The one song Paul Weller simply couldn’t live without: “If I had to pick one”
As the frontman of The Jam, Paul Weller brought mod culture back from the brink and carved a unique groove for punk over six studio albums between 1977 and ’82. Remarkably, the fashion-conscious frontman was only 24 years old when he called a halt to his formative group following the release of their sixth and final studio album, The Gift.
With the musical world at his feet, Weller brazenly ventured a new, jazz-pop-orientated direction with The Style Council before settling into a celebrated solo career packed with high-profile collaboration opportunities.
It’s part of the huge appeal of Weller: he is the coolest kid on the playground. Unstoppably charismatic in the wonderful standoffish way British punks can be, Weller is the epitome of nonchalant. Deliberately stylish and comfortably confrontational, Weller’s musical ability may be up there with the best, but it is the great taste he brings to his work, and those he works with, that gilds his particular lily.
Now, the so-called Modfather shows no signs of losing his creative edge and fashion sense. In May 2021, in the thick of Covid-19 hysteria, Weller treated his notably loyal fans to his 16th solo album, Fat Pop (Volume 1). The critically lauded album followed 2020’s On Sunset and promises great things for the suggested follow-up volume. In 2025, he added another string to his bow with Find El Dorado.
In a 2021 conversation with The Guardian, the prolific artist was asked to pick out his favourite song from his gargantuan catalogue. Rather than focusing on Fat Pop (Volume 1) or even heading back to his heyday with The Jam, Weller tracked back to 2018’s True Meanings.
“I thought about this last night, funnily enough,” Weller replied. “‘Aspects’, from True Meanings. It’s an acoustic record with strings and stuff. I always said: ‘If I ever come up with the greatest song I feel I could write, then I’ll turn it in.’ But I didn’t. Because I thought: ‘If I can write that tune, and that’s the best thing I’ve done, perhaps I can write something else as good or better’.”
Despite his roots in punk, Weller has long advocated acoustic rock and folk music. Even with The Jam, tracks like ‘That’s Entertainment’ and ‘English Rose’ hinted toward these affections.
In December 2007, Weller appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs to pick out his eight most indispensable tracks. The Modfather picked out a healthy variety of music, from the melancholic folk musings of Nick Drake’s ‘River Man’ to the funky rhythm of James Brown’s ‘Don’t Be A Dropout’. However, his apical selection, or Castaway’s Favourite, was Small Faces’ 1967 classic ‘Tin Soldier’.
“If I had to pick one band from that era, I guess it’s them,” Weller told Kirsty Young of his selection. “I just love everything about them. They look like a proper band. They are all the same size; I liked the way they looked, the way they sound. They look like a proper group. There’s so few group’s like that these days, and sound like it as well.”
Kirsty Young, the show’s host, picked up on this comment and noted that Weller has always been fascinated by fashion. Seen by many as one of British music’s unstoppably stylish forces, the Modfather has long been a signatory to style. “It wasn’t just the music, it was the attitude, it was the haircuts, it was everything, it was all encompassing. It all went hand in hand to me,” confirming just how keenly Weller has aligned his looks with his work.
When Kirsty Young sprung it upon Weller at the end, if he could only save one record out of his eight selections from the tide, the singer arduously answered: “Out of loyalty The Small Faces, musically Nick Drake.”
Over the years, Paul Weller has frequently given a nod to his favourite song with live covers. Watch him perform the Small Faces classic in 1991 as a tribute to frontman Steve Marriott, who had recently died in a house fire.
