Fab Forgeries, Part 3! Wayne Newton, Liberace, Brenda Lee, Ray Stevens, Jim Nabors, more!

 

Well, Percy and Paul and Andre will show up in our next playlist, but for today, these other fun cover versions...

First off, Lee Castle's rockin', big-band-style Birthday--a priceless rendition from a no-year-known Pickwick LP.  Then, Ray Stevens' more than competent 1970 She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, followed by Jim Nabors' My Sweet Lord--not the laugh riot we might expect, but a nicely done cover.  And Wayne Newton's Long and Winding Road could have been a lot worse--I like it, I have to confess.  Liberace's take on the same number is here for name value only--It's a standard pop-piano-type rendition (of the Ferrante-and-Teicher, Peter-Duchin type), with some comments from L. himself at the end, as he congratulates the orchestra.  Brenda Lee's 1965 He Loves You puts her in the first-artists-to-cover-the-Beatles group, though the "he" is in the title only: Brenda sings the lyrics as written, and very nicely.  Nancy Sinatra's 1966 Run for Your Life is very well done, too, as is the Ventures' properly raucous 1964 I Feel Fine (another early cover).  As for the New Christy Minstrels' Atlantis/Hey, Jude mashup, maybe that otherwise excellent group was better off not trying to be hip/with it.  It's different, anyway, as is Morgana King's non-psychedelic rendering of Tomorrow Never Knows, which holds up quite well as a "regular" number.  The Burbank Philharmonic's (whoever they were) 1970 Hey Jude is fine Dixieland Fab Four, if you're in the mood for Dixieland Beatles, and the Longines Symphonette's Classical-style Eleanor Rigby/Yesterday medley is superbly done--a perfect example of a potentially hokey and pretentious effort beautifully hitting the mark, with the expert arranger mixing the two numbers with Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.  Just gorgeous.  

The Cyrkle do a ring-around-the-key-centers version of I'm Happy Just to Dance With You, the Lettermen (one of the finest Beatles-cover groups) provide an interesting I'm Only Sleeping, and the Haircuts (plus The Impossibles?) give us an uncannily close-to-the-original I Want to Hold Your Hand, from a 1966 Somerset LP (which I owned years ago).  Jose Feliciano was another savvy Fab Four cover artist, and here we hear (here we hear?) his excellent 1966 Help!  I remember Jose from back in the day, but I somehow didn't appreciate his outstanding musicianship then.  I do now.  And... the Four Freshmen with a meh Ob-La-Di..., and a very nice Something by Engelbert Humperdinck (still with us at 89), one of my favorite singers--sort of Tom Jones without the soul.  Nothing wrong with that, of course--this gave Engelbert the edge on ballads, and in particular his fabulous Burt Bacharach renderings: I'm a Better Man, Love Was Here Before the Stars, et al.  And it's fitting to mention Burt, who was--along with the Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Carole King--at the top of their form in the 1960s and early 1970s. (I prefer Brill-Building Carole to her solo period, but that's just me.)  

Oh, and a gorgeous live 1970 rendition by Israeli singer Esther Ofarim of the Paul McCartney masterpiece, She's Leaving Home.  An absolute gem.

Enjoy! 

DOWNLOAD: Fab Forgeries Pt. 3.zip

Birthday--Lee Castle and the Jimmy Dorsey Orch.

Yesterday/Hey Jude--Tom Jones, 1970.

She Came in Through the Bathroom Window--Ray Stevens, 1970

Jim Nabors--My Sweet Lord (Harrison), 1974

Tomorrow Never Knows--Morgana King, 1968

He Loves You--Brenda Lee, 1965

The Long and Winding Road--Wayne Newton, 1970

She's Leaving Home--Esther Ofarim, 1970

Can't Buy Me Love--Brenda Lee, 1965

Run for Your Life--Nancy Sinatra, 1966

Hey, Jude/Atlantis--The New Christy Minstrels, 1969

I Feel Fine--The Ventures, 1964

Something (Harrison)--Engelbert Humperdinck, 1970

Got to Get You Into My Life--Morgana King, 1968

Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da--The Four Freshmen, 1969

Help!--Jose Feliciano, 1966

I'm Happy Just to Dance With You--The Cyrkle, 1967

Medley: Eleanor Rigby; Yesterday--The Longines Symphonette, 1968

Hey Jude--Burbank Philharmonic, 1970

The Long and Winding Road--Liberace, 1971

I'm Only Sleeping--The Lettermen 1972

I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Haircuts, 1966

Lee