![]() But the original song was written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for a musical a year before Simone made it famous on her album I Put a Spell On You. “Feeling Good”’s most famous rendition is, of course, by Nina Simone. But it was the Flashcats, a Pennsylvania bar band, whose raucous live performances of “Big Ten Inch Record” convinced Jackson to resume his musical career in the 80s after a two-decade hiatus.Ĭlick to load video 54: Muse: Feeling Good (Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse) Its bluesy shuffle and suggestive humor made it a natural fit for Aerosmith, who covered it on their 1975 album Toys in the Attic. “Big Ten Inch Record” was not a hit for Bull Moose Jackson when it was released as a single in 1952, with most radio stations (understandably) hesitant to play such a risqué song. (And one year later, Quiet Riot would score another hit with another Slade cover song, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now.”) 55: Aerosmith: Big Ten Inch Record (Bull Moose Jackson) It wasn’t until the mid-80s that they finally found a foothold in the American market thanks to Quiet Riot’s faithful cover version (right down to the unusual spelling) of “Cum on Feel the Noize,” which helped usher in the trend of hair metal. Slade were glam-rock godheads in their native England, but they struggled to replicate their success across the Atlantic. 56: Quiet Riot: Cum on Feel the Noize (Slade) Raitt was one of many artists who enjoyed more commercial success by covering John Prine than Prine ever did singing his own songs, but that’s to take nothing away from his original recording of “Angel from Montgomery,” which ranks as one of his very best compositions. “I think ‘Angel from Montgomery’ probably has meant more to my fans and my body of work than any other song,” Bonnie Raitt once said, so it might come as a surprise to learn that Raitt did not compose it. 57: Bonnie Raitt: Angel from Montgomery (John Prine) What if post-army Elvis had stuck to covering songsworthy of his talents? For five minutes, we had the answer. First, The Coasters’ rollicking “Down In The Alley”, and then this Bob Dylan cover, performed with great tenderness. Just when nobody was looking, Elvissnuck two triumphs on the otherwise forgettable soundtrack album for the 1966 film Spinout. 58: Elvis Presley: Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Bob Dylan) (Parton had kind words for Jack White in a 2016 interview with The Guardian.) It’s one of the most “rock” cover versions you’ll hear, of course, but for those looking for other types of takes on the song, you could check out Cake, Ray LaMontagne, Strawberry Switchblade, Olivia Newton-John, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Lingua Ignota, and many more. There have been numerous covers of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” over the years, but few have been singled out for praise by Parton herself. 59: The White Stripes: Jolene (Dolly Parton) ![]() It remains far and away the musical highlight of the splashy We Are The World benefit album. You could make an extensive box set out of Bruce Springsteen’s live cover songs, but this Jimmy Cliff cover was special, The Boss turning it into an arena anthem without losing the desperation. Nanna Steps Into The Spotlight With Stunning Debut Album ‘How To Start A Garden’Ħ0: Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band: Trapped (Jimmy Cliff).‘Electriclarryland’: How the Butthole Surfers Scored an Unlikely Hit.‘The Tubes’: Debut Album By Flamboyant New Wave Headline-Grabbers.But as I’ve come around to Christmas music, I’ve started to develop a sensitivity to the heaviness and that sadness that is lurking just under the surface of a lot of it, and 'Merry Little Christmas' captures that nicely, I think. We booked this session sort of last minute, and recorded to tape, so I wanted to keep the music relatively simple. I didn’t decide to sing 'Merry Little Christmas' for any other reason than that it’s got a nice bridge and it’s a pretty easy tune to pick up. So, naturally, I started to warm up to it all a bit. I always half-wondered why there weren’t any killer Hannukah tunes out there and until sort of recently when I found out that like half of the American Christmas canon was written by Jewish songwriters hustling in the music industry. "My family did Christmas when I was a kid even though I am a Jew (my dad was raised Lutheran), but popular Christmas music - Saint Nick, milk and cookies, the sleigh bells, the militant spreading of cheer - it always maybe felt a little *too* gentile in a house full of Jews. "I was raised on Peanuts, so I’ve always loved that Vince Guaraldi Christmas record but other than that I never gave popular Christmas music much thought until recently," says Dougie Poole as an intro to his cover of this holiday classic that has been famously covered by Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. ![]() DOUGIE POOLE - "HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS"
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