Romeo and Juliet

It is one of classic pieces of literature and thus it is a reoccuring theme in songs.  It is the story of Romeo and Juliet.  Of course, it is the basis of numerous movies, songs etc. over time.  Anyone seen “West Side Story?”.  But, the best musical form of it is probably the Dire Straits song (yes this my 2nd mention of Dire Straits).  I present two versions of that song here, the original with a goofy youtube video constructed from the movie version with Leo DiCaprio and Clare Daines, and a cover version by the Killers.  Now, I am not sure about how young country star do school, but it appears that Taylor Swift still had to read the story…and the evidence is her song “Love Story” presented here.  Now, this is of course a very old theme, and so I repreent that by going waaaay back.  To Tchaikovsky that is.  So, in two parts I give the London Symphony Orchestra performing the Fantasy Overture, which is based on, of course, Romeo and Juliet.  I bet you have heard it before.

Mandolin killed the radio star!

This is great! I think it was intended to be a joke, at least to the people who originally posted it.  But I think it is fun, although, the kids voice cracked at the end.  The kids call themselves the Wrong Trousers.  I also included the orginal by Buggles.  For those who have not heard this 10,000 times, it was the 1st video ever shown on MTV.

Boss Covers!

Bruce Sprinsgteen is playing stadium shows in Jersey this week.  In honor of that, I give some Bruce covers in video form.  The first is UK band Electrolane’s version of “I’m on Fire.”  That is followed by the original version by Springsteen. Than I give you the ridiculous (but top ten hit) version of “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann (Mr. doo wa ditty to you!).  I follow that with a live version from the Rising tour.  AND, as a final special bonus, I give you a 2nd Manfred  mess.  This time it is his HORRIBLE version of “Spirit in the Night”.

Valerie

I suppose a sign of a good song is that it stands up to covers and versions. That is also probably a sign of a good arrangement. This Valerie is a good song for the Zutons, and was made great by Mark Ronson’s arrangement. It seems to stay great no matter who sings it. Here are four versions…three in video. The first is the Zutons’s original form 2006, than the video for Mark Ronson’s version (sung by Amy Winehouse who is not in the video), than a in studio acoustic version by Amy Winehouse. Finally I present Ronson from the BBC electric proms; this version is sung by Kyle Falconer from the British band “The View.”

YOUTUBE will not permit this to be embedded…so here is a link to the Zutons version.

Walkin

Since I posted a collection of struttin songs, I thought I would follow up with Walkin’ tunes. So here is the “Walking Collection.” This is a large collection of songs featuring some variation of the word “Walk” in the title. It spans country, blues, rock, R&B, Soul, Jazz and Gospel…so basically everything. Included artists are Johnny Cash (obviously), Rufus Thomas, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Sprinsgteen, DIon Warwick, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Grant Green, Lou Reed (with and without the velvets), Jackie Mitoo and plenty more. Enjoy.

THE WALKIN COLLECTION