Memories of Alma Cogan

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember listening to some old 78 rpm records on our record player. Even thinking about this makes me feel old. But, this was in the early seventies and not as far back as some of you may think. This was in India and we had a collection of 78 rpm records that I used to love to hear whenever my parents would pull out the turntable.

One of these songs was called Sugartime by a British artist called Alma Cogan. There were a few other Alma Cogan songs that we had. If I remember right, Sugartime was backed with Mambo Italiano, but I can't be completely sure. But, I do remember listening to these songs many times. It is amazing how limited our media options were back then.

I found that Alma Cogan was a socialite in 1950s London and apparently carried on an affair with John Lennon. She was known to be close to the Beatles and even recorded an entire album of Beatles covers. She died at the young age of 34 of cancer. More on Wikipedia here. There's a very preliminary web site for her fan club here.

Some years ago, I found an Alma Cogan CD Box Set on Amazon.co.uk and I couldn't resist buying it. Of course that box set is now available on Amazon in the US cheaper here. Look for the Alma Cogan discography on Amazon here.

Here are those two songs from my childhood.

1. Alma Cogan - Sugartime (1.67 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Alma Cogan - Mambo Italiano (2.2 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Wonderminty Power Pop

I'm going to end this week by featuring some pure guitar power pop groups. A friend of mine (probably one of the few regular readers of this blog), sent me a whole series of CDs from different power pop groups that I had never heard of a couple of years ago. They all have exactly the clean, melodic pop with excellent harmonies that I seem to enjoy so much.

Today's featured group is an L.A. group called The Wondermints consisting of Darian Sahanaja, Nick Walusko, and Mike D'Amico. The sound is reminiscent of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and ELO. If you like that sound, you won't be disappointed. This is another of those albums that is consistently strong from beginning to end, making the choice of songs to feature here difficult. Their MySpace page is here. Some info can also be found on Wikipedia.

The songs featured here are from their fourth album (2002) called Mind If We Make Love To You. Absolutely classic power pop. The rest of their oustanding catalog can be found on Amazon here.

1. The Wondermints - Time Has You (2.83 MB; 128kbps MP3)

2. The Wondermints - Project 11 (3.38 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Beatles Pot Pourri

We're at the end of Beatles Week and I thought I'd throw in a bonus song as I'm going to be gone for the next week and not updating the blog (unless I can find time in Poland to do this).

Many, many years ago, I was in Melbourne for a conference (this was probably 1995) and at the "gala event" in a museum, there was a local group that performed for the conference delegates. Being a sucker for harmonies (as I have mentioned in this blog before), I was entranced by their beautiful harmonies and I didn't hesitate to buy the debut CD (titled Rhythm of Life) of this group called Pot Pourri. The group consisted of Tania de Jong (soprano), Antoinette Halloran (soprano), Craig Macdonald (tenor) and Jonathan Morton (baritone). According to the CD insert, the group has performed throughout Australia and overseas. They have appeared at the Melbourne Concert Hall and at many major festivals including the Melbourne International Festival, Castlemaine State Festival, and Next Wave Festival. A quick Google search suggests that they're still performing, although Antoinette is no longer a part of the group.

One of the songs on this CD was The Beatles' Fool on the Hill and that's the one I'm going to thrill you with today.

1. Pot Pourri - The Fool on the Hill (2.43 MB; 128kbps MP3)

The Jazzy Beatles

Probably one of the most consistently excellent Beatles tribute albums I have ever heard is from the swinging jazz vocalist John Pizzarelli. John is a very well known jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter. He has established such a solid career himself that you can almost get by without mentioning that he is the son of the legendary jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli.

John has an ultra-smooth voice and is obviously a skilled arranger, judging from the job he did on this album. His interpretations of these songs are clever and original without being weird. The jazzy, swingin', big-band arrangements are always pleasant without seeming cheesy.

If you collect Beatles cover albums, you almost certainly have this one in your collection already. If you don't, you are definitely missing out on one of the best. You can buy this album on Amazon here. You will hopefully be intrigued enough to check out John's complete discography here. And of course, no review of an artist or album is complete without a visit to his own web site.

So, to end Beatles week, here's John Pizzarelli - Enjoy!

1. John Pizzarelli - Can't Buy Me Love (3.31 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. John Pizzarelli - I've Just Seen A Face (2.57 MB; 128kbps MP3)

P.S.: I have so many more albums with hundreds of Beatles cover songs that I may just have to do this again if there's enough demand!

