READING Matt Clark’s tribute to Martin Carthy (Folk hero’s life in proper song, The Press, January 29), one sentence stood out. I say stood out, damn near jumped up and smacked me in the eye.

I quote: “During the early fifties the music was as drab as the lashing north sea in winter” – drab? Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Shore, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney (George’s aunt), the big bands of Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Mitch Miller etc, and what about our own Frankie Vaughan, Mat Monroe, Alma Cogan, Lita Roza.

Nothing drab about them; in fact the list is endless. I would need two pages of The Press to list them all.

Max Bygraves aside, we enjoyed great songs by wonderful singers in the Fifties.

Cynthia Glasby, Southfields Road, Strensall, York.