Nik Cohn pays tribute to the Chairman, the Voice, the Icon from Hoboken

The Eye on Pop & Jazz

Asda, the supermarket known for its socialising, has abandoned the singles market in favour of pensioners.

JAZZ James Moody, Ronnie Scott's

Sad 1950s were hardly a golden age

Three years ago, Stockton's Wing - a respected but, through an ongoing dalliance with drum kits, not universally revered name in the Irish traditional scene - were hanging on for dear life. Although the professional life-span of trad acts is closer to that of jazz (where age improves) than rock (where people sell lots of records today and disappear tomorrow), consumer boundaries are blurring and the marketplace will no longer tolerate complacency. Stockton's Wing (their name was plucked from a lyric on the first Bruce Springsteen album) had reached that point. That they have managed to turn their critical and commercial fortunes around through sheer hard work and the finest record of a 17-year career with the recent Letting Go is testament to both exceptional grit and enduring quality.

EMI Group, the music arm of the former Thorn EMI conglomerate, remained a favoured takeover candidate, following its maiden day of trading as a separately quoted company.

Pearl & Dean has revamped its image. But don't panic. By Meg Carter

When you have built your life

The classic, preppy, button-down shirt - the defining garment of the American male and a staple of The Gap - is almost a century old. Collars were first buttoned on to shirts in 1900 when John Brooks of Brooks Brothers had the bright idea of adapting the shirts worn by English polo players for everyday wear - collars were buttoned down to stop them flapping around during play. Today, Brooks Brothers on Madison Avenue in New York still sell the benchmark button-down shirt, with prices starting from $48 (pounds 32). Unfortunately, you have to cross the Atlantic to buy one.

Stan Hey describes the scene as an unbearable waiting game unfolds

Sixty years ago the New York magazine Billboard published the first pop chart based on record sales. Reproduced in the 4 January 1936 issue were three separate Top 10s from each of the three leading record companies. No 1 was "Stop, Look and Listen" by Joe Venuti and Orchestra - according to Columbia. Alternatively, it was "Quicker Than You Can Say" by Ozzie Nelson and Orchestra on the Brunswick label. Or again it was RCA-Victor's Tommy Dorsey and Orchestra with "The Music Goes Round".

SOME OF YOU may find what follows disturbing. So James Naughtie warned the Today (R4) audience on Monday, and again on Tuesday. What did they do, those who feared disturbance? Change stations, switch off? Those of us who risked it on Tuesday heard how much more searingly disturbed were the sad, soft- spoken Gloucester siblings, children of the Wests. But on Monday disturbance was an absurdly feeble word for what followed: I can't find one strong enough.

Should doctors prescribe exercise? Jim White, a bored gym-goer, thinks not