The Acting Beatles

Is it true that people who go into the "creative arts" tend to be creative all round? I'm amazed at the number of actors who are musicians (and vice versa). When people rise to the top of their craft, it is often hard to imagine that they could be good (really good) at something else.

Some years ago, George Martin decided to produce his last album on his own terms. Realizing that he can never escape his Beatles legacy, he decided to do an album of Beatles covers done by people he has admired and associated with over the years. The result was an absolutely stunning album that everyone who considers themselves a Beatles fan should have in their collection.

The songs featured here are both from actors who tend to bring their personalities to their singing. Goldie Hawn brings a beautifully smoky lounge-singer voice to an interesting version of Hard Day's Night. Jim Carrey brings a zany and crazy enthusiasm to the crazy I Am The Walrus. Great songs, great singing, great album.

BUY THE ALBUM HERE!

1. Goldie Hawn - Hard Day's Night (3.11 MB; 128kbps MP3)

2. Jim Carrey - I Am The Walrus (4.14 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Got My Mojo Working

Last year, when I was in Australia, I stopped at a magazine shop and picked up a special Beatles edition of MOJO magazine that came with a free CD that covered the entire Revolver album.

Would you consider Revolver to be a meditative experience? Well, on this CD the artists took the songs from the album and turned them into surrealistic, contemplative experiences. I really like the album and it's unusual spin on Beatles' classics.

What does it sound like? Here are a couple of excellent examples. To me, if you can take Yellow Submarine and turn it into a deeply thoughtful exercise in brooding melancholy, you have achieved a pretty high level of creative genius. Kudos to Chris Eckman (of The Walkabouts) for this unusual cover. This will remind you a great deal of The Door's The End. You can check out Chris's work on the web site of his group The Walkabouts.

The other selection here is Neal Casal's I am Only Sleeping. Again, I can imagine early Pink Floyd jamming with Jim Morrison on this song. Fascinating. You can visit Neal Casal's web site to learn more of his music. You can find this album cheap on eBay.

Buy Chris Eckman's solo album on Amazon here.

Or, The Walkabouts on Amazon here.

Buy Neal Casal on Amazon here.

1. Chris Eckman - Yellow Submarine (4.33 MB; 128kbps MP3)

2. Neal Casal - I Am Only Sleeping (2.62 MB; 128kbps MP3)

All Beatles, All Reggae

As most people have experienced, there's something inherently catchy and toe-tapping in the reggae beat. Of course, you also know that the Beatles were master's at rafting the perfect pop melody. So, if you put these together, how can you go wrong?

I love cover songs that don't try to recreate the original, but instead put a unique spin on them. The Trojan Beatles Tribute Box Set certainly fits that mold. This is easily the best collections of reggae Beatles. The Trojan record label is legendary in reggae circles. So, it's fitting that they used their vast repertoire of reggae stars to build this 3-CD box set of Beatles songs done in the reggae style. I really don't understand how a relatively repetitive and monotonous reggae beat can be so consistently entertaining. But you'll have a hard time not enjoying this collection. There are numerous repeats (the same song interpreted by different artists) as well as several instrumental numbers (which I didn't care that much for). But, it's a pretty comprehensive collection. The first two discs are labeled simply as "The Black, Gold & Green Album," The third disc is called "The Black, Gold & Green Album... UK Stylee" and I have no idea what that means.

The first selection here is from Disc 1 while the second is from the third disc. The second, by the way, is from reggae legend, Desmond Dekker who just died last year. Remember the big hit "Israelites"? That was Dekker. Finally, I decided to throw in another song from a reggae legend on Disc 2 - John Holt. Here is John Holt's I Will.

This is a worthwhile purchase for a relatively inexpensive price. You can find this 3-CD box set for less that $25 on Amazon here.

1. Ernie Smith - You Won't See Me (3.69 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Desmond Dekker - Blackbird (3.01 MB; 128kbps MP3)
3. John Holt - I Will (3.39 MB; 128 kbps MP3)

Welcome to Beatles Week!

In honor of McCartney's new album and the 40th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, I'm going to be celebrating this entire week with a Beatles theme on my blog.

Underheard music will primarily focus on covers of Beatles songs. Actually, I'm going to start the week with a selection of "not-really-Beatles" songs. I recently found a CD called "Lost Songs of Lennon & McCartney." This a CD done by Kate Pierson (B-52's), Graham Parker (of Graham Parker) and Bill Janovitz (of Buffalo Tom). Actually, of these three names, the only one I had never heard of was Bill Janovitz. Interestingly, on this CD, I think the highlights are the Bill Janovitz songs. I'm only including one here, but I think the best songs on the CD are the ones sung by Bill Janovitz. I'm including one song by each of the artists, but believe me, the Bill Janovitz ones are the highlights.

