Seasons come and go, but I will never change and I am on my way

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I have an unfortunate obsession with pop music and can chart the events of my life by songs that were popular at any given particular time.

With this in mind my new favourite song has just become "Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah (featuring Eric Turner) as this was number 1 in the charts on the day young Ben was born. Let me admit that I am no connoisseur of Mr Tempah's music but it could have been worse. I have a friend, who, for my 50th birthday, made me a compilation set of every song that had ever been number 1 on my birthday (you are thinking "that's a lot of songs" but you should have seen the set he did for Methuselah's 950th....even Cher and Tina Turner were still having hits when "Methie" was a boy).
Anyway, I digress, The Gods Of Music did not shine kindly on me, their devoted follower. In my Birthday Compilation Set I have such classics as Barbados (75), You're The One That I Want (78), Lady In Red (86), Turtle Power (90) and just to rub salt in the already gaping wounds, number 1 on my 50th was Thunderbirds by Busted. I have to go way back for any redeeming tunes such as Help(65), San Francisco(67) and School's Out(72). As Confucius once said, You can choose your friends but you cannot choose your Birthday Number 1s (unless you are very rich and buy enough copies to make a song you like number 1 on your birthday)

On the day I was married there were 2 number 1s.........When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman by Doctor Hook (which is exactly the kind of song you are looking for on that particular day) and One Day At A Time by Lena Martell (let's just leave that one there)

My eldest son Denis has Super Trouper by Abba as his day 1 song and at least it does mention Glasgow in the lyrics. My youngest Dean has The Final Countdown by Europe. It could have been much worse. When you are born 2 weeks before Christmas you are likely to inherit some very bad festive tunes or even worse Cliff Richard. I guess, these days, you are almost certain to have an X Factor Winner.

The new father Sean has House of Fun by Madness as his Day 1 song, which has always been appropriate and hopefully will continue to be so. I have discovered that on the day new mum Claire was born Rick Astley was at number 1 with Never Gonna Give You Up (Ah, those wonderful 80s, what a special time for music)

I have already completed young Ben's first mix-tape (are they still called mix tapes when they are on disc?) and anyone lucky enough to have received one of my compilations over the years will know there are certain givens in my mixes. They have to include at least one song each by Springsteen, Dylan and Stevie Wonder. This has caused some problems over the years. It's not easy to fit Like A Rolling Stone into a "Soul" mix. There is also a fair chance there will be some extremely contrived links if there is a specific theme to the mix. There should be 15 songs in the mix. We should all be famous for 15.

Anyway here is the first "New Grandson Ben" mix (I need to give the title some thought before the next one)

1. Written In The Stars...............Tinie Tempah
2. Ben................................Michael Jackson
3. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life....Stevie Wonder
4. Stand By Me........................Ben E King
5. House Of Fun.......................Madness
6. Never Gonna Give You Up............Rick Astley
7. Baby You're A Rich Man.............The Beatles
8. Tiny Dancer........................Ben Folds
9. Diamonds On The Inside.............Ben Harper
10.Lullaby............................Shawn Mullins
11.Oh, Very Young.....................Cat Stevens
12.Claire.............................Gilbert O'Sullivan
13.Forever Young......................Bob Dylan
14.Beautiful Boy......................John Lennon
15.If I Should Fall Behind............Bruce Springsteen

Enjoy! You will all be listening to it soon