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…

Listen to Cover to Cover on Spotify

Cover to Cover on YouTube

Advertisement

Uptight (Everything’s Alright) – Charlie Palmieri

Charlie Palmieri’s cover of Uptight (Everthing’s Alright) appeared on his 1968 album Latin Bugalo. First released as a single in 1966, Uptight was written by Motown songwriters Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby to fit 15 year old Stevie Wonder’s new deeper voice, as it had recently dropped. Wanting to record a song with a driving beat along the lines of The Rolling Stones‘ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Stevie presented Moy with the chorus to the song but that was all he had. Cosby worked on an arrangement and Moy finished the lyrics on the day of the recording but as she hadn’t had time to find a braille translation, she sang the song to him as he was recording it, one line ahead of him, and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them, with Moy later commenting that “he never missed a beat”.

Listen to Cover to Cover on Spotify

Watch on YouTube

Pastime Paradise – Ray Barretto

Latin percussionist and band leader Ray Barretto’s cover of Pastime Paradise is taken from his 1981 album La Cuna, which also featured two other Latin legends – Tito Puente and Charlie Palmeiri. A pioneer of Latin Boogaloo in the 1960s and a master of the descarga (improvised jam session), Barretto was also a long-time member of the Fania All-Stars and continued recording and touring until his death in 2006.

Stevie Wonder‘s original recording of Pastime Paradise appeared on his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life and was one of the first recordings to use a synthesiser instead of a full strings section. Check out Maromaro1337’s stylophone cover of Gangsta’s Paradise for another wild take on this track.

Listen to Cover to Cover on Spotify

Watch on YouTube

Take It Easy, My Brother Charles – Som Tres

Take It Easy, My Brother Charles originally appeared on Jorge Ben, the sixth studio album by Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Jorge Ben, released in 1969. This cover by Brazillian jazz trio Som Três (‘We are Three’) is taken from their 1970 album Um É Pouco, Dois É Bom, Êste Som Três É Demais (which I think translates to something like ‘One is Little, Two is Good, this Sound of the Three is Too Much’).

Listen to Cover to Cover on Spotify

Watch on YouTube