It must have been in the year 2000. I just quit my job as editor-in-chief of a music magazine and after three and a half years in permanent employment I felt like a new person again. Free and independent. In keeping with this new attitude to life, I bought a used green Mazda MX5 convertible.

My favourite musical companion these days was a quite successful compilation of the record company Universal: “Lounge Legends” – 16 songs from the easy subject, easy listening, instrumentals, singers like Tom Jones, France Gall and Lee Hazlewood as well as recordings of dance orchestras á la James Last, Bert Kämpfert and Max Greger. Of course, a contribution by Horst Jankowski was not to be missed. The bearded pianist and bandleader took on the Petula Clark classic “Don’t Sleep In The Subway”. The Tom Hatch/Jackie Trent-composition made me dream as a child with its melancholic chorus. The fingertip keyboardist Jankowski with his opulent instrumental version didn’t quite manage that – but every cabriolet ride became a bit sunnier with the sound in his ear. Please click the link on Youtube. Good Horst hasn’t even taken the 100-click hurdle yet. Scandal!