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Monday, January 14, 2019

Classic Rant #947 (April 22, 2013): Cover Me

So, they finally got the Boston suspect.

Congratulations to the authorities and the people of Boston for not allowing themselves to bow down to this type of terror.

He will be judged by a jury of his peers, and hopefully, when found guilty of his actions, they will deal with him the right way, the only way they can.

'Nuf said on that matter. Let's get back to some fun.



Along with overseeing this blog, and a couple of other blogs that are more or less inactive, I run a bunch of Yahoo sites, some more active than others, but the one that stands out is my Alternative Top 40 site. You can access that site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlternativeTop40/.

I have been running this site for years, and it is a fun destination for people who are looking for forgotten songs and artists, mainly of the 1960s through the early 1970s, sometimes beyond that point, sometimes prior to that point.

The premise of the site is simple: usually a dozen to about 18 songs are posted, and members of the site have to vote on the six that they like best.

After a week, the votes are tallied, and the songs that get the most votes stay on the chart for up to five weeks, the ones that get little or no response get kicked off, removed for newer songs.

Simple as that.

Each April I run an April Fools poll, where each week, I put up cover versions of popular songs done by artists not necessarily known for those songs or who have covered those songs as part of their song canon.

There are a wealth of these songs out there, and I simply go through my record collection and find ones that are interesting or unusual or just darn good to put up at the site.



This week, the following songs are on the list to be voted on:

Petula Clark - We Can Work It Out
Cilla Black - Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
Micky Dolenz - Sugar Sugar
Beatles - Long Tall Sally
Dave Clark Five - Won't You Be My Lady
John Cougar Mellencamp - Under the Boardwalk 
Annette Funicello - Surf City
Al Green - To Sir, With Love
David and Jonathan - A Must To Avoid
Bobby Darin - Clementine
Mindbenders - Off and Running
Who - Batman
George Harrison - Wake Up My Love
Nick Lowe - Baby It's You
Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
Elvis Presley - Blueberry Hill 


Just about every song is a cover song, with a couple of exceptions. Those exceptions were held over from the previous weeks, such as the songs by the Mindbenders, Dave Clark Five and George Harrison.

But all the others are cover tunes.

Petula Clark, one of my guilty pleasures from the era, covers a Beatles song, while the Beatles cover a Little Richard tune.

Cilla Black, very popular in Europe but virtually unknown here, gives her all on a Cher song, while Micky Dolenz, of Monkees fame, does his best with the Archies' No. 1 hit.



John Cougar Mellencamp does the old Drifters song while he was still kinda Cougar, and beautiful Annette Funicello, who passed away a few days ago, gives the old Jan and Dean tune a female perspective.



Al Green gives a soul slant to the old Lulu tune, while David and Jonathan cover a Herman's Hermits song.

Bobby Darin takes an old ballad and gives it a rock treatment, and the Who take the old theme song from the popular TV show and give it their own buzz.

Nick Lowe, Bow Wow Wow and Elvis Presley gives their own takes on songs that they covered from other artists, and there you have it.

Nothing shocking, nothing too deep, nothing that is going to rock the world, but it is a fun thing to do each week, and like I said, I have been doing it for years, and I really enjoy it.

After April, the cover versions will be done, and we will move on to songs and artists doing their original songs that I feel are worthy.

So if you want to take a break from the usual nonsense of the week, go and visit the site and join in.

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