Free: Wishing Well

This record reminds of the time when I first made a point of listening to the singles chart on a Sunday evening. It was a hit in 1972, so I was probably 12. It also marks the end of an interesting era - a sort of interregnum between the glories of the 1960s and the rise of glam rock - when quite heavy bands made it into the charts.

Free, best remembered for Alright Now, though My Brother Jake is a good record too, were a notably youthful band, still in their teens when they came together in the late 1960s. Two of them went on to form Bad Company, while the guitarist Paul Kossoff died from drug-related heart problems at the age 25.

His father was the actor David Kossoff, who was a sort of Rabbi Blue of his era. Following links on Wikipedia, you learn that David Kossoff was the brother of the veteran Radio 2 DJ Alan Keith, and that Keith's daughter Linda inspired Keith Richards to write "Ruby Tuesday".