New Monday #18
Happy Monday!
And belated Happy Father's Day to the dads.
A week ago, just as I was finishing up New Monday 17, which featured The Cars, I heard an awful cover - just released. Awful awful awful. This got me thinking about the original, which is flat-out great, covers, and idea theft.
The Original
The original, and undisputed king: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boaJCrHNRMA
867-5309/Jenny was written in about 20 minutes by Alex Call and Jim Keller. Call was a professional songwriter, Keller was the guitarist of a band named Tommy Tutone that was in the midst of recording their second album for Columbia Records.
Contrary to myth, there is no Jenny that inspired the song, and 867-5309 was just a bunch of numbers that sang well.
The song was huge, 40 weeks in the top 100, Tommy Tutone became a one-hit wonder, and everyone called that phone number and asked for Jenny, which drove people who actually had that number CRAZY. Ah, the good old days before caller ID!
The band knew they had a hit the moment they heard the demo. Good lord! Here’s the demo! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwbee1zn90s.
They worked out the arrangements and tweaked the lyrics in the studio for a few days and then cut it live to 24-track tape at the now defunct Clover Recorders in LA. A few overdubs and a mix: instant smash hit.
The Recording
867-5309 is very straightforward. It starts with a jangly guitar line that fades in on the right, slides toward center, there’s a Hammond organ swell and BANG! This is a SUPER high energy performance. It's electrifying and it still feels like a shot of adrenalin when singer Tommy Heath yells "Hey!"
Tommy Tutone was a tight and well rehearsed bar band. Parts slither and hand off to each other, leading you through the song and constantly keeping your attention. Guitar and drums fills are ICONIC: You can't imagine the song without them, as we'll see on the covers. The guitar solo is also iconic. With a great song like this, the best production is getting out of the way and just letting the band kill it.
Re-record/Remaster
In 2009, or 2011 (the data gets hazy) Tommy Tutone re-recorded 867-5309/Jenny, probably for a "Best of the 80's package for K-Tel. While technically a better recording, it's not a better record, even though it's basically a note-by-note remake. Everything is overly processed. Clover was a major studio in LA in 1981. In 2009, a recording like this, with minimal budget, is being done in a much smaller, cheaper situation, overdubbed rather than cut live, drum machine. There's a noticeable lack of energy and interplay.
The Cover that Sparked This
This was the cover, released last week. I’ve no idea why David Lee Roth decided to cover it. Yuck.
In the past, when Diamond Dave's covered a song he's done a reinvention. His “The Telephone Song" is lackluster and boring. The drums sound like a live player did them on an electronic kit and then someone fixed it. PLEASE pull that snare back in time a bit, it's too ahead of the beat. The main guitar is a big, woofy-sounding acoustic. The iconic guitar fills are reduced down to just one, flown in stiffly throughout the song, and it's a lame guitar sound, too.
The guitar solo has been reduced to a harmonica solo that would embarrass Alanis Morissette.
Vocals are squashed and small. The whole recording is squashed and small. Did they ever master this?
Of course, there’s worse: Nirvana butchered it live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV4bCSjKBSo . In their defense they all switched instruments — Kurt on drums and vocals! And they’d been drinking.
Original, a Cover, and a Cover of the Cover
Hush is a fabulous tune by Joe South. He wrote it for Billy Joe Royal, and it was released in 1967.
Deep Purple heard it, amped it up and released it in 1968. This kicks ass. Damn, this is heavy. They redid it again in 1984 and screwed it up.
Kula Shaker covered Hush in 1996. They were smart enough to knock off Deep Purple’s version, but they missed on the tempo. They definitely dropped the funk ball on this one.
AI for the Kill
But all this is perhaps water under the bridge. New Rick Beato thing on AI. I think you have to keep up on what’s going on with AI, especially if you want music as a career. Maybe everything is a cover tune.
Stay human, friends, stay human.
