play a piece of music and ask listeners to suggest a suitable follow-up, or ideal companion piece. The Miserere still had several minutes to go and I thought everyone might need cheering up so I volunteered I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate. They didn't read it out though. Too facetious, I suppose. I have 50-year-old old school reports in the garage suggesting much the same thing.

I always have Essential Classics on but they favour Radio 2 and Ken Bruce at my dentist. He's been going forever but that seems to be the way of it with DJs. Jimmy Young was playing Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers nearly half a century after having the original hit himself in 1955. Meld hacked up in the Derby and there was old Jimmy, or young Jimmy, really, warbling away in the background.