You're a Mean One

So it's post-Christmas, but you've still got some parties to go to and/or host. You're looking for that perfect Grinch cover. With music written by Albert Hague with lyrics by Dr. Seuss, the oft-covered You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was originally performed by Thurl Ravenscroft for the 1966 Chuck Jones animated special based on the classic Dr. Seuss story How the Grinch Stole Christmas. From jazz to folk to punk to rock to rap, we've got it covered here.

Whirling Dervishes - (You're a Mean One) Mr. Grinch

Jim Carrey - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Busta Rhymes & Jim Carrey - Grinch 2000
This is Jim Carrey hamming it up (twice!) even more than his usual self. The latter track starts "This is a Flipmode Squad/Jim Carrey collabo..." which should set off warning bells immediately not to mention the constant self name-checking: "Jim Carrey!" "Busta Rhymes!" Yes, we know who you are, thank you. By the time the song ends with Jim Carrey giving a "shout out to the West Side of Whoville", your forehead is red from smacking yourself repeatedly during the preceding 3:35 of X-mas hell, if you even managed to listen that far. It's an atrocious affront to aural enjoyment. In other words, an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots (from the equally appalling dump heap of a live action film adaptation).

Blue Meanies - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Aimee Mann with Grant-Lee Phillips - You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch

Duboce Triangle feat. Orphan Gaby - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
This groovy cover is from the on-going Song Fight competition, winning the December 2001 X-Mas Cover Fight.

Rockapella - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Of all these covers, the Rockapella bass vocalist is the only one who can match up with Thurl Ravenscroft's deep vocals from the original. In fact, I think his voice is improbably even deeper than Thurl's.

Brian Setzer Orchestra - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Asylum Street Spankers - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
This cover from a live Christmas album is the most fun of all these Grinch covers with each verse performed in a different style.

D.I. - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Pete Nelson - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Thanks to Boyhowdy for this wonderful folk cover by Pete Nelson. If I'm not mistaken, it's got some nice accordion and mandolin going on in there. I was at a party last week and someone had an accordion and it's a fascinating instrument to play around with.

Fareed Haque - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
This jazzy guitar number could serve as soft background ambience for a more mellow party-going crowd. Only someone paying particularly close attention may realize they're listening to the Grinch.

Trish & Darin Murphy - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

I realize there are a ton of other Grinch covers as well, but being away from my home computer, this is all I could scrounge up from a back-up hard drive. One worth seeking out is by Sixpence None the Richer and another by Deanna Kirk who also incorporates part of the Whoville choral song into her cover (Fah Who Foraze! Dah Who Doraze!).

Covering the Animated World!

Hi there! It's me Kurtis, from Covering the Mouse, taking a break from writing about Disney cover tunes to cover for Fong while he is in China!

Disney isn't the only animation I like. I love a whole ton of different cartoons, mostly North American and a few Japanese. I grew up in the late eighties/early nineties so my favourite shows are from that era: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, DuckTales, Batman: the Animated Series, Transformers, Animaniacs, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, The Tick, He-Man... You get the picture.

One thing I like most about cartoon TV show is the theme song. This is a one minute pitch to the viewer to get them hooked into the show. The theme song must reflect the show or the viewer will get a bad impression and the show may lose a potential fan.

Cartoon theme songs are fantastic because they don't just stick a pre-recorded pop song in there as a theme. They write a unique piece that describes the show or tells a short story. And now that the children that watched these shows are old enough to record, cartoon theme song covers are becoming more common. Let's take a look at a few:


The best thing about a cartoon being turned into a movie is that we often get covers of the theme song by famous people! When Transformers: the Movie came out in 1985, Lion was there to cover it! When the new movie came out last summer, MuteMath was chosen to take on an updated version. Michael Bublé does a fantastic cover of the Spider-Man theme for Spider-Man 2 and Avril Lavigne covered SpongeBob SquarePants for the movie soundtrack surprisingly well.

Transformers - Lion
Transformers - MuteMath
Spider-Man - Michael Bublé
SpongeBob SquarePants - Avril Lavigne

Here are a bunch of covers from the album Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits. The disc contains a bunch of popular alternative artists from the 90s doing their favourite themes. Some are good and some are terrible. Here are a few I like.

Spider-Man - The Ramones
Hong Kong Phooey - Sublime
Fat Albert - Dig
Jonny Quest/Stop The Pigeon - The Reverend Horton Heat (This one is a Hanna-Barbera medley of the themes from Jonny Quest and Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines)


And more...

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Richard Cheese
Sailor Moon - Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk
Astro Boy - Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk This pop/punk group formed last year and released a self-titled album that contains two cartoon covers! And they are fantastic!)
Inspector Gadget - Lagwagon
Inspector Gadget - Ska King Crab (I'm not too sure who this is. I think it is the VooDoo Glow Skulls. If any one knows please leave a comment! Inspector Gadget is a popular one for punk and ska bands to cover. These three are just the tip of the iceberg! UPDATE: Thanks to Ian for pointing out that this cover is actually by Ska King Crab!)
Underdog - The Blanks
Speed Racer - The Blanks (This a cappella group is the real-life band of Ted, the lawyer from Scrubs. Both of these songs were featured in one episode.)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - HORSE the Band (Here's one for all you videogame geeks! HORSE the Band is a metalcore band that often uses an LSDJ, Little Sound Disk Jockey, GameBoy cartridge in their music to give it an 8-bit video game feel. This style if referred to as Nintendocore. No joke! However, you won't hear these sounds in this track. You will have to listen to some of their other music.)

I think Fong's coming home any day now so this may be my last post here for a while and you can get back to hearing covers of regular songs rather than all this geeky stuff.

Thanks for having me! It's been a blast!