Entertainment For Lively Minds
Little Red Rooster.
Posted by Pencilsqueezer on 3 February 2011 - 6:57pm.
It is my habit whilst driving to my local shopping emporium every Thursday for the weekly grocery provisioning to listen to my ipod on shuffle. This morning this popped out.
It got me thinking about how many versions of "Little Red Rooster" I have. It turns out to be five.
The Stones.
Sam Cooke.
Howlin' Wolf.
Big Mama Thornton.
Howlin' Wolf & The Yardbirds.
I know there are many more but I think five is really quite enough for me. So what songs do the massive have multiple versions of and how many?
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I have quite
a few versions of Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division
Swans
Oysterband with June Tabor
Nouvelle Vague
Susanna and The Magical Orchestra
Of the cover versions I think this is currently my fave:
If asked I will deny having Paul Young's version. If pushed I will capitulate and admit that his was the first version I owned.
I'm sorry.
Dark End of the Street
I have, I think, 16 different versions of this song (which is, I have to admit, one of my (if not my absolute) favourite.
In no particular order:
Gregg Allman
Rico Bell
James Carr (natch)
The Commitments
Ry Cooder
Elvis Costello
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Aretha Franklin
Lazy Lester
Kevin Mahogany
Dan Penn
Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham
Cat Power
Linda Ronstadt
Percy Sledge
Richard & Linda Thompson
I know. I need help.
My other problem is duplicates of tracks by the same artist. I don't delete duplicates, so compilations/extended/Legacy/Deluxe/remastered editions are the bane of me.
Some random examples:
Purple Haze - 11 copies.
Let's Stay Together - 10 copies.
Heartbreak Hotel - 8 copies.
Whole Lotta Love - 9 copies.
There are more. Believe me, lots more.
The Impossible Dream
It won't win this contest, but I have at least nine versions of "The Impossible Dream", the song from Don Quixote-based "The Man of La Mancha" and off of the Honda advert:
Andy Williams
Carter USM
Sammy Davis Jr
Diana Ross & the Supremes
Elvis Presley
Matt Monro
Brian Stokes Mitchell (from the OST)
Scott Walker
The Temptations
For several years I have observed a ban on myself buying any compilation which includes the wonderful "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.
Summertime
A mere 27 versions.
Strangely, I never really set out to get any of them, although I'm very partial to the versions by Billy Stewart and The Shake Spears. It seems that vietually every other act in the 60s covered it, and lots of them turn up on those "Best Of" CDs, especially double or triple sets. Interestingly, it is one of those songs that works really well in any number of styles [unlike "Yesterday", allegedly the most covered song ever, but which rarely strays far from the original].
They are:
Bessie Smith
Billie Holiday
Billy Stewart
Booker T & The MG's [studio and live]
Clea Bradford
Courtney Pine
Dave Edmunds & Love Sculpture
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
Ernest Ranglin
Fun Boy Three
J J Jones
Janis joplin
Martha high & James Brown
Marv Johnson
One G Plus Three
Peter Gabriel
Ray Baretto
Ricky Nelson
Sam Cooke
Santo & Johnny
Sarah Vaughan
The Shake Spears
Sharon Marie
Sound Dimension
The Zombies
Try these for size:
Oh, I also have 25 versions of "Light My Fire"
Re: 'Little Red Rooster'
The Jesus & Mary Chain's version is excellent.