The last two days on NPR’s “Fresh Air”, I’ve heard Paul Anka talking about, among other things, his new album where he redoes '80s and '90s rock songs in big-band style. This is the opposite end of the stupid stick that made Pat Boone do a metal album.
If I’d been eating lunch when Anka came on singing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with a wailing horn section behind him, I would have lost it.
Is the guy seriously deluded, or would anybody here actually buy this album?
Wasn’t that appalling? I loved how Terry Gross, who’s usually completely respectful, just had to call him on it, and said something like:
“That line, ‘an albino, a mulatto, a mosquito, my libido, yeah’, I just don’t think it’s meant to be sung like that.”
I dunno. Shatner’s got a little following for his hilarious butchery of various songs. I’ve got a CD of The Transformed Man myself. Maybe Anka’s trying for the “so bad it’s good” market.
I vote deluded. Someone needs to follow up on this in a few months and post how well the album actually sells.
…Well I am thinking he’s “in” on the joke. When Pat Boone did the metal albulm he played with the fact that he’s doing music he should not be doing. He even dressed up in leather and had a fake nipple ring when he appeared with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers at an awards show. He wasn’t deluded. He was recording a novelty record… A hilarious one at that. It was until the TBNasties got up in arms and threatened to cancel his tv show, did he pull back and apologize.
I am thinking Anka is the same way.
There’s several “lounge acts” that have been doing this for years (Richard Cheese anyone?) why shouldn’t a legit star cash in.
I’ve heard cuts from the album. They sound fantastic. Anka regarded this as a serious project, and these songs as solid musical numbers that had to be respected and arranged well. This attitude shows.
I’m not the only one who thinks this, as the album has been getting very solid reviews from jazz reviewers as well as rock critics.
The album is actually on my list, more for my wife, who would love it dearly. I’ll be giving it out this Christmas as well, as I have an aunt and uncle that just would play this until it disintegrated.
I dunno if I’ll buy it, but I have a friend who lives for train wrecks just such as this. So I look forward to a st. . .um. . .an archived copy to call my own.
I may despise it, but it’ll be good for a giggle or two in th emeanwhile
Waste
Yeah, toss me in as another supporter. Anka’s a professional song interpreter, God knows. And every song deserves being ‘sent up’ from time to time. Hell, if Tori can do her piano bar version of Smells Like Teen Spirit I think a big band version should get some play.
The main reason I bought the album was because I heard part of his “Smells like Teen Spirit” on NPR. It’s a pretty good album and most of the tracks are entertaining. A lot of people seem unhappy about his version of Nirvana’s hit song but I honestly don’t understand why. At least when he sings you can understand the lyrics.
Marc
The album is no Johnny Cash doing covers of modern tunes, but it is fun and well-done, and worth more repeated listens than anything Richard Cheese has done.
Personally, I love big band swing, and I’m always up for innovative and fun covers of familiar songs. I like Richard Cheese, I loved Johnny Cash’s cover albums, I’m a huge William Shatner fan (Has Been was one of the best albums of 2004, no lie!), and I was always a huge fan of the late-'90s swing and ska bands that reinterpreted popular songs in their own styles. You haven’t lived until you hear the New Morty Show do a Vegas-inflected lounge-swing cover medley of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell,” Less Than Jake cover '70s sitcom themes or the Grease soundtrack in their ska-punk style, or Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness rock out on old country-and-western tunes on his Under the Influences album. It just goes to show you that good music can transcend style and genre, and that good musicians can have a lot of fun interpreting well-known songs in their own ways. I haven’t heard Paul Anka’s album yet, but I look forward to it.
It’s scary how true this is.
Really? I thought it fit the genre very well and ended up sounding better than the whiny original.
I only know the Weird Al version. Maybe he should have covered that one.
Wait a minute, you’re complaining about Anka’s cover versions and you’re not even familiar with the originals? I know you’ve posted at great length in the past about liking classic rock and not being into any modern music, but you can’t deride a project like this without being familiar with its inspirations.
I was wondering if he was deluded that an album of big-band renditions of recent rock songs was going to sell and/or be popular. For instance, is there a radio format for it?
I was wondering if it was necessary. I wondered if he was saying these were serious works of art no matter what style they were done in, or whether he was sending up a genre. I wondered if anyone would be interested in it. What I think about it is irrelevant. I was asking for opinions, that’s all.
Not popular enough, IMO.
Not really, but I can see it finding a home on alternative-themed college radio stations, or more open-minded jazz stations.
Not really, but neither is any other band or musician out there, regardless of genre.
Most likely some of both. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
[Raises hand]
I’ve heard it on WXRT here in Chicago several times, and I believe also on Q101. (Both alternative stations.) Plus the same genre of stations on satellite radio, including a jazz station.
Is there such a thing? Most jazz DJs seem about as open-minded as classical DJs, as in “not at all.”
FTR, the CD’s called Rock Swings and, although I don’t own it (yet), the tracks I’ve heard are pretty damned good re-interpretations of good-but-not-great rock and pop tunes. I particularly like his cover of Van Halen’s Jump. It swings and swings hard.
I actively dislike about 90% of Anka’s back-catalog but he’s a consummate professional and is playing to his strengths as a song interpreter here.
I vote not deluded at all and believe that this will probably sell better than most of his recent releases. It has some cross-over appeal and, judging from what I’ve heard, is a solid big-band jazz release aside from the obvious novelty aspects.