Sunday, June 17, 2012

Blowing their cover


For practically unfathomable reasons, excellent original recordings sometimes disappear down the memory-hole, to be replaced in public memory  by inferior cover versions.

In an attempt to rectify this injustice, the fighting legions of WDJ will occasionally post links to orignals:


“Going down to Liverpool”: Katrina & the Waves:
This performance is in no way esoteric;  yet it languishes in the shade of a version popularized for the masses  by a gaggle of hirsute wannabes, the Bingles or Bangles or Jingles or Jangles, something like that.



Note:  Not shilling for K & t. W. here, per se;  just listened to a medley of their greatest hits, and they range, for the most part, from the unmemorable to the eminently forgettable.  But all the more reason that this precious exception should be remembered.

Other tracks, of non-negligible though lesser merit:
This, for the guitar-and-drum drone, the vocals downmuted -- ah! minimalism:
And especially, with much of the excitement of “Liverpool” -- another “goin’ down” motif, oddly:
“Mexico”

~~~~

Bobby Darin's performances are, so far as I know, all of them  covers.  But some of them are wonderful.

Now... One I have never liked, is "Beyond the Sea".   A hit from his 'Mafia period'.
Turns out  it is a reprise  of a much gentler original, by Charles Trenet, "La Mer", here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztkUuunI7g&feature=related

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