Bing Crosby & David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth

Due to work and family life, this blog has become sadly neglected over the past year. I'm going to make a New Year's wish to post more regularly but, in the meantime, here is a seasonal Guilty Pleasure I left off my list last year.

This version of the classic Xmas carol, originally written in the '40s as 'Carol of the Drum', comes from a 1977 Bing Crosby TV special. The pairing of David Bowie and Bing Crosby is most odd; Crosby looks like he hasn't the faintest clue who Bowie is and Bowie seems to be too high to care! Still, I've always liked this carol, ever since I had to perform it for a Xmas show at junior school one year, and the specially written counterpoint 'Peace On Earth' fits beautifully - apparently this was added as Bowie told the show's producers that he hated 'Little Drummer Boy' and asked if there was anything else he could sing!

Merry Xmas/Chanukah/Kwanza/Festivus to one & all and have a very Happy New Year.

Bonus clips: Here's a recent remake by Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly.

My kids have been singing this non-stop all through Chanukah and beyond...

Badfinger - Without You

You may remember here where I claimed that everything Harry Nilsson recorded was utter genius EXCEPT for his version of 'Without You'. There are a number of reasons for this belief:

• Richard Perry's production is so over the top it has everything including the kitchen sink!
• Mariah Carey
• Pop/American Idol & other 'talent' shows massacring this etc.

However, the major reason is that nearly everone thinks that this was a Nisson original, denying Badfinger, a band who had more than their fair share of misfortune, any platitudes whatsoever.

Badfinger, originally called The Iveys and from Swansea, were the first non-Beatles group signed to Apple Records and had a number of hits including 'Come & Get It' & 'No Matter What'. 'Without You' was a track on their 1970 album 'No Dice'. Apparently, Harry Nilsson heard it on the radio one day and thought it was a Beatles song. When he realised it was not, he decided to record it anyway for his album Nilsson Schmilsson. Badfinger could not recapture their earlier success and, unfortunately, management and record company struggles resulted in the suicides of both Pete Ham and Tom Evans.

Bonus Clips: The aforementioned 'No Matter What', a power pop classic.

 

  and 'Come & Get It', written & produced by Paul McCartney.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch - Zabadak!

Although somewhat under appreciated, at least as compared to some of their contemporaries, DDDBMT (as they were sometimes known as) had a run of charting singles in the mid-to-late sixties and were reportedly one of the better live acts in the UK at the time. Their 'Greatest Hits' album was one of the tapes in constant rotation in my dad's car when I was growing up and my mum could never get their name right - she would begin 'Dave Dee, Dozy, Bozy...' and then would dissolve into fits of giggles!

Anyway, I always liked this bit of nonsense. Fun Fact: Dave Dee (David Harman) was a policeman prior to becoming a musician and was on the scene at the car crash that claimed the life of Eddie Cochran.

Bonus clips: The Germans have never met a novelty song they didn't like. Here is a cover version by The Saragossa Band from 1979...

...and to clear your ears from that, here's Hold Tight. This was recently featured to great effect in Tarantino's 'Death Proof', where one of the character's claimed that Pete Townshend contemplated leaving The Who to join DDDBMT (mind you, she also constantly called the band 'Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitch & Titch). This song is almost 45 years old but still rawks!!!

Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

Before I heard this during an episode of 'Ashes To Ashes', I had almost completely forgotten about this lot. However, somewhat inexplicably, this got to the heady heights of No. 16 back in 1983. Why? Who in the heck bought it? OK, I admit that Kate Garner is pretty easy on the eye but the assault on the ears is another thing all together. Of course, I have not stopped humming it all weekend... Fun 'where are they now' facts: Jeremy Healy became an in-demand DJ and joined Boy George for his his E-Zee Possee project. Kate Garner lauched a successful photographic career and took the cover photo for Sinéad O'Connor's debut album.

Bonus Clip: Here's their debut, the just as ridiculous 'John Wayne Is Big Leggy'.

The Wallace Collection - Daydream

You know this song, even if you have never heard of this band or indeed this version (although it is the original). Admittedly, I came to this track via a different route - all shall be revealed below (see Bonus Clips).

The Wallace Collection was a Belgian band working out of London in the late '60s. Daydream, a single from their debut album, was released in 1969 and was a big hit in mainland Europe but, strangely enough, not any English speaking countries. However, that's not the end of the story...

Bonus Clips:... because the track was first picked up by the French chanson singer Claude François (he wrote the original 'My Way'), who recorded it as 'Rêveries'

which seems to be based on this library recording by Bernard Wystraete (also used as a sample by the likes of The Beatnuts, RZA, Dr. Octagon etc.)

Next up, the Australian easy-listening group The Gunter Kallman Choir (think of an Aussie version of The Swingle Singers) in 1970. Now this is the version you are probably most familiar with as, as well as appearing in countless commercials and as background music, it was also the basis for both...

...'Daydream in Blue' by I Monster in 2001...

...and 'Squares' by The Beta Band, which was originally going to be released at the same time as the I Monster single but was held back so to not cause confusion between the two tracks.

GP Updates

I noticed that the links to some of the archived videos were now dead so I've been through all the posts and have updated accordingly. Let me know if I've missed any...

The Big Supreme - Don't Walk

Ah, the power of the Internet... As I was putting together yesterday's post on Big Bam Boo, another song popped into my head. Actually, I should say that the idea of a song popped into my head as I could not remember either the title, lyrics or who sang it! All I could remember was that I was sure the group were called 'Big' something or other and that they had evolved from a previous group called Bonk (it made me giggle then and it still makes me giggle now). A Google search (note: I do not recommend you run a search on the terms 'big' and 'bonk' during office hours) turned up the Aussie group Big Pig who released an album called 'Bonk' but it was not them. As further scraps of lyrics made their way through the fogginess of my mind, further googling identified the group as The Big Supreme and the song 'Don't Walk' and the memories came flooding back.

This track got quite a bit of airplay at the time (1986) and I now recall that I actually saw The Big Supreme live when they supported OMD at (what was then) the Hammersmith Odeon. Further googling reveals that they were the vehicle for one Barry Flynn from St. Helens who had indeed had other released under the names Bonk, Bonk Combo & The Cult of Barry Flynn.

Bonus Clip: Here's a track from the aforementioned Bonk, with backing vocals from Toni Halliday, who would go on to form Curve...

Big Bam Boo - Fell Off A Mountain

Another one from my teen years where the details have been lost to the mists of time. Here's what I can recall: Big Bam Boo were a British duo (not to be confused with The Proclaimers) consisting of, as Wikipedia reliably informs me, Simon Tedd & Shark (which sounds more like the title of a kids TV show) and were signed to MCA releasing this single in 1989. The only other single I remember them releasing was called 'Shooting From My Heart' but I believe that I also owned their sole album at one time, which I probably bought for 20p from one of the Record & Tape Exchange branches!

Bonus Clip: Here's 'Shooting From My Heart'