How can you go wrong with Australia’s Queen of Yodelling? Mary’s album Yodelling the Classics was released in 1997, 16 years after her debult album The Magic of Yodelling (which reached number 33 in the Austalian charts!) and it’s 1983 follow up Can’t Stop Yodelling. Which indeed she can’t, Mary is 90 years old now and still going strong.
Hokey Pokey – Tom Waits
First appearing on Cold Beer on a Hot Night, a 1979 bootleg recorded in Sydney and released in 1993, Tom Waits’ cover of Hokey Pokey adds in a shot of his own lyrics for good measure.
The Hokey Pokey and its accompanying dance dates back to at least the early 19th century and although it’s origins are probably English it exists in various forms around the world. In English speaking countries it’s often called The Hokey Cokey; it’s the Hokey Tokey in New Zealand; Hockey Pockey in Mexico; Rucki-Zucki in Germany and Boogie Woogie in Denmark.
It Ain’t Necessarily So – Normie Rowe & The Playboys / Ian & The Zodiacs
Normie Rowe’s cover of George and Ira Gershwins It Ain’t Necessarily So was the Australian singer’s first single and a big hit for him in 1965. The song itself, from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, was sung by the character Sportin’ Life, famously played by Cab Calloway on stage and Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1959 film.
Between 1965 and 1967 Rowe was one of Australia’s most popular stars but his career was cut short when he was drafted for compulsory military service in late 1967. His tour of duty in Vietnam effectively ended his stint as a pop singer but upon his return he turned his hand to acting and continued performing until the early 2000s.
The inspiration for Rowe’s cover of the song was a 1963 version by the British group Ian and the Zodiacs, who found fame in Germany in the wake of the Beatles success there and even worked a side gig as The Koppykats releasing two entire albums of Beatles covers.
Silent Night – John Denver and The Muppets
Taken from John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together, a 1979 Christmas TV special, this surprisingly moving version of Silent Night includes the story of the song itself so I won’t repeat it here. The special itself has never been released, but a soundtrack album was and is still available. Merry Christmas folks, hope you have a good one!
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – The Distillers
The Ramones Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) originally appeared on the album Brain Drain in 1989. This cover by The Distillers is taken from their 2020 Live in Lockdown livestream, which you can find in its entirety here!
Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town – Joseph Spence
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is the most recorded Christmas song of all time. Written in 1934 by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, it was first put on wax by banjoist Harry Reser in 1934. Bahamian musician Joseph Spence’s cover is from his 1980 album Living On The Hallelujah Side. It’s pretty clear that Joseph doesn’t know the words to the song but I love that he doesn’t let this minor detail deter him.
Talk to the Animals – The Lennon Sisters
Ah, they don’t make ’em like this anymore. The Lennon Sisters performing on The Lawrence Welk Show in the late sixties. I particularly like the Hanna Barbera vibes of the arrangement. Talk to the Animals, sung by Rex Harrison, originally appeared in the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle and won a Best Song Oscar, although apparently few people involved with the film could stand it. The Lennon Sisters, meanwhile, are now in their seventies and still rocking the mic.
Love Hurts – The Phi Mu Washboard Band
Little is known about this infamous group of sorority sisters from Athens, Georgia who took it upon themselves to record an entire (albeit brief at only 24 minutes long) album of some of their favourite songs called ...Just Because. There isn’t even a year of release on the album, just these liner notes written by one of the members…
“The Phi Mu Washboard Band came into being in 1952 when a group of sorority sisters from the Alpha Alpha Chapter were vacationing in St. Simon’s, Georgia. Since that time the band has grown into quite a tradition and even become famous (in a funny sense of the word.) We have played on national television, performed at banquets, conventions, and benefits.
The money we have been making has all been donated to the building fund for our new sorority house. Using this as an introduction as our performances, we have frequently made as much in tips as we were paid for the performance itself.
We have had articles written in papers over the South which has helped publicity immensely! At times we have received as much as $150 for one thirty minute performance–and I consider that pretty good for amateur entertainment–and I do mean amateur!
One of our most memorable trips was made to Trion, GA. We all piled into the Bookstore Bus, went to Trion and played for 450 men. You can see how that trip would be a memorable one. Then came the album. Making this record was enjoyable to all of us, even though it did involve long, hard hours of recording and re-recording. We couldn’t have done it without the patience of John and Jerry who smiled sweetly as they said, “I think we’d better do that again.” But finally we did it! We gave the sorority something to remember us by. Just as if they could forget the 11:15 rehearsals and my constant announcement of meetings.
Confident that the new members will carry on and probably go to Hollywood. Of course, we can’t forget out of her to advertise for Hardee’s and never heard from it–all the suggestion from everyone that we write to New York and go on TV. You guessed it. We’re still in Athens.
On behalf of all the band, I want to say that we hope you enjoy this album because… well … just because.” – Lynne Akin
Love Hurts was written by Boudleaux Bryant in 1960 and has been recorded and/or performed by The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Nazareth, The Who, Emmylou Harris, Jim Capaldi, Joan Jett, Cher and the Osbourne Brothers, to name but a few.
Modern Love – The Last Town Chorus
Oh, those harmonies! The Last Town Chorus’ cover of David Bowie‘s Modern Love is taken from their 2006 album Wire Waltz. Modern Love is the opening track of Bowie’s classic 1983 album Let’s Dance.
In 1985 Bowie remade the track for a Pepsi commercial where he played a mad scientist who, Weird Science style, accidentally creates…Tina Turner! God, I love the 80s…
More Than A Feeling – The Lunachicks
It’s been scientifically proven: the music you love is more than a feeling! The Lunachicks’ cover of Boston’s More Than a Feeling is taken from their 1994 EP Sushi a la Mode. I particularly love their tongue-in-cheek approach; the mewling along with the guitar line leading into the chorus and their changing of the lyric “Til I see Marianne walk away” to “Til I see your derriere walkin’ away“. Genius. It also seems fitting that one of the bands who most embodied the late 80s/early 90s punk DIY aesthetic should cover a track that was created in a similar spirit almost twenty years previously. Despite its high-end studio production sound, More Than a Feeling was actually written and recorded by multi-instrumentalist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineer Tom Scholz in the basement of his apartment, mostly using equipment he had designed and invented himself. Only later was the band Boston created around the recordings that became the album Boston in 1976.
Mamma Mia – Austin Weber
Austin Weber, the self-described ‘world’s most independent musician’, released his gloriously lo-fi cover of Abba’s Mamma Mia to YouTube in 2018. Being the open hearted man that he is, Austin has even provided the backing track for you to record your own Mamma Mia cover in a location of your own choosing. What are you waiting for?
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! – Yngwie Malmsteen / Dame! Dame! Dame! – ABBA
Who knew that ABBA and hair metal would make for such a perfect pairing? Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen’s cover of Gimme Gimme Gimme was the opening track of his 2000 album The Best of 1990-1999. ABBA’s original version similarly appeared as the opening track on their second ‘best of’ album, Greatest Hits Vol.2, as well as being released as a single to promote their 1979 North American and European tours.
In 1980, following the success of their Greatest Hits Vol.2 album in Latin America, ABBA recorded Gracias Por La Música, a hits album sung entirely in Spanish by Anni and Agnetha, produced by the group’s sound engineer Michael B.Tretow without any input from Benny or Björn, resulting in entirely different sounding mixes of some tracks.
Cover to Cover 