e.g. Frank Sinatra’s 'Cycles' album, Ella Fitzgerald covering Cream and Randy Newman.
What else is worth investigating or reassessing?
― Dan Worsley, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 21:50 (one month ago) link
Posted about this just a couple of days ago:
Peggy Lee is the Bomb
Haven't listened to the album yet, so no opinion. That she covers "Superstar" suggests she was trying to keep up.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:15 (one month ago) link
Pat Boone does Tim Buckley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWrneyK-czg
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:30 (one month ago) link
A guy like Andy Williams did this so routinely that I'm not even sure he counts, but this is filled with covers of Top 40 hits from '72:
https://i.postimg.cc/tCfh4rqX/andy.jpg
He had a live album in '73 with an "Alone Again (Naturally)/Song Sung Blue/The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face/American Pie/Theme from 'Summer of 42'" medley.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:36 (one month ago) link
XP Album produced by Jerry Yester & finds Boone also covering John Stewart, Biff Rose, Fred Neil, and John D. Loudermilk.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:37 (one month ago) link
(xpost) Probably tried to talk Columbia into letting him cover "Theme from Shaft," too.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:38 (one month ago) link
"chequered"
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:39 (one month ago) link
not a 50s band but does "genuine imitation life gazette" count?
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:40 (one month ago) link
Eartha Kitt - Where Is My Man?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5FJjNSPsgI
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:41 (one month ago) link
also, sammy davis jr must be the all-time king of this, no? his version of "shaft" has him making up his own very swingin' (read corny) lyrics:
"he stands for the good in the roughest neighborhood, he's no stranger (right on!)he's treated with respect, his friends let him know that there is danger (can you dig it?)"
he also makes up lyrics to the "kojak" theme and provides new lyrics for "love is all around", which are must-hear.
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:44 (one month ago) link
Also, The Ethel Merman Disco Album:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIokh-Z0J1aQjBACXNWq8wkA_bVi9rv7yRUn9qqefe7XX3Sglzzvo9V7Bkx7_zsjtsocB3FDvC5MUWhxFw3eI2lqZDQB_oYXE-VEvaM-raQ1ecYaAVzwKsP4w_B8dAtm8N8cRlL0DVmUA/s1600/vfvfvffvvfvfvvfv.jpg
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:47 (one month ago) link
Boone apparently had the first commercially released version of "Song To The Siren"!
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:47 (one month ago) link
I like that album cover. I can't decide if the hat in disembodied hand makes it worse or better
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:49 (one month ago) link
oh, also, the velvet fog is not your velvet fool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YukjHUihvlA
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:50 (one month ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY0JPKveuok
Jack Jones - “Wives and Lovers” (Disco version)
Probably the most sexist song of all time, but I love it!
― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:55 (one month ago) link
also, does louis armstrong doing "the creator has a master plan" count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDjDCiTfUnU
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 22:57 (one month ago) link
That Armstrong album also has a version of "Give Peace a Chance" on it, with Ornette Coleman as one of the backing vocalists.
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:01 (one month ago) link
Not a 40s/50s singer but I still feel compelled to mention Gene Pitney's glorious attempt at swinging late 60s pop, Animal Crackers (in Cellophane Boxes)
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:07 (one month ago) link
Tony Bennett's reluctantly-recorded and instantly disowned 1970 album with modish sleeve art and a few Beatles covers is often put down but I still want to listen to it at some point
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sings_the_Great_Hits_of_Today!
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:09 (one month ago) link
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:39 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
Plus this Hendrix/Sly-inspired cut from a few years later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQDNVeLXC8
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:13 (one month ago) link
40s/50s singers actors attempts to stay hip but mostly failing, sometimes gloriouslyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94-_w9ARX0
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:14 (one month ago) link
which in turn inspired a strange response record - one of the only full-on comedy sketches to chart in the UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5VwDOdSA8
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:16 (one month ago) link
love this album mainly for the cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSyHjc6Pif8
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:22 (one month ago) link
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Howlin%27_Wolf_-_The_Howlin%27_Wolf_Album.jpg
― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:30 (one month ago) link
on a smaller timescale, I'm kind of fascinated by the mid to late 60s career of Duane Eddy. by this point the hits had dried up, so he and producer Lee Hazlewood were grasping at straws to try and reconnect him with "the youth"so they made an album of Dylan covers in 65, a collection of soft pop hippy hits like Monday Monday and A Groovy Kind Of Love in 66, and a 1920s themed album called The Roaring Twangies in 67. and when that didn't work he made a Japanese only album.
anyway here's Duane & Lee with a crap rewrite of Boots on the hippy album called This Guitar was Made For Twangin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIsKxy9MK8A
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 23:45 (one month ago) link
Wow at the Pat Boone cover! Loving the suggestions.
― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 4 April 2024 00:30 (one month ago) link
There’s Link Wray’s very cool and Stones-y ‘70s record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddkJKg5PNw
― President Keyes, Thursday, 4 April 2024 00:43 (one month ago) link
Paul Anka, ladies and gents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Swings
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Thursday, 4 April 2024 00:46 (one month ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0lalWijN_Y
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Thursday, 4 April 2024 00:49 (one month ago) link
Paul Anka doing It's a Sin wow
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 4 April 2024 01:32 (one month ago) link
Not real, but still.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUwSaO2SnHQ
― clemenza, Thursday, 4 April 2024 01:37 (one month ago) link
There’s Link Wray’s very cool and Stones-y ‘70s record― President Keyes
― President Keyes
wray was genuinely awesome in the '70s, though... like, he wasn't trying, he just _was_ hip
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 4 April 2024 01:42 (one month ago) link
Not a singer, and I think I posted this in another thread recently, but
https://i.discogs.com/6bLZnoynzsnsiqXBUSJf3cVaA9NShNV7-KiX90gYxHc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:596/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIxMDE1/MjEtMTQ4NzYzMDk1/Mi0yMzAyLnBuZw.jpeg
Al Hirt Now!
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Thursday, 4 April 2024 03:20 (one month ago) link
Jack Jones is still alive! He’s 86. My first radio job at a small town mostly-easy listening station I used to play his cover of Little Feat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S34OsZs4NHs
― Requiem for a Dream: The Musical! (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 4 April 2024 03:26 (one month ago) link
Psychedelic Bo Diddley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M6uAZl7XjU
― paisley got boring (Eazy), Thursday, 4 April 2024 03:58 (one month ago) link