Five Years

Five years ago today, I started Fong Songs. I had moved to Vancouver for a two month stint taking a two month course in 2D animation and after happily reading other mp3 blogs figured "Hey, I can do that!" (isn't that how all blogs inevitably start). Now, full circle, I'm living in Vancouver semi-permanently and in less than a month I'll be going back to school for my master's degree. So yeah, the blog end is near, I face the final curtain, yada yada yada. I've done it my way, more or less.

The Polyphonic Spree - Five Years [originally by David Bowie]
Maxine Weldon - My Way [originally performed by Frank Sinatra; lyrics: Paul Anka]

While it may have started as a lark, Fong Songs has gone on much longer than I expected and it has resulted in many random fortuitous happenings and discoveries that I would have never imagined. I mean, to a narrow cross-section of the population I can brag how Neil Gaiman once pimped one of my blog posts in a tweet to Adam Savage! Even more astonishing to me was when I discovered that three months earlier I had also introduced Neil to the brilliant PoZitive Orchestra as evidenced by another of his tweets! Gasp, Neil, a closet Fong Songs reader?! Ha ha, I can dream. One of the coolest things that happened that I don't think I've ever mentioned was getting an awesome e-mail from Walt Kraemer, the composer of the Pinball Number Count, who thanked me for my post and actually asked me to help him in his quest to track down as many versions of the Pinball Number Count as possible! I got to participate in a cover songs round table discussion on the seminal Coverville and was even a cringy interviewee for an online radio station. I also performed my first (and last) Fong Songs interview with Max Vernon, one of those rare artist submissions I championed that I actually still listen to and follow. I got chummy with other cover bloggers to form a sort of covers community and they're still chugging along (you should have them all bookmarked already anyway, but be sure to visit their blogs on the sidebar to get your covers fix!). And then there was that awesome time I got DMCA takedown notices (9 total!). Yep, good times, bad times, you know I've had my share.

In light of the impending school workload and my steady decline in regular blogging anyway, I'll be going into a state of semi-retirement, though I won't completely close up shop. In the footsteps of many of my favourite bands, I guess you can say I'll be on an indefinite hiatus. I may drop in every now and then to check on the place, but don't hold your breath. I also plan to continue my monthly Disney cover post on Covering the Mouse (speaking of which, my latest guest post coincidentally went up today as part of Robin Hood Week).

So with less than a month left before sticking a fork in this blog, I thought I'd compile and post my 100 all-time favourite cover songs as my melodramatic swan song. Starting Monday (I may regret this) I'll post 5 songs a day for 20 days straight or until I get shut down by the powers that be. I'll lay down some judging criteria later once I come up with some. Stay tuned!

Christopher Lee - My Way [originally performed by Frank Sinatra; lyrics: Paul Anka]
Awesomely bizarre cover that will not make the final cut.

Top Covers and Worst Film of the Decade

Decembers in pop culture land are always filled with a glut of year-end lists, but this year is even crazier with everyone tossing out decade-end lists left and right. I didn't want this to get out of hand, so I've really narrowed the scope to just a flat-out list of my personal favourite cover songs of the decade and THE absolute worst film of the decade.

Attempting to rank these would be an exercise in futility, so this is purely based on iTunes playcounts. I have 6000+ covers tagged as being in the 00's, but of course it wouldn't surprise me if some poor covers were left out of the running based on incomplete tags. While posting all 50 songs would be overkill, not to mention an open invitation for a blogger crackdown, I've randomly linked to a few covers, some of which I've probably never even blogged about despite their high ranking. Here we go...

Top 50 Covers 2000 - 2009:
50. Dick Brave & The Backbeats - Freedom [originally by George Michael]
49. The Breeders - Wicked Little Town (Hedwig Version) [originally from Hedwig & the Angry Inch]
48. Bowling For Soup - The Bare Necessities [originally from Disney's The Jungle Book]
47. Ben Folds - Songs of Love [originally by The Divine Comedy]
46. The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer [originally by Rush]
45. The Living End - I Get a Kick Out of You [originally by Cole Porter]
44. Tok Tok Tok - The Weight [originally by The Band]
43. The Phantom Of The Opera - Nightwish [originally by Andrew Lloyd Webber]
42. Rasputina - Rock and Roll [originally by Led Zeppelin]
41. Brad Roberts - Bette Davis Eyes [originally by Jackie DeShannon]
40. Pascale Picard - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
39. Devo 2.0 - Monkey's Uncle [originally by Annette Funicello with The Beach Boys]
38. The Wrong Trousers - Such Great Heights [originally by The Postal Service]
37. Lulu Hughes - Time [originally by Pink Floyd]
36. Hayseed Dixie - Holiday [originally by Green Day]
35. Fall Out Boy - What's This? [originally by Danny Elfman]
34. Mark Ronson - Oh My God (feat. Lily Allen) [originally by Kaiser Chiefs]
33. The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium [originally by Nirvana]
32. JerryC - Canon Rock [originally by Pachelbel]
31. The Bicycles - Cuddly Toy [originally by Harry Nilsson]
30. Serena Ryder - It Doesn't Matter Anymore [originally recorded by Buddy Holly; written by Paul Anka]
29. Motormark - Left To My Own Devices [originally by Pet Shop Boys]
28. Mark Ronson - Just (feat. Alex Greenwald) [originally by Radiohead]
27. Serena Ryder - Some Of These Days [originally by Shelton Brooks]
26. Chris Thile - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground [originally by The White Stripes]
25. PoZitive Orchestra - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd] [DIRECT LINK]
24. Daniel Bedingfield - A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes [originally from Disney's Cinderella]
23. D-Sailors - We Built This City (feat. Wick Slick) [originally by Starship]
22. Danny Michel - Lady Stardust [originally by David Bowie]
21. The F-Ups - All the Young Dudes [originally by David Bowie]
20. Phantom Planet - Our House [originally by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]
19. Blacklight Posterboys - Jet [originally by Paul McCartney & Wings]
18. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes - Nothing Compares 2 U [originally by Prince]
17. Jon Brion - Play the Game [originally by Queen]
16. Days of the New - L.A. Woman [originally by The Doors]
15. OK Go & Bonerama - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide [originally by David Bowie]
14. Mint Royal - Singin' in the Rain [originally written by Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown]
13. The Polyphonic Spree - Wig in a Box [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
12. The Shins - Baby Boomerang [originally by T. Rex]
11. William Shatner - Common People [feat. Joe Jackson] [originally by Pulp]
10. Jamie Cullum - I Get a Kick Out Of You [originally by Cole Porter]
09. Harvey Danger - Oh! You Pretty Things [originally by David Bowie]
08. Manic Street Preachers - Can't Take My Eyes Off You [originally recorded by Franki Valli]
07. RLM & Katsuhiko Sakamoto & Ikuko Harada - 19th Nervous Breakdown [originally by The Rolling Stones]
06. Estradasphere - Super Mario Bros. 2 SuperBuckJazz [originally by Koji Kondo]
05. The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes [originally by The Postal Service]
04. Ben Kweller - BK Baby [originally by Vanilla Ice]
03. The Bens - Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version) [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
02. Ben Jelen - Wicked Little Town [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
01. Danny Michel - Young Americans [originally by David Bowie]

It shouldn't surprise any regular reader that Danny Michel's Young Americans tops this list since it's more or less my favourite cover of all-time. Perhaps a little more surprising, two covers by four Bens of two different versions of Wicked Little Town take the two and three positions. A third cover by The Breeders also made the cut, so quantitively you could say Wicked Little Town is my favourite song of all-time, cover or otherwise, and I wouldn't really argue. With five entries, David Bowie dwarfs the competition in having his songs covered lending some vague credibility to an argument I heard once that everybody does a better Bowie song than Bowie himself (not at all true, though he does inspire great covers).

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Thankfully, I managed to avoid almost all of Rotten Tomatoes' Worst 100 Films of the Decade, but a couple slipped by. While some bad films are merely boring or forgettable, these ones also inspired active hate.

5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
4. The New Guy (2002)
3. August Rush (2007)
2. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
1. Titanic: The Animated Movie (2001)

No, I'm not joking. This exists and I have seen it. I came across the DVD multiple times in the Chinese section of the public library before morbid curiosity got the better of me and I took it out. Oh boy, did I regret it. This incomprehensibly abysmal movie can basically be summed up with this clip of a rapping dog:



When discussing decade-end lists, my co-worker says this doesn't count because it's not even a movie and he's kinda right. While Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is so terrible it's almost laughable, this abomination is so mind-blowingly atrocious that it makes you hate yourself for having watched it.

New PoZitive Orchestra! And the Many Adventures of Vinni-Pukh.

Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. Eat turkey, be merry, hang with your families, have fun, and let's not have any shopping-related deaths this year. Having celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving last month, today is . . . Thursday. Yep, business as usual, though I might try to go for my H1N1 shot tomorrow. Now, to Russia for the rest of this post!


Huzzah! The PoZitive Orchestra's official site was updated sometime fairly recently with a new band photo, some upcoming gigs, and the jackpot: three new songs! With their same unique bossa string quartet sound, they tackle three homegrown Russian covers. I had to do some digging to find out exactly what songs were being covered, but don't let your unfamiliarity with the source songs dissuade you from eating these up since they're, naturally, brilliant. As might be expected, there are a few musical quotations of American classics sprinkled within, but I'll leave those for you to discover.

PoZitive Orchestra - Носки [originally by Sektor Gaza]
This was originally by the Russian punk band Sektor Gaza (in English: Gaza Strip) from their 1990 album, Ядрена Вошь. The track's title translates as "Socks". Check out this music video of the original song:



PoZitive Orchestra - Прощайте, скалистые горы [original music: Evgeny Zharkovsky; lyrics: Nikolay Bukin]
This one translates as Farewell, Rocky Mountains and was originally a WWII poem by Nikolay Bukin telling of the impenetrable Soviet defense of the Rybachy Peninsula against the Germans. Songwriter Evgeny Zharkovsky set the lyrics to music and it became popular among Russian army seamen. For a little more historical context, read this. There are numerous recordings of this song, but I found this youtube video particularly compelling:



PoZitive Orchestra - Смуглянка [original music: Anatoly Novikov; lyrics: Yakov Shvedov]
Here's another WWII-era song. The title translates as "Darkie" and it seems to be a love song. Youtube embedding is disallowed, but check out a performance of the song by the Alexandrov Red Army Choir here.

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I was reminded of a discovery I made at the library a while back in the Russian children's section. Do you recognize these characters?

Why, it's Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, of course! Confused? It's not the Disney incarnation and a long ways off from the E. H. Shepherd "classic Pooh" design. In 1960, Russian poet and children's author Boris Zakhoder introduced generations of Russian children to Winnie-the-Pooh with his liberal translations of A. A. Milne's classic Pooh tales (originally published in 1926). His design of Pooh and the other residents of the 100 Acre Wood may be jarring to us Westerners, but from what I gather, this is the lasting legacy of Pooh in Russia to this day. See if you can recognize some of these iconic moments and characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories:









Even more fascinating, Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk started a trilogy of Pooh short films in 1969, three years after the first Disney Pooh short, based on the translated books (Zakhoder co-wrote the screenplays). Now I'm an unabashed devotee of the Disney Pooh films, but these are quite brilliant in their own unique way. The voices, the hand-drawn quality of the animation, the music, and basically everything about it is a little mind-blowing. The first two shorts are each about 10 minutes and part 3 is about 20 minutes . If you've got some spare time (or even you you don't), definitely check these out!

Vinni-Pukh (1969)


Vinni-Pukh Goes on a Visit (1971)


Vinni-Pukh and the Day of Concern (1972) PART I


Vinni-Pukh and the Day of Concern (1972) PART II

In the Inbox and Feedbox 08/25/2009

I just need to clear my plate of a bunch of blogworthy things coming through my e-mail and RSS feeds. There are also a handful of half-formed posts that just going to have to wait including a Tarantino cover tribute ('twas to coincide with the release of Inglourious Basterds, alas) and an ABBA cover post that I owe a reader (soon!).

Jordan Galland Coverage:
My inbox is filled with a ton of PR stuff everyday and some folks are quite sneaky about pretending to read the blog, but every now and then someone actually takes to effort to actually send something relevant to what I usually post about and tailors the PR schtick enough for my personal benefit that I will ignore my little inner cynic and post about it. In my early blog days I would naïvely respond to most enquiries and now I sadly know better. Anyway, someone kindly asked me to give some blog love to Jordan Galland and I'm more than happy to oblige. Not only did he play piano and electric piano on Mark Ronson's Version (a Fong Songs cover fave), in