Friday, July 10, 2015

TWO COVERS AND SOME ELOQUENT CUSSIN'

If you ever make it through the links listed under "Get Lost" in the left column over there, you might have seen the link to De Discos y Monstruos, a coolly curious blog featuring oddball 45s and a monster toy in every post. Though they've slowed down (their last post in January), there is a lot of good stuff in their old posts. To wit, these two that were posted back to back two years ago. The first is a cover of Mitch Ryder's "Sock It To Me" by a band of studio musicians calling themselves Jalopy Five, for this particular release. From what I can ascertain from a dubious translation of the post, which is in Spanish, the label Hit Records specialized in churning out covers of popular hits and then selling them cheaper. Yeah, the stinkers. But this one is good, and the unnamed singer does a better, gruntier, job than Ryder did on the original. The slapdash production just adds to it.

The other 45 over there is a later Jackie Wilson cover of Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" backed by the Count Basie Orchestra. It's good, but the real reason I'm even mentioning it is to bring up another Wilson cut that some of you may not have heard. We all know Jackie Wilson, right? "Lonely Teardrops" was his biggee. The other song of his down there is "You Better Thing Twice (Version X)" a duet by him and LaVern Baker, she of "Tweedlee Dee" and "Jim Dandy" fame. The reason it's "Version X"? Just listen to it and hear them in all their potty mouth glory. Another humdinger that demands reposting.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Jalopy Five - Sock It to Me Baby mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Jackie Wilson with Count Basie - Uptight (Everything's Alright) mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker - You Better Think Twice (Version X) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

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