Benghazi-in-the-Kazi - An early 1960s recording by the young and handsome Muammar singing with the Ronettes has gone straight to the top of the charts in Libya tonight.
Private (as he was then) Gaddafi released his version of the 1946 Eddie Miller song in 1966 - exactly one year before Englebert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey, 2 May 1936) launched his own UK version.
Gaddafi famously sang his extraordinary rendition of Please Release Me (Let me Go) at the iconic Sunday Night at the Libyan Palladium TV variety show on March 1 1966.
It went to No 1 overnight.
Now the words are haunting Old Muammar, a poignant lament for an era that's now very nearly over.... Please release me let me go/For I don't love you anymore//To waste our lives would be a sin/Release me and let me love again...
Val Doonican is 109.
