# We saw The Puppini Sisters last night!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 12, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564 "2009-02-12T17:55:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/1 "2009-02-12T17:55:23Z")
Last night was **supervenusfreak** ’s and my Valentine’s Day date night, since one of our favorite specialty groups, [The Puppini Sisters](http://www.thepuppinisisters.com/) (warning: Flash-heavy, auto-play music…[Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppini_Sisters) as an alternative), were performing at the American Music Theater in town.
We love these women! We were first introduced to them when a friend burned a Christmas CD for us several years ago that included their version of “Jingle Bells”. That intrigued me enough to look them up and discover their website, which I then sent to **supervenusfreak**. Instant fans, seriously. When we discovered their website, we looked for tour dates, but they are an English group and didn’t have any American dates at the time.
Well, **supervenusfreak** caught an item in the paper about them coming to Lancaster about two months ago and there was no doubt whatsoever that we were going.
Their music is very retro, in the vein of the Andrews Sisters, but with a modern gloss. They can be pretty risque (a song about infidelity with the refrain “You got the right key, but you stuck it in the wrong keyhole”), and extremely fun. One thing they’ve done in both of their albums is take a modern (or recent (60s, 70s, 80s)) song and “backdate” it…sing it in a retro 40s close harmony style. They’ve done this with “Wuthering Heights” (which I actually like better than Kate Bush’s original), “I Will Survive”, “Heart of Glass” and others.
It was a wonderful show and I was just smiling through the whole thing. For you straight guys…they’re pretty hot, too!
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/2 "2009-02-13T15:40:15Z")
My sister sent me a link to their video for [_Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM_K6fH3_gg) and I was an instant goner. My coworkers still look at me slightly askance when I play _Betcha Bottom Dollar_ at the office, so I chalk it up as a guilty pleasure. I’ve seldom found a more fertile source of WTF reactions than to play (without warning or prelude of any kind) the Puppini Sisters’ swing-flavored cover of _I Will Survive_.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/3 "2009-02-13T15:49:41Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#):
>
> My sister sent me a link to their video for [_Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM_K6fH3_gg) and I was an instant goner. My coworkers still look at me slightly askance when I play _Betcha Bottom Dollar_ at the office, so I chalk it up as a guilty pleasure. I’ve seldom found a more fertile source of WTF reactions than to play (without warning or prelude of any kind) the Puppini Sisters’ swing-flavored cover of _I Will Survive_.
Heh! They did do that one the other night.
Have you heard _The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo_ yet?
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/4 "2009-02-13T16:06:13Z")
Were they in a movie or a TV show or something?
I went to their site and “Spooky” was playing, and I instantly recognized it (their version, not the original) from somewhere.
I just looked at their Wikipedia page and don’t see anything listed that I would have seen/heard.
Hmmmm strange…
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/5 "2009-02-13T16:11:24Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> Were they in a movie or a TV show or something?
>
> I went to their site and “Spooky” was playing, and I instantly recognized it (their version, not the original) from somewhere.
>
> I just looked at their Wikipedia page and don’t see anything listed that I would have seen/heard.
>
> Hmmmm strange…
They appeared in the 2008 _Jonathan Creek_ (a British series) Christmas special, but that’s the only thing I know that they appeared in.
Edited: According to their Wikipedia, the song they did on that Christmas special was “Spooky”.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/6 "2009-02-13T16:49:40Z")
Playing Minneapolis and NOT Chicago? That just is not right! Who set up this tour?
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### Author:  [@Seeker\_of\_Truth\_and\_Beauty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seeker_of_Truth_and_Beauty)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/7 "2009-02-13T17:02:48Z")
Just watched some of their stuff on YouTube – amazing. I’m glad I found them.
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### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/8 "2009-02-13T17:12:19Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay]
They’ve done this with “Wuthering Heights”. . . “I Will Survive”, “Heart of Glass” and others.
[/QUOTE]
others, like the Smith’s “Panic” - _Panic on the streets of London (doop-wee-dah)_ 🙂
I heard them first on Radio 4’s Loose Ends doing _Wuthering Heights_ and went out first thing next day and bought the CD. This is something that never happens.
Something that I noticed on Googling them is that professional critics all seem to really hate them, what is that about?
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/9 "2009-02-13T17:14:59Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#):
>
> others, like the Smith’s “Panic” - _Panic on the streets of London (doop-wee-dah)_ 🙂
> I heard them first on Radio 4’s Loose Ends doing _Wuthering Heights_ and went out first thing next day and bought the CD. This is something that never happens.
>
> Something that I noticed on Googling them is that professional critics all seem to really hate them, what is that about?
Probably because a lot of their stuff IS cover work. _Betcha Bottom Dollar_ didn’t have many (any?) original songs at all. _Ruby Woo_, on the other hand, is about half original. Plus they don’t fit into any of the music genres that are currently in vogue…most critics seem to dislike things they can’t pigeonhole.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/10 "2009-02-13T17:43:19Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> They appeared in the 2008 _Jonathan Creek_ (a British series) Christmas special, but that’s the only thing I know that they appeared in.
>
> Edited: According to their Wikipedia, the song they did on that Christmas special was “Spooky”.
That was it - THANKS!! I’ve taken to skipping the intro part of Wikipedia articles and going right to the outlined bit. So I totally missed that reference.
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/11 "2009-02-13T19:23:49Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Heh! They did do that one the other night.
>
> Have you heard _The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo_ yet?
I’ve got it on i-Tunes, but I’m not as fond of it. I think that the odd twist on the familiar was part of the initial attraction, and _Ruby Woo_ has a lot less to offer in that regard. Not that it’s a \*bad \*album – it just gets less play in my office.
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### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-saw-the-puppini-sisters-last-night/485564/12 "2009-02-13T20:58:09Z")
I played the Puppini Sisters’ version of IN THE MOOD about 148 times in a row in my car a few months ago. Just love that close harmony.