Kim's favourite songs on BBC Radio 2 this week

Monday April 4th, 2005
Anyone who had a heart - Cilla Black
'I don't know what year, '62? '63?, I was only three years old and I remember mum and dad had the radio on in the house and listening to all kinds of fantastic music at thar time. I remember Gene Pitney, the Beatles, The Kinks and all kinds of great music coming out of that box. Anyone who had a heart, there was something about the way Cilla sang it, not Dionne Warwick or anyone else. Heartrending stuff.'

Can we still be friends - Todd Rundgren
'I love Todd Rundgren. He wails like a banshee. I love singers who wail like banshees. Elvis Costello, he can do that sometimes. His songwriting is quite superb, I've got many of his albums. One in particular called 'Acapella' where he's sung all the instruments including the drums and percussion. It sounds a bit technical that, but I'm trying not to distract from the fact that his songwriting is quite superb. It's a very honest song, I'm very attracted to honest songs.'

Tuesday April 5th, 2005
Ladies of the canyon - Joni Mitchell
'It's really hard to choose one of her songs 'cos there are so many fantastic ones. And I was lucky to grow up in a household where my parents had her early albums and I was only ten or eleven while I was listening to this stuff. It had a big impact on me and then I went out and bought 'The hissing of summer lawns' and really got into her. She's a fascinating individual. She's obviously been through an awful lot of pain and had quite a difficult sort of life. And it seems to be sometimes the price they have to pay for their brilliance. You have to suffer for your art.'

Flowers in the window - Travis
'It's part of that, getting into horticulture and falling in love with flowers again and being in a position to plant them and enthuse people about being out in the garden and now of course my children. It is such a happy song and it really kindof demonstrates and communicates that fantastic energy of joy and living a life. That's what nature does for me. It makes me feel glad to be around. I'm driving here today and all the spring flowers are out and there's little crocuses smiling up at the sun, and it's just great, you know. After a seeming year of winter whose heart could not be moved by the sight of a beautiful spring day?'

Wednesday April 6th, 2005
They don't know - Kirsty McColl
The reason I chose that song was because it was released just before my career kicked off and Kirsty is the same age as me - would be about the same as me. I remember thinking 'Wow! She's so young, she's 20 years old, she's writing these great songs, she's on the radio, she's so positive, so gutsy, so I wanted really to be like Kirsty MacColl. She was a great inspiration to really get in there and have my voice heard too. I subsequently got to know her, and in fact for a while we were both dating guys in the same band, Tenpole Tudor, which was great fun! No, not Eddie, you don't date someone like Eddie. She came to the very first rehearsals that I did in North London for my very first tour. I've got lovely photographs that I've taken of her at that time.

MacArthur's Park - Arthur Harris
What a great song. I heard this as a child and I just though 'What's all that about?' and I could see this cake melting. It wasn't until years later that I could see there was another spin, presumably, on it about the great cake of life, the great mix of tragedy and comedy. To me as a child I loved the beautiful string arrangements and the drama of it and the different movements of it. So it really captured my imagination as a child.

Thursday April 7th, 2005
You're a lady - Peter Skellern
I seem to remember Peter Skellern's music wafting over the airwaves as I was on the school bus going to school every day during the Seventies. There was a lot of really music in the Seventies, a lot of really good singer/songwriters of which Peter Skellern was one. Fantastic voice, beautiful songs. That's some lovely stuff. I remember very romantic, simple great melodies. The simplicity of the lyric, 'You're a lady I'm a man', I think that's great.

I remember that - Prefab Sprout
[Paddy McAloon] is undoubtedly one of our finest songwriters and I was fortunate enough to meet him a few times and I was always a bit in awe. I could never really get the words out. I often find when I'm around someone who I really admire I'd really rather not meet them I decided. I'm gonna keep out of their way. That album's just absolutely beautiful. This particular song does remind me of a particular time in life and of a particular relation I was in that never came to be.

Friday April 8th, 2005
Summer (The first time) - Bobby Goldsboro
I loved the song when it first came out, I don't know what year it came out, it was probably when I was much younger. The point that I found the song extremely sexy of course was when I became an older woman... Need I say more... I won't go into any details but certainly that song is an incredibly potent song... It makes me just quiver to talk about it now.

I can't help falling in love - Elvis Presley
There's gotta be an Elvis one in there. I grew up with Elvis, watching my dad singing Elvis, watching backstage as he was a cabaret artist entertaining people, singing with such passion. I remember the day Elvis died. It was such a big part of our life, a big part of our family. Even now if I hear his music it takes my breath away so often. And this song I remember my dad singing and that's why I chose this particular one because it's a great song.