Two curios from the 1991 album M.C. Aplausos by Memo Rios, who I believe is a Mexican comedian (?). I couldn’t find any info about him in English; he could be completely obscure or a household name, I have no idea so you’re welcome to enlighten me. I’m also a fan of his 1999 single Mi Bella Genio, which samples the I Dream of Genie theme tune…
Loser – The Cleverlys
The Cleverlys cover of Beck’s Loser is taken from their 2016 EP Cash Crop. The Cleverlys began life as an idea for a television show featuring the fictitious Cleverly family and incorporating perfomances of hip hop and rhythm and blues songs in a bluegrass style.
First released as an indie single by Beck in 1993, the success of Loser lead to his first major record deal. Inspired by the early 90s anti-folk scene, delta blues and hip hop, for the song’s vocals Beck attempted to emulate the rapping style of Chuck D. According to Beck, the line that became the song’s chorus originated because “When [Carl Stephenson – record producer for Rap-A-Lot Records] played it back, I thought ‘Man, I’m the worst rapper in the world, I’m just a loser.’ So I started singing ‘I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me.'”
Nutbush City Limits – Valerie Čižmárová
R.I.P Tina Turner, 1939-2023
First released as a single in 1973, Nutbush City Limits is a semi-autobiographical song written by Tina Turner commemorating her rural hometown of Nutbush in Haywood County, Tennessee. This cover version by Czech singer Valerie Čižmárová and her clone backing band dates from 1978.
Out of my Mind on Dope and Speed – Anton Barbeau
Anton Barbeau is a prolific American psychedelic singer-songwriter and producer from Sacramento, California. Barbeau’s cover of Julian Cope’s Out of My Mind on Dope and Speed was released as a 7″ single in 2015 with the original first appearing on Cope’s 1990 album Skellington.
Got To Get You Into My Life / Eleanor Rigby – The Third Wave
The Third Wave were an American-Filipino vocal jazz group featuring five teenage sisters from San Fransisco – Georgie, Reggie, Jamie, Stevie and Jody – who released one album Here and Now in 1970, and what a gorgeous platter of vocal harmonies, inspired arrangements and production it is. I mean, just listen to those voices and that piano solo on Got to Get You Into My Life.
Eleanor Rigby and Got to Get You Into My Life first appeared on The Beatles 1966 album Revolver, with the latter being iintended as an homage to Motown as well as (according to McCartney) “an ode to pot.”
The Third Wave presumably took their name from an experimental social movement created by California high school history teacher Ron Jones in 1967. Intended to demonstrate to his students how the German population could have accepted the actions of the Nazi regime during the rise of the Third Reich, as with a lot of social psychology experiments in the sixties, things got out a bit out of hand.
The late George Duke was a prolific keyboard player, bandleader, solo artist, music producer and musical director for film and television. As well as working with artists ranging from Sonny Rollins to Frank Zappa and Michael Jackson, he recorded 32 solo albums and his tracks have been sampled by hip-hop artists such as A tribe Called Quest and MF Doom. American bassist Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) recorded a version of Duke’s For Love (I Come Your Friend) for his 2011 album The Golden Age of Apocalypse.
Tequila / I Want To Hold Your Hand – Balsara and his Singing Sitars
As well as producing scores for dozens of Bengali and Hindi films, legendary composer and multi-intrumentalist Vistas Ardeshir Balsara (commonly known as simply V Balsara) pitched in to the Western sitar rock trend of the late sixties with a couple of his own albums including 1968’s Great International Hits from which these two gems have been plucked.
Seven Nation Army / C.R.E.A.M – Ramin Djawadi
From the soundtrack to the second season of HBO’s Westworld, Iranian-German composer Ramin Djawadi (best known for composing the Game of Thrones score) reimagines The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army as a piece of traditional Indian music, and Wu-Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M in a traditional Japanese style. Djawadi has synesthesia, allowing him to visualise the music he creates. I can’t help but wonder how these pieces appeared to him in his mind’s eye…
Immigrant Song / Your Time is Gonna Come – Dread Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin songs covered in a reggae style with Elvis on vocals. It’s one thing to come up with the concept, it’s another thing to make it work and sell millions of records based on the idea. But somehow Dread Zeppelin pulled it off. Not only was Robert Plant a fan, they were on the same record label as R.E.M and they recorded their early material in a studio owned by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Only in the 90s could any of this have happened…
Come As You Are (Japanese Version) – The King
From the Japanese pressing of the 1998 album Gravelands, Belfast born Jim Brown doesn’t just channel Elvis singing Nirvana, he channels Elvis singing Nirvana in Japanese. That’s some next level Elvis impersonating right there. The Japanese version has a different mix to the English version, as well as an additional spoken word part at the end that doesn’t feature on the original, so if anyone speaks Japanese and would like to tell me what he’s saying there, please do drop me a line
Taste of Honey / Batman Boogaloo – José Fajardo
Get honeyed up with Cuban flautist José Fajardo’s 1968 boogaloo version of Herb Alpert’s 1965 cover of Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow’s A Taste of Honey. Originally a recurring instrumental theme written for the 1960 Broadway perfomance of Shelagh Delaney’s 1958 play A Taste of Honey, Herb Alpert turned the song into a pop hit and a few years later José made it boogaloo.
Both the original and Herb Alpert’s recordings earned the song four Grammy Awards. As far as I know José’s cover is the only version with the chanting refrain toward the end, which I just love.
On the same album this is pulled from, José and his orchestra also put their spin on the old sixties Batman theme. If anyone wants to translate the lyrics for me, I’d be thrilled. I can’t imagine what they could be singing about, but I hope there’s some reference in there to the Batusi…
DADADADA Of The Bumblebee – Wuki (ft. Busta Rhymes)
Wuki is the solo project of Denver-based producer Kris Barman. His take on Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee was created for the VR rhythm game Beat Saber.
And if you think that was fast…
In 2010 Violinist Ben Lee set the World’s Fastest Musician record for playing Flight of the Bumblee in 64.21 seconds. Flight of the Bumblebee used to be the test piece for the Guiness World Records fastest musician, but the category has since been suspended as musicians began playing the piece so fast that even slowed down it became impossible to assess their accuracy.
The record for the world’s fastest rap is currently held by Eminem for a 40 second segment of his single Godzilla where he averages 7.5 words per second.
The record for the world’s fastest drumming is held by an 11-year-old Australian, Pritish A R, averaging an incredible 39.5 beats per second.
For another very different Flight of the Bumblee cover version click here!
Money / Sex Machine / Suzanne- The Flying Lizards
Years before The Art of Noise there were The Flying Lizards, an English experimental new wave band formed and led by record producer David Cunningham and featuring a loose collective of avant-garde musicians including Deborah Evans-Stickland (who provides vocals on the tracks here), David Toop and Steve Beresford, who the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings calls “one of the unsung geniuses of modern European music, a constant presence whose contribution is usually unremarked.”
The group were signed to Virgin records and had a hit with their cover of Barrett Strong’s Money in 1979 but none of their subsequent releases – a mix of covers and their own material – managed to chart. I’ve no idea why. They were still doing the exact same thing. Maybe people thought after that first single that they were now just taking the piss, and maybe they were, albeit with very straight faces. This promo for Sex Machine is hilarious, it looks like three 1980s BBC Programmes for Schools presenters ended up in a music video. And I love their icy Ballardian take on Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne…
Cover to Cover 