Der Hund von Baskerville – Cindy & Bert / Paranoid – Hugo Strasser & His Orchestra

Apparently in Finland Paranoid has the same status as Freebird in the U.S, in that people at any band’s gig or concert can mockingly call out “Soittakaa Paranoid!” (“Play Paranoid!”). As is the case with Freebird, no one knows why.

Similarly no one knows why in 1971 Cindy and Bert, a Germanschlager duo (‘schlager’ being a type of easy listening pop music), released a cover of Paranoid with their own lyrics based on the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. I particularly like the little yawning Pekinese that features in the above clip and even Bert looks mildly amused though he’s doing his best to hide it.

The same year as Cindy and Bert’s cover came out, German swing band leader Hugo Strasser also featured an instrumental Paranoid cover on his album Tanzhits ’71.

Paranoid was a big hit in Germany 1971. Which is especially ironic considering that Black Sabbath wrote the track as a three minute filler for the 1970 album that eventually bore its name (they’d originally wanted to call the album War Pigs after another of its classic songs).

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Hey Lupe – Los Rockin’ Devils

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, Los Rockin’ Devils super groovy cover of Hang On Sloopy was released as a single in 1965 and appeared on their 1966 album Exitos A Go Go.

Hang On Sloopy was first recorded by vocal group The Vibrations in 1964 with the title My Girl Sloopy. A year later it was a hit for The McCoys. According to McCoys singer and guitarist Rick Derringer, the song was written by an unknown high school student who sold the song to Twist and Shout writer Bert Berns. The name Sloopy was likely inspired by the nickname given to Dorothy Sloop, a jazz pianist from Steubenville who attended Ohio University.

Since it’s release in 1965, the Ohio State University Marching Band have played Hang On Sloopy at every game. In 1985 Hang On Sloopy became the official rock song of Ohio, agreed upon by a House Concurrent Resolution which included the clauses:

‘WHEREAS, “Hang On Sloopy” is of particular relevance to members of the baby boom generation, who were once dismissed as a bunch of long-haired, crazy kids, but who now are old enough and vote in sufficient numbers to be taken quite seriously…‘

and

‘WHEREAS, Adoption of this resolution will not take too long, cost the State anything, or affect the quality of life in this State to any appreciable degree, and if we in the legislature just go ahead and pass the darn thing, we can get on with more important stuff.‘

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Shut ‘Em Down – Brownout / Shut ‘Em Up – The Prodigy

Austin-based latin-funk band Brownout’s cover of Shut ‘Em Down is taken from their 2018 Public Enemy covers album Fear of a Brown Planet. Shut ‘Em Down originally appeared on Public Enemy’s fourth album Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black. Chuck D said at the time: “Shut ‘Em Down’ is about major corporations like Nike taking profits from the black community, but not giving anything back..”

In 2015 a fan-made mashup of Shut ‘Em Down with the Prodigy’s Stand Up so impressed the Prodigy that they released the track officially as Shut ‘Em Up. Ironically, Nike bought the rights to the song and used it in a 2018 commercial starring Lebron James.

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Shimmy Shimmy Ya – El Michels Affair

Formed by American producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels, El Michels Affair released the Wu Tang Clan covers album Enter the 37th Chamber in 2009. Shimmy Shimmy Ya was originally the second single by Wu Tang founding member, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and appeared on his debut solo album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version in 1995.

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Jump – Paul Anka

Paul Anka’s cover of Van Halen’s Jump is taken from his 2004 album Rock Swings. Jump was a U.S number one for Van Halen in 1984, and is taken from their album 1984. The synth hook for Jump was written by guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who admitted he copied the part from the Hall and Oates song Kiss On My List. The lyrics for the song, written by David Lee Roth, were inspired by a TV news report he saw of a man threatening to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of a building.

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Bangarang – The Traffic

Australian funk band The Traffic’s take on the 2012 Skrillex banger Bangarang was the B-side to their first single Fire (a cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic), released in 2015. ‘Bangarang’ is the battle cry of the Lost Boys from Steven Spielberg’s 1991 movie Hook. According to Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, the Lost Boys are boys “who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way and if they are not claimed in seven days, they are sent far away to the Neverland”.

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Killing – The Apples

The Apples’ cover of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing in the Name was released as a single in 2007. The Apples are an Israeli jazz funk band, combining DJs and samples with traditional instrumentation, formed in 2002. They released their first album Mitz (Hebrew for ‘Juice’) in 2003. Killing in the Name originally appeared on Rage Against The Machine’s eponymous debut album in 1992.

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Silver Machine/Children of the Revolution/School’s Out – James Last and His Orchestra

James Last, a.k.a Hans Last or Hansi, a German bassist turned orchestra leader, was the most commercially successful band leader of the late 20th century. He released over 190 albums, sold over 100 million copies of those records and gained over 200 gold and platinum records in Germany alone.

These were the kind of records my granddad used to bring out at Christmas. I’ve got a soft spot for their particular brand of kitsch. Presenting big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, Last’s series of Non-Stop Dancing albums paved the way for disco and dance mixes. Asked if he minded being labelled the ‘King of Corn’, Last reportedly replied “No, because it is true.” He died in 2015 at the age of 86.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see a bit of James Last in DJ Soloman’s live persona?

I Want You Back – The Esso Trinidad Steel Band

The Esso Trinidad Steel Band’s cover of the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back appeared on their 1971 album Esso.

Founded in Trinidad in 1942, The Tripoli Steel Band changed their name to the Esso Trinidad Steel Band when the oil company began sponsoring them. When Esso ceased its backing, the band changed their name to the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band and spent over two years supporting Liberace.

Released in 1969, I Want You Back was the Jackson 5’s first single and is one of the most sampled songs in history.

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Smells Like Teen Spirits – Best Teen Spirit Covers Megamix

Featuring, in order of appearance:

1. Original Cast of Pan
2. Willie Nelson
3. The Lucky Devils
4. Paul Anka
5. Pleasure Beach
6. Setenta
7. The Floppotron
8. 8 Bit Universe
9. Warsaw School of Economics Choir
10. The Moog Cookbook
11. 1992 Teen Spirit Deodorant Commercial
12. Rockapella
13. Eläkeläiset
14. The Muppets and Jack Black
15. Ptingo
16. The Bad Plus (inc. Kurt Cobain interview excerpt)
17. The Drum Majors
18. Nirvana vs Missy Elliot
19. DJs from Mars
20. Wix
21. Original Cast of Pan

Often listed as one of the greatest songs of all time, Smells Like Teen Spirit is the opening track on Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind. Although it is the only track on the album to credit all three band members as writers, the original idea and lyrics were Kurt Cobain’s, inspired by a phrase written on his wall by Kathleen Hanna, singer of Bikini Kill: ‘Kurt smells like Teen Spirit’. Although intended as a reference to a deodorant brand, Cobain had interpreted it as a revolutionary slogan and remained unaware of the true meaning until months after the single was released.

Cobain said of writing the song: “I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”

What Else Is There? – Meute

Formed in 2015, German eleven-piece techno marching band MEUTE’s cover of Röyksopp’s What Else Is There? was released as a single in 2020 and also features on their album Puls.

What Else Is There? by the Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp, and featuring vocals by Karin Dreijer from Swedish electronic duo The Knife, is taken from The Understanding, Röyksopp’s second album released in 2005.

Spiderman – Michael Bublé

The Michael Bublé/Junkie XL version of the 1967 Spiderman theme was recorded for the Spiderman 2 movie in 2004.

Michael Bublé is a Canadian singer, songwriter and producer. Before finding success as a singer he worked as a children’s entertainer under the name of Micky Bubbles.

Junkie XL is a classically trained Dutch DJ, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist.

The Spiderman theme was composed for the 1967 animated TV series by Bob Harris and lyricist Paul Francis Webster, who also wrote the lyrics for Love is a Many Splendored Thing. The Spiderman theme has featured in numerous Spiderman movies and video games and has become a part of Spiderman lore.

See also…The Ramones cover of The Spiderman Theme.