Fab Forgeries, Part 5! Patti Page, Jerry Vale, Frankie Carle, The Moog Machine, Aretha Franklin, Kate Smith, Ray Conniff, more!

 

                                      

Frankie Carle, Bert Kaempfert, Ray Conniff, The Cowsills, Kate Smith, Jerry Vale, and the Lettermen are among our Beatles-cover artists today.  And a shout-out to the the earliest covers, starting with 1964: I Want to Hold Your Hand--Frankie Carle; and A Hard Day's Night--Marty Gold and His Orch.  On to 1965: And I Love Her--Ferrante and Teicher.  Hm.  And that's it for 1965.  But a nice batch for 1966: Yesterday--Boots Randolph; Michelle--The Fiesta Brass; Yesterday--Kate Smith; and Nowhere Man--Les and Larry Elgart.

And our fourth and fifth Somethings for this series to date, with more to come: Bert Kaempfert and Patti Page, both from 1970.  Plus, our fourth Long and Winding Road, by my favorite pop-instrumental maestro, Andre Kostelanetz (also from 1970).  From 1969, an unusually fine Paperback Writer by The Cowsills (!), Get Back by the Moog Machine (from their LP, Switched-On Rock), a great Eleanor Rigby by Aretha Franklin; a lovely Here, There and Everywhere by the Lettermen; and Dionne Warwick's take on We Can Work It Out (from her Soulful LP on Scepter).

Another Here, There, and Everywhere, this time by the always excellent Petula Clark, and our lone 1968 track--The Fool on the Hill, by the Billy Vaughn Singers.  The latter is a fine EZ Fab Four fake.  (Actually, a legit cover, but "Fab Four fake" sounds good...)

Two creative John Denver Fab Four covers, both from 1970: Golden Slumbers, and Eleanor Rigby.  And three more 1970 tracks: Jerry Vale crooning Let It Be, Tony Mottola with a near-hard-rock Come Together, and a highly enjoyable Living Strings rendition of Hey Jude.  And only we up-there-in-age folks remember when material like that last number was played on FM EZ radio.

Skipping ahead to 1973, a decent Ray Conniff presentation of the Paul and Linda McCarney Live and Let Die--one of those shouldn't-work-but-it-does tracks.  And from 1974, the Starkey-Harrison Photograph, ably rendered by one of the blog's favorite crooners, Engelbert Humperdinck.

A technical note: Though I've added art to every Fab Forgery project in Windows' Media Player app, not all of that art seems to be showing up, even after I've checked it within the app.  My apologies for any not-showing-up art.  There's no apparent reason for this.  (I know--get a Mac.)

DOWNLOAD: Fab Forgeries Pt. 5.zip

I Want to Hold Your Hand--Frankie Carle, 1964

A Hard Day's Night--Marty Gold and His Orch., 1964

Something--Bert Kaempfert and His Orch., 1970

Here, There and Everywhere--The Lettermen, 1969

Golden Slumbers--John Denver, 1970

Live and Let Die--Ray Conniff, 1973

Yesterday--Boots Randolph, 1966

My Love--Engelbert Humperdinck, 1974

Come Together--Tony Mottola, 1970

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da--Floyd Cramer, 1969

Paperback Writer--The Cowsills, 1969

Let It Be--Jerry Vale, 1970

And I Love Her--Ferrante and Teicher, 1965

The Fool on the Hill--The Billy Vaughn Singers, 1968

Something--Patti Page, 1970

The Long and Winding Road--Andre Kostelanetz, 1970

Michelle--The Fiesta Brass, 1966

Get Back--The Moog Machine, 1969

Yesterday--Kate Smith, 1966

Eleanor Rigby--Aretha Franklin, 1969

Here, There and Everywhere--Petula Clark, 1967

Hey Jude--The Living Strings, 1970

We Can Work It Out--Dionne Warwick, 1969

Nowhere Man--Les and Larry Elgart, 1966

Eleanor Rigby--John Denver, 1970

Above: Nowhere Gig--by the Cake Toppers

Lee