Apr 282011
Despite the song’s seemingly turd-proof structure and Meatloaf co-conspirator Karla DeVito‘s nearly Rock Crimes–resistant Italian-American cuteness, this version blows!
I bet John was relieved when Sunday came.
NEWSFLASH: Yet another band attempts to screw up this song…After the jump!
you’ve done it again mr. moderator! is candyshop singing through some scandanavian accent? is the male singer tim robbins in character?
I think Candystore may be offspring of the Shmenge Brothers. Easily the most entertaining of the three versions. I’ve gotta go listen to Dave Edmunds now – clean the palate.
Yes!
I kind of like the shuffle version by the Jayhawks. The Karla DeVito version is just too fast. It brought back memories of the skinny tie era, when pretending to go new wave seemed like a good career move.
It’s not terribly performed, but to me the shuffle makes it sound like they’re gearing up for Saturday night at the VFW club – no offense to those who’ve served our country, of course.
The crowd shots in that Karla DeVito version are outstanding.
My favorite is the overly enthusiastic guy in the stripped shirt behind the super-straight uptight guy in the tux.
Agreed. Those guys almost redeem the terrible performance.
Classic “let the sidemen sing a song” ploy.
Sounds like a crappy award acceptance speech by DeVito. The hidden hero of the Fogerty/Edmunds version is the rhythm section throbbing along obviously.
I think the Jayhawks arrangement could work, not that it’s preferable.
I have to assume this is being played for yucks. Right?
Karla DeVito! Ah, this reminds me of our local freebie newspaper review of her solo album “Is this a cool world or what”?.
First line of review:
“Is this a stupid name for an album or what”?
Yeah, you know the Ian character in “High Fidelity?” Now we know what happened to him.
Wow, I wonder if there is a Thom Yorke version?
I love the Searchers version from their Sire years, of which there doesnt’ seem to be a good version on YouTube. It seems to lose the lead vocals in the conversion.
…but man you can get lost in all the bad versions on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm1VyrAErLg
I’m starting to think that it’s a song that is hard to screw up (or not), but the original is still the better one, even more than Edmunds. I do think it’s better when it’s done strummy style rather than the shuffle or some other Vegasification.
I love the Searchers’ version too. That may actually have been the first one I ever heard. I also found this Gene Clark/Carla Olson version, which may be the source of the shuffle version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgFFDEljqLw
Nice Big Steve! That record they did together was really pretty good. Too bad Gene basically drank himself to death at 46.
Yes, I think that Clark/Olson version, which kicked off the original RTH post on this subject, is the basis of the Jayhawks’ version. Clark and Olson, however, nail it. In my opinion, and all that jazz…