The Not-Pop Jukebox

I'm sorry, I can't help it: Devo covered Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini in their own inimitable way and that meant I had to find other covers. Do you really think I'd let you escape the horror? (Apparently I'm having a weekend of horrific cover ideas. These bands will keep giving me fodder.)

What I'm trying to say is that I'm inflicting on...er, sharing with you all such luminaries as Sha Na Na, Neil Sedaka, Brian Hyland (the original artist), Dr. Demento, and The Muppets. I've also included a short steel band version, a Peter Kraus cover in German that's changed it to Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Strand Bikini, Die Toten Hosen's cover of that song, a dub remix, and, naturally, Devo's version. Sadly, the Richard Anthony versions in French would not play on Grooveshark but YouTube was happy to help. That makes twelve bikinis in all, and I didn't even touch Teeny Weeny String Bikini. Happy summer, a little early (or late, whichever applies)!

After a song so right yesterday I figured we should have one that full of seven kinds of wrong. In case you can't translate that: it's mashup day! I've got a peach for you today. Marc Johnce took Lady Gaga, fed her full of Korn, and gave her a Cameo. First, who says "word up" any more? Second, Korn covered Cameo? The horror!

In the interests of full disclosure, I don't like Korn and I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga. I never particularly cared for Cameo, either. But the three together have made for pure, mashup gold. You can download Word Up This Way for free from Mr. Johnce's blog.

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And for some bonus giggles on this Friday evening, let's have the original Word Up from Cameo. Check the high-top fade!

I discovered that Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are playing at the Fargo Theater in a couple of weeks. Then the gent on the radio noted that Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears would be appearing with them. He proceeded to play Booty City and I knew that I would have to hear more. It’s like Tower of Power but Dap-Toned, bluesy funk with great horns. I’m sorry you missed the happy dance. It was a good one.

If you enjoy this one take a listen to Bitch, I Love You and Livin' in the Jungle, the former more blues (and, I warn you, definitely NSFW as the title may have suggested) and the latter back to the horns and the funk in a James Brown-ian sound. The more I listen the more I really, really want to see the show. For those of you not in town, there's plenty more of Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears to enjoy on Grooveshark.

‘Way back in the 60s The Monkees were reviled when it was revealed that (gasp!) they did not actually play their instruments or write their own songs. Yet the producers and members seem almost prophetic in hindsight. They were somewhere between the first boy band and Britney Spears, but with a TV show that was not labeled “reality” and didn’t involve child neglect and embarrassing drunken antics. Well, there were plenty of antics but it was more Scoobie Doo than Big Brother.

So I thought I’d post a song from The Monkees today to celebrate the fact that, superb instrumentalists or not, they sang some great songs. But I won’t post Last Train to Clarksville or, heaven forbid, I’m a Believer. After all these years those are still pop songs. (Well, everything they did was a pop song by genre definition but these are still popular enough to carry the title lo! these many years later.) And so I'm including Goin' Down, sung as most of the songs were by Mickey and a lot less country-flavored than many of the band's lesser-known tunes. It's just a good song by a much-reviled bunch of guys.

It's the first of May and time for something fun! You can all thank hubby for this one. He was burning some vinyl and has been wandering around the house singing Hong Kong Phooey for months. I finally got around to looking it up and I knew it had to be the song for today. Apparently, it was a cartoon. I've never seen it but this song makes me ridiculously happy, probably because my children are currently jumping around the living room singing along at the tops of their lungs.

But out of curiosity I had to get a picture. That's when I realized that I had seen the cartoon, after all, of a long-ago Saturday morning. So I'm offering to you all the mental image of this fluffy like martial arts master beating up the members of Sublime, because that's the image of Hong Kong Phooey that I've got in my head now. I hope it entertains you as much as it has me.