2. Rodgers and HammersteinSouth Pacific (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

This musical has a very dark story. It’s in this list because, when I was a kid, we didn’t have that many albums, but one of the ones we had – because my mum loved it – was the soundtrack to South Pacific. It was a gatefold album with a special booklet and we played it to death.

And so I know this music very well, but in a funny kind of way, as is often the case, it’s not the obvious one that you eventually remember. There’s an extraordinary song called ‘You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught’, which is about racism, and it’s often cut out whenever it’s on TV – which is strange given that that’s what the musical is about – but the best song is called ‘This Nearly Was Mine’ and it’s an extraordinarily beautiful song. A lot of these albums are emblematic for me. It’s not just South Pacific but a lot of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s other ones like Oklahoma! and Carousel stand for things that I really love. But this one has a childhood, nostalgic place in my heart.