Long After Tonight Is All Over

Here we are again, after a short holiday and a broken laptop which together spelled a long hiatus.

Today's song, 'Long After Tonight Is All Over', is one of those magnificent, life affirming numbers that a genius like Burt Bacharach could seemingly rattle off at a moment's notice. The first version here, cut by Jimmy Radcliffe in the mid-sixties, was only ever a minor hit but subsequently attained legendary status when it became one of the famous 'three before eight' northern soul songs, meaning the last three songs of an all-nighter, the other two being 'Time Will Pass You By' by Tobi Legend, and 'I'm On My Way', by Dean Parrish.

Jimmy's smooth, clean tones float joyously over the orchestra, buoyed up on a wave of ecstacy and a raft of backing singers, but much as I love his version, the definitive take for me has to be Irma Thomas's long shelved but thankfuly rediscovered version.

Thomas's band really attack this song – just listen to that muscular drumming – and take it from the realms of balladry into R&B territory, but it's essentially a vocalist's track, so what makes it work is the delicate combination of grit, post-coital satisfaction and sheer punch-the-air joy which Irma manages to emote in two minutes 31 seconds of dynamite. Enjoy it.