The theme of this CD is to includes songs written by Lennon & McCartney, but never released by them (of course you'll recognize some of these songs that have been recently released in demo form on the Anthology series.

Clicking on the names will take you to the Wikipedia pages of these artists, so I won't go long here. You can find the album on Amazon here. Don't ask me why it's so expensive.

1. Bill Janovitz - Woman (2.72 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Kate Pierson - Nobody I Know (2.99 MB; 128kbps MP3)
3. Graham Parker - One And One Is Two (1.99 MB; 128kbps MP3)

P.S.: Okay, I'll be honest. I'm going to be out of the country next week and thought I'd leave you with so much fun stuff this week that you won't notice my absence the following week! :-)

Listen to the pouring rain ...

Many years ago, I owned an album by Jose Feliciano. Although I think it was a greatest hits album, I recall the one song I instantly fell in love with was Rain. It has all the elements of a song I tend to like - simple lyrics sung in a heartfelt manner and a catchy melody.

It is easy to generate the visual imagery of a cool, cloudy, rainy evening with you all alone at home thinking of your love who is far away. The loneliness coupled with the mild depression brought on by the weather makes you realize how much you love the one you're missing and how much better it would be if she was there with you. The lyrics in this song just seem natural in that context. Even though the words seem to be sung to someone in the room with him, I see it more as the singer sitting alone and reassuring himself of his love for a woman. He almost seems to be trying to cheer himself up by singing about her.

Or, I could be reading way too much into all of this ...

Jose is a unique singer and a virtuoso guitarist. Some of his greatest hits were covers of other hit songs (probably his biggest hit was his exceptional and unique cover of Light My Fire). The second song I feature here is a cover of Lennon-McCartney's In My Life. Again, he puts his own stamp on it and doesn't try to recreate the original. According to his bio on wikipedia, he was born blind and taught himself to play the guitar by locking himself up in a room and practicing 14 hours a day. Now if that doesn't lead to passionate playing, I don't know what will.

As usual, if you're as enthralled by Jose Feliciano as I was when I first heard him, you can find most of his discography at Amazon here. As a start, I would recommend The Definite Best which seems to be a fairly comprehensive coverage of his hits at a reasonable price. You'll love the passion in Hitchcock Railway and enjoy his spin on the many covers on the disc.

As long as we're together, who cares about the weather ...

UPDATE (5/17/2010): MP3s deleted at the request of DMCA and Google. Don't bother trying to sample music here before buying.

1. Jose Feliciano - Rain (2.25 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
2. Jose Feliciano - In My Life (3.09 MB; 128 Kbps MP3)

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)

Hawaii on a Silver Platter

Whenever I visit places, I like to sample music from the place I visit. Usually, I just try and find what is "hot" in the country I'm visiting and buy a sampling of the popular music from there. I find it much easier to evoke memories of the place from the music than just a plastic souvenir. Expect quite a bit of "world music" sampling in this blog down the line. In the near future, I have already lined up some music from France, India and Poland.

Before we travel that far, though, let me take you to Hawaii. While most of you have heard some Hawaiian music, I was entranced by CDs from Keali'i Reichel during my visit to Hawaii many, many years ago. Like most of my world music tastes, this is probably not "traditional" music but rather fusion music that blends traditional elements with modern melodies and instruments to make the sound easier for us to process. In addition to Keali'i Reichel, I also bought an album by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Facing Future) which was also great, but didn't find it as instantly likable as the one by Reichel. I just found myself putting the Reichel album on more frequently. Still, if you like these samples and decide to purchase a Keali'i Reichel album, make sure you also check out Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. You can find this album on Amazon here. If you'd rather see all the Keali'i Reichel albums carried by Amazon (including a Greatest Hits collection), click here.

The wonder of this album is that it consists of catchy melodies and a strong, clear tenor vocal. You may not understand a word of what is being sung, but you can't help but sway to the music. You'll also find it absolutely relaxing - nothing jarring or grating on this album at all. For you Beatles fans, there's even a cover of In My Life on the Kawaipunahele album. Even if you've never been to Hawaii, this album is bound to instantly generate the beautiful imagery of the islands. Now that's powerful music.

So, from the album Kawaipunahele, here are two songs from Keali'i Reichel ...

1. Keali'i Reichel - Ku'u Wehi O Ke Aumoe (3.63 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Keali'i Reichel - Kawaipunahele (4.38 MB; 128kbps MP3)