Heart-stopping glances. Stolen moments. Giddy highs and melancholic lows. Tender feelings, guilty pleasures. A love affair you can't resist, right or wrong.

The collection of songs on this mix, 'Autumn Rendez-vous', evoke all the beauty, drama and heartache of all-consuming – sometimes forbidden – love. It feels cosy and romantic, but can suddenly leave you devastated.

Mixcloud | View image | Duration: 2 hours 5 minutes

Bien sur, such a mix had to include a good dose of French and French-inspired pop. Who better to set the tone here than Françoise Hardy, the master of wistful longing and comforting sadness? The mix features, and is named for, the English version of her 1966 song, 'Rendez-vous d'automne'. Françoise also pops up duetting with Blur on the alternate version of 'To The End', and her presence is felt elsewhere, like the track from The Yearning's gorgeous 2016 album Evening Souvenirs, which was heavily influenced by Ms Hardy's oeuvre. There are also a few translations of gallic songs here: Jimmie Rodgers 'The Lovers' is a cover of Jacques Brel's 'Les Amants de cœur', Greek sixties girl Tammy interprets Pascal Danel's 'Les Trois Dernières Minutes', and Ethel Azama, under the auspices of Martin Denny, does a show-stopping rendition of Jacques Prevert and Joseph Kosma's 'Les Feuilles Mortes'.

The beautiful cover photo of Françoise is by Jean-Marie Périer.

Tracklist:

Mixcloud | View image | Duration: 2 hours 4 minutes

A minor dilemma for me, as a blogger living in a different hemisphere to almost all of my readers, is when to share a mix that seems so perfect for a particular season. I've had this mix in mind as a soundtrack for spring, but wondered whether to post it in your spring or mine? I've decided perhaps this is an ideal time for you and I alike, as my springtime begins, and maybe some of your summery days still linger as it turns to autumn. Whatever the weather, I think this provides some much-needed sunny cheer. It's music for daydreaming out the window.

This mix was inspired by, and shaped around, the simple, escapist joy of the song 'Up, Up and Away'. Written by Jimmy Webb and originally recorded by The Fifth Dimension, the harmonic slice of breezy listening was a big hit around the world in 1967. I wanted to create a mix with a feeling of pure escapism and floating away from troubles. Is there any song that better epitomises this?

The version I decided to include here is the less familiar Supremes' cover from their 1968 album Reflections, which is a little sweeter and more buoyant to my ears, and of course has Diana Ross' irresistibly silken vocals. It's nestled among a collection of songs I find uplifting, comforting and sometimes achingly beautiful (wow, that Aretha cover of 'Over The Rainbow').

While flipping through my collection of vintage French magazines the other day, I came across an interesting little segment in the October 1966 issue of Salut les copains, France's enormously popular and influential youth music magazine that launched in 1962 to complement the radio show of the same name. It features Françoise Hardy sharing her ten current favourite songs, as part of a running segment where popular music stars were asked to create their own 'hit parade'.

Hardy's tastes encompassed a variety of popular genres of the time, from the easy listening of Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark to the garage rock of Syndicate of Sound and The Troggs, whose 'Wild Thing' she calls "breathtaking". Most of the picks here are from the USA and UK, as was more fashionable by that time than homegrown music. Hardy, though, was no bandwagon jumper and had long been a fan of Anglo-American sounds. She often had the chance to hear new British music when she ducked across the channel to record an album or play some venues, and she mentions buying Syndicate of Sound's 'Little Girl' in London and seeing Dusty Springfield perform 'Goin' Back' on Ready Steady Go! A couple of her fellow Gallic singer-songwriters are represented here in Michel Polnareff ("She could have cited any other of Michel's songs, she loves them all equally"), and Antoine, who had debuted nearly a year earlier and transformed the local scene.

I've playlisted her choices so you can immerse yourself in what the wonderful Ms Hardy was grooving to 50 years ago:

This blog has gained many new readers since I first posted my Spiked Candy Canes mixes in 2005, so I thought I'd share them again for anyone who missed out the first time around. Hopefully they'll give you an idea of the abundance of lesser-known but fun, interesting, weird or sometimes beautiful Christmas songs that are out there, and maybe introduce you to some artists you haven't heard before. If you're looking for more info and links to purchase anything that's still in print, have a look through the December 2005 and the December 2006 archives.

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Obscure 50s and 60s French film actress who seems to have only recorded the EP pictured above. This track is a cover of the Bacharach/David ballad 'Reach Out For Me', made famous by Dionne Warwick.

Buy: Nous Les Filles Vol. 5 from Toto Records
Links: France Arnell @ IMDB, 1963 NY Times review of her film Le Soupirant.

1. France Gall - Die schönste musik, die es gibt (1967)
   
2. Leonard Nimoy - Music To Watch Space Girls By (instrumental) (1967)
   

Credits: France Gall record cover from Douce France... Gall

1. Georgie Fame - Get Away (1966)
   
2. Blossom Dearie - Sweet Georgie Fame (1967)
   

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1. Claudine Longet - Snow (1967)
2. Dressy Bessy - All the Right Reasons (1999)
3. Deerhoof - Xmas Tree (2001)
4. Antena - Noëlle à Hawaï (1982)
5. Peggy Lee - The Christmas Spell (1949)
6. Stina Nordenstam - Soon After Christmas (1991)
7. The Diskettes - Noel (2004)
8. The Gems - Love For Christmas (1964)
9. The Kinks - Father Christmas (1977)
10. The Knife - Christmas Reindeer (2005)
11. The Pipettes - In The Bleak Midwinter (2004)
12. The Sonics - Don't Believe In Christmas (1965)

A Christmas package for all my lovely readers.
Thanks to Ion for the idea for the title!