8. Fats WallerAin’t Misbehavin’

This is a compilation of his greatest performances. He didn’t write all the songs but his interpretation of others’ and his own music were phenomenal. My dad introduced me to Fats Waller. For a long time we didn’t have a record player, only had a radio and a TV with a broken screen so we listened to it. Then on holiday we got a record player. We had ‘Poisoning Pigeons In The Park’, ‘Telstar’, Oklahoma! and then me and my sister bought my dad his favourite piece of music – he played the accordion – and we bought him this record.

It’s incredible from the first moment to the last. Everyone should listen to his record. Dorothy Dandridge sounds like a saxophone when she starts singing. My family find it too much when I come to play it. I find it very, very moving. When I found out that Stephen wasn’t going to sing and I had to – these were my influences. Those emotions well up when I talk about it. We played this at my dad’s funeral.