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Really Bizarre Cover Songs

#30
Fatima Mansions "Shiny Happy People". It bears very little relationship to the original, so radical a cover is it.

And there was a jazz band that did a great cover of Kate Bush's "There Goes a Tenner" which was fairly radical, but still excellent. If I remember the name (something something Trio) I'll post it.
 
#37
Corigan said:
Nobody mentioned Richard Cheese yet?

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kobass said:
Pat Boone "Crazy Train"



and every other song on that album!
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Richland123 said:
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Yeah, hmm, all of those aren’t that bizarre, just fish-out-of water arrangements for their own sake, and the Cheese stuff was like Weird Al, contrived parody. Boone’s big-band style backing was actually straight ahead stuff, not too different from what Brian Setzer has done. It was just the novelty factor; goody-goody Pat dressed like some aging leather boy on the cover, doing some dated metal tunes. Big deal. Why didn’t he cover Venom, GG Allin, Eyehategod? I mentioned the ‘golden throats’ stuff earlier, and Shatner was part of that, it might seem similar, but it was actually very different. Back then, the notion of 40’s/50’s era pop stars(or vocally challenged actors)singing rock type songs(in order to appear ‘with it’)was a radical, if not embarrassing deal, generation gaps being what they were. Shatner’s approach was not only from his thespian style, but also trying to channel beatnik poetry, which shows how out of touch he was in the hippie era. On the other hand, that newer album, the space themed one, is another contrivance; they have the Shat be Shat, but the music is pretty much standard stuff. The one he did with Ben Folds, not covers, was fairly interesting, not played for laughs(too much).
 
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#39
Michedelic said:
Yeah, hmm, all of those aren’t that bizarre, just fish-out-of water arrangements for their own sake, and the Cheese stuff was like Weird Al, contrived parody. Boone’s big-band style backing was actually straight ahead stuff, not too different from what Brian Setzer has done. It was just the novelty factor; goody-goody Pat dressed like a leather boy on the cover, doing some dated metal tunes. Big deal. Why didn’t he cover Venom, GG Allin, Eyehategod? I mentioned the ‘golden throats’ stuff earlier, and Shatner was part of that, it might seem similar, but it was actually very different. Back then, the notion of 40’s/50’s era pop stars(or vocally challenged actors)singing rock type songs(in order to appear ‘with it’)was a radical, if not embarrassing deal, generation gaps being what they were. Shatner’s approach was not only from his thespian style, but also trying to channel beatnik poetry, which shows how out of touch he was in the hippie era. On the other hand, that newer album, the space themed one, is another contrivance; they have the Shat be Shat, but the music is pretty much standard stuff. The one he did with Ben Folds, not covers, was fairly interesting, not played for laughs(too much).
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The musicianship and vocals on the Richard Cheese, Pat Boone, and Paul Anka covers are really good. Mainly, they are songs that some of their fans may not expect them to cover but they stayed in a musical lane that was comfortable for them as artists. The parody stuff is not really bizarre as some of the serious covers are.
 

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