This week we are given a theme for Song Lyric Sunday chosen by the fabulous Nancy of the Elephant’s Trunk blog, aka The Sicilian Storyteller. Her suggestion is that we play a song related to weather conditions of sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, or stormy. Jim’s post How’s The Weather tells all. Nancy had a two month residency here a couple of years ago, and this feels like an amalgam of two of her themes from back then, and one of them has also featured more recently without the need for her to prompt it. The easy way would be for me to repeat one of the posts I wrote before, but where’s the fun in that?

One song came to mind immediately, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m not alone in playing it today. It does, after all, cover most of the weather bases! But for once I’m not shying away from a possible repeat (sorry, Jim) and am going with this as my lead song:

And as I have taken to doing, to retain some control over the way WP formats my paragraphs, I’m again giving you a link to the lyrics from genius.com.

Four Seasons In One Day was the fifth and final single taken from Crowded House’s third album, Woodface. They are a part Australian, part New Zealand band, and their trademark has always been the beautiful harmonies which are in evidence on that track. The title references a common saying used in Melbourne to describe the city’s changeable weather, though I don’t think they have copyrighted it: we use the phrase here in the UK when we are talking about our favourite subject – the weather. We have a lot of it. And as many Aussies are descended from Brits (Ten Pound Poms, convicts) I think we could claim any copyright that might be up for grabs.

The album was released in July 1991 and was their UK breakthrough, reaching #6, though it performed less well in the US than their two previous ones, only getting to #83. It was, of course, big Down Under: #2 in Australia and #1 in New Zealand. The single wasn’t released until June 1992, by which time I think anyone who wanted this song already had it, but nevertheless it still made #26 in the UK, #33 in New Zealand and #47 in Australia, though it didn’t make the US charts. This is a lovely album that I still go back to when I’m in the mood for something soothing to listen to.

I’m giving you another tune today, which I have played before for Tuesday Tunes but not for SLS. It isn’t exactly imaginative in its lyrics, but it is such a happy sound that I just had to include it:

And if you really need the lyrics, genius.com comes to your rescue again. As Brit readers will recognise, that clip is from the long-running Top Of The Pops tv show, complete with a bit of Noel Edmonds, who was hosting that week. Osibisa are a Ghanaian-British Afro-rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians. They are just about still in existence, though only two of the seven original members are still with us: the most recent to pass away was Teddy Osei, lead vocalist on this, who died in January 2025 at the age of 87. Osibisa released albums up to 2009, and then returned with another in 2021. A couple of their early records both reached #11 in the UK Albums chart, and Sunshine Day was their best performing single, getting to #17 in January 1976. It’s happy and fun, and I’ve always rather liked it. It was the opening track on their 1975 album, Welcome Home, which made #200 in the US and #75 in Australia, though it wasn’t a UK hit. And you get an idea of how awful fashions were in 1976 from this: I got married in August 1975 and had to buy a suit that allowed for the height of my platform shoes, and which could only be worn with them. Driving was almost impossible!

That’s me done for today, and I hope you enjoyed these. Thanks as ever to Jim Adams for running the show, and I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes. Have fun 🤩