Sam Richards supports Barcelona, plays bass in a Red Hot Chili Peppers band, claims to be able to busk any Beatles song on demand, enjoys the occasional funky dance, is ginger and has made a fine art out of bumming cigarettes. He also once proclaimed without a hint of irony, that Mick Hucknall was possibly the greatest vocalist ever (understandably, he debates the details of this last point himself).

But there are redeeming qualities, he has a pretty fine taste in music, does a mean impersonation of Rick Danko and for more than a couple of years, I had the pleasure of being in a band with him, throughout that time, as well as becoming pros at our self-invented game of ‘Volley-In-The-Trolley’, we listened to a lot of tapes and ipods going to and from out of town gigs, and talked a lot about tastes and opinions about that music, it’s never fun to agree on everything, which is kind of the point of these playlists.

A message from Sam…”We all like songs. To just bunch a load of songs together as a collection of faves and whittle that down to 15 would take over my entire life. It would leave me tossing and turning in my sleep. I would feel guilty for not including every song on every good album by every good artist. What I need is a restriction. I need boundaries. I need rules. When i initially started putting together some songs for Charlie, I noticed a few had the word ‘blue’ in the song title. ‘That’ll do’ I thought. The restriction worked almost too well. I had to include the plural to fill up the quota. Some songs on the list would have been on a top 15 regardless of the theme. Some would not have been on the radar but its nice that they get on a list. My next playlist ; ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’ is progressing, unsuprisingly at snails pace. Anyway, enjoy. Sam.”

Grab the Pet Sounds playlist HERE and check the past playlists HERE.

‘Because The Sky Is Blue, It Makes Me Cry’

01 Its all over now, Baby Blue – The Byrds
02 Powder Blue – Elbow
03 Blue – The Verve
04 Orange Juice Blues – The Band
05 Bluebird – Buffalo Springfield
06 Pale Blue Eyes – The Velvet Underground
07 Blue Turns To Grey – The Rolling Stones
08 Blue Orchid – The White Stripes
09 Blues for Meister – The Red Hot Chili Peppers
10 Revolution Blues – Neil Young
11 Shade of Blue – B.R.M.C.
12 Behind Blue Eyes – The Who
13 Runnin Blue – The Doors
14 Blue Ridge Mountain – Fleet Foxes
15 Way To Blue – Nick Drake