How Can You Mend This Broken Heart?

No, I haven't had a fight with ma cherie amour (well, not today, anyhow...)!

I've been visiting the doctor these past two weeks, checking out some chest pains, getting a cholesterol test, x-rays and ECG scans to see how the old ticker is doing. No news yet, which is good news. I took up cycling again recently, in anticipation of the Tour de France - I always said exercise would kill me. SO I've been taking it easy a bit, going for gentle walks on the promenade by the sea, looking out the window in my bathchair, grumbling about the good old days, and mentally totalling the number of tubs of Haagen-Daas ice-cream I have consumed wantonly in my lifetime.

And now, this weekend, would you believe it, I've caught a nasty flu-type thing called parvovirus from kids at school! Taking Friday off work is just no fun if your actually ill! And ma cherie amour is currently off on a camping trip with her class somewhere near Ardres in Pas-de-Calais. So there is nobody to pamper me and feed me soup. In fact, there is no soup! Pizza delivery guys, I have decided, should be considered the seventh emergency service (behind the coastguard, mountain rescue and the AA).

There were thus many candidates for today's post. We've got Pain In My Heart from Otis Redding, or we could have had his I've Been Sick Y'all. The Supremes nearly made it with Nothing But Heartaches. Then there were The Isley Brothers with This Old Heart Of Mine. Sadly, those would all have involved me rummaging around for vinyl and tranferring them, while shivering and with a splitting headache!

In that vein, here are some fantastic heart-stopping tunes! Guaranteed to get your pulse racing and your soul aching!

Otis Redding - Pain In My Heart (from Atco LP 'Saturday Night At The Apollo') 1964

(for more on this track, read my old post here)

Al Green - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? (Hi Records) 1972

Ann Peebles - Troubles, Heartaches And Sadness (Hi 2205) 1972

James Brown - Your Cheatin' Heart (King Records) 1970


Well, I'd better get back to the couch and my blanket, and hopefully I'll be playing you Art Posey with No More Heartaches soon! Also, I've just realised its Bastille Day, so I'm going to try to phone ma cherie amour's relatives with my terrible linguistic skills! Meanwhile, as a sort of Saturday question: How many soul tunes with a heartache or flu/illness/plague theme can you think of?