I didn't feel well at all. It was the time of 'already left School' and 'hadn't started my first job yet' and I really should have been out doing things, after all. But, no. I was stuck in bed with the Flu from hell. On one of these sneezy days, my Dad nipped home from work at lunchtime and came in to ask how I was. I grunted and spluttered an answer, to which he replied ''hey, anything you want to make you feel better'' ? There was a long pause. I thought about this. Any normal reply would surely have involved hot water bottles, vile tasting lemon drinks, or aspirin. Or all of those. I had other ideas.
Being as I was in one of those 'I want Records' frames of mind (a frame of mind which began well over 40 years ago and occasionally persists to this day), I thought the best cure would be to have a couple more Records for my collection, preferably 7" Singles. I had been listening to the radio for days, drifting in and out of sleep, and hearing Records all the time. By this point, I was hankering for 'music I'd missed', as it were, either because I was too young to think about Records, or they weren't 'cool' at the time, or that I wasn't born yet when they first came out.
But, I had two in mind, which I decided would make me feel better. And I knew, just knew, that the wonderful 'Gloria's Record Bar' would have them. This was back in the days when old Records could be ordered, and any shop worth it's salt (or Vinyl, in this case) would have a decent stock of old classics as well as the current chart.
So, I announced (or, spluttered between coughs and sneezes) that 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Elvis Presley, and 'Where Do You Go To My Lovely' by Peter Sarstedt, would surely make me feel better.
It was less than an hour or two later, that my Dad marched in and handed me these two gems.
I was better within days.
As I said, I discovered the cure for Flu in 1974.
