MORE TRUE LOVE WAYS

If you have finished your cider, may I offer these facts regarding the longest period of marriage for a musician (MOJO 269)? Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil have been married since August 1961, while Brenda Lee has been wed to Ronnie Shacklett since 1963. It’s a marriage I remember because the news broke when I was on a school holiday in Paris, something I was able to tell Brenda and Ronnie when I met them a few years ago at Nashville’s Country Music Hall Of Fame. Charlie Brown, via e-mail

Fred says: There was a fair amount of correspondence regarding marital loyalty. Bob Walker (Glasgow) e-mailed to say Tom Jones has been married to Linda since 1957, while Richard Murdoch (also of Glasgow) mentioned that country legends Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright were together until Johnnie’s death in 2011, 33 days short of their 74th wedding anniversary. But now it’s time to call a halt to all this wedded bliss as I resume my cider supping.