Black velvet...

A fortnight ago I became the custodian of a few dozen (more) 7" singles originally dating from the late 1960s to the late 1980s that had lain, forgotten and unplayed, for more than a decade. They were quite unsurprisingly very dusty, and thus in need of some basic tlc, but otherwise they are mostly fine and I can imagine few better uses for a wet and windy Saturday afternoon than dealing with a stack of 7" vinyl!
One of the most recent (1989, Atlantic A8742) amongst them happens to be one of my favourite pop songs from the 1980s...

While never a major artist in the UK, Black Velvet was a big single (reaching #2 in the UK) and still frequently appears on mainstream radio play-lists some twenty years later. It is neither pop-rock nor is it a ballad but it does what few try and fewer still succeed in doing, which is both at the same time.

Another classic, and also a blast from the past, is this single...

Twenty-seven years old and by a band appearing at Latitude 2009.