Bizarre Beatles!

Interestingly, the site records show that the most downloaded posts on this blog are the Ananda Shankar versions of the Elvis songs. That is the only one that also resulted in a comment being posted. So, on popular request, I'll return to some weird cover versions.

Consistent with the last versions, I'll start with a "sitar" version of I Want To Hold Your Hand. When I was kid, I distinctly remember this vinyl LP record of "Balsara and His Singing Sitars" with catchy (fusion, I guess) sitar-heavy versions of a variety of songs. Well, the first oddity I'll post here is from Balsara.

I got this selection from one of my many Beatles cover CDs. This collection is called The Exotic Beatles, Pt. 1and includes many off-beat and outright bizarre versions of Beatles songs in many languages (Spanish, Japanese, Malay, and more). Some are more bizarre than others. I have also included here a strange flamenco version of She Loves You from this collection. Many of the songs in this collection seem to be recorded off vinyl without too much reprocessing so the quality on some of these are not that great. Still, you'll agree they're quite interesting.

If you like such bizarre covers, you may want to pick up not only Pt. 1, but also Exotic Beatles Pt. 2 and Exotic Beatles Pt. 3 at Amazon (just follow the links) or your favorite music store.

1. Balsara and His Singing Sitars - I Want To Hold Your Hand (2.03 MB; 128 Kbps MP3)
2. Emi Bonilla Y Su Caudro - She Loves You [Te Quires] (3 MB; 128kbps MP3)