Soundtrack Of My Life: Greg James

13 October, 2023

Greg James

The first song I remember hearing

Round The Horne theme (1960s BBC Radio comedy programme)

“It was always on, somehow, in the car. I think that’s where my love of theme tunes comes from, being indoctrinated at an early age. My mum and dad still loved it when they were 40 and they had old tapes of it. As a kid I loved the silly voices, I just thought, ‘Oh my god, this is so fun. What a ridiculous thing’.”

The first album I owned

Manic Street Preachers – ‘Generation Terrorists’

“The first album I ever asked my mum to buy me when she was out doing the big shop, I wanted – I can’t remember what Red Hot Chili Peppers album it was but there was a Chili Peppers album I’d heard about and I wanted to be cool so I asked her ‘could you get me the Chili Peppers album?’ And I think she got confused and brought home a Manic Street Preachers album. Which, to be fair, really good. It was the one with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ on it – I liked it. It was guitars and I quite liked guitars.”

The first gig I went to

The Corrs at Wembley Arena, London, 1996

“I went with my dad. I later realised that we both fancied Andrea Corr. I had a crush on her – I think she might have been my first crush – and he had an inappropriate age difference dad crush on Andrea Corr. I hope you appreciate the honesty here, I could lie and sound much cooler. What can I remember? Literally nothing. I would have been 10 or 11. I think I quite liked ‘Runaway’. I only worked it out in hindsight, like, ‘Dad, why did we go and see The Corrs?’ ‘Well, you wanted to go’. ‘Did you want to go?’ ‘Yeah…’”

The song that reminds me of home

Van Morrison – ‘Have I Told You Lately’

“My dad was in a band and he was quite a good singer. He used to sing a lot of Van Morrison. He used to sing ‘Have I Told You Lately’ which is one of my favourite songs. That song would always remind me of growing up in Bromley in the 1990s.”

The song I wish I’d written

The Maccabees – ‘Happiness’

“That’s a very beautiful song. It’s off their triumphant final – for now – album [‘Marks To Prove It’]. I think it’s a real showcase of a band who know exactly who they are and they don’t mind doing a sweet, poppier kind of song that’s still got a load of layers to it. It’s a beautiful message, it’s really lovely. It’s the sweet spot of The Maccabees where they did really expansive, arena-filling songs but doesn’t lose any of their sentimentality. It’s quite melancholic but with a triumphant chorus, it’s so smart.”

The song I do at karaoke

Natasha Bedingfield – ‘Unwritten’

“It’s a crowd-pleaser and (if you can nail the high notes) there’s a choir bit you can get everyone singing along to. It’s one of the most amazing pop songs ever. And believe me, it goes down well.”

The song I can’t get out of my head

The Proclaimers – ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’

“That is the Tailenders [James’ cricketing podcast, with ex-Maccabee Felix White and England cricketer James Anderson] song that we sing. We sing ‘Tailenders!’ and that has stuck really. Someone texted that in early on in Tailenders and said ‘in The Proclaimers’ ‘I’m gonna Be (500 Miles)’ you can sing ‘Tailenders!’’ and that’s sort of become our theme tune. I’m a man of simple pleasures and they’re normally theme tune-based. If it comes on anywhere I can’t not sing ‘Tailenders’ and I know that’s tragic but I’m okay with that.”

The song I can no longer listen to

Calum Scott – ‘Dancing On My Own’

“No offence to Calum Scott because I have nothing against him personally and I do wish him well, but I do think that cover is the worst thing in the world. Covers are very difficult anyway but Robyn is one of the all-time great artists and that’s one of the most incredible songs ever written. It doesn’t need anything doing to it. I don’t think even Kings Of Leon nailed it when they tried to do it…”

The song that makes me want to dance

Lou Bega – ‘Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of…)’

“That was also a huge part of my childhood. It won’t surprise you that, again, it’s the theme tune to Channel 4’s cricket coverage. I used to dance around to that when I was very excitedly waiting for the cricket to start on the telly. I’m not really a good dancer, but I am spirited.”

The song that makes me cry

Bon Iver – ‘8 (circle)’

“I discovered it at a time when I’d just come out of a rubbish break-up and I was suddenly feeling a lot more myself again and it always reminds me of that time. So it’s sort of happy tears. I don’t cry that often, not in an ‘I’m a legend’ way but I catch myself before I start crying and then do some things to make myself feel better before that happens. That song takes me to that place where I was finally over something awful and this lovely, gentle Bon Iver song came along. It’s in Bon Iver’s more optimistic canon.”

The song I want played at my funeral

David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj and Flo Rida – ‘Where Them Girls At’

“We’d need to pierce the tension or the sadness somehow. I’ve thought about it a lot and over the years I’ve thought, ‘What’s the funniest song I’ve ever played on Radio 1’ and I think it’s this. They didn’t mean it to be funny, walking into the club and proclaiming, ‘So many girls in here, where do I begin?’ – but it’s absolutely hilarious and at a funeral, I don’t think it’d go off but I think people would find it funny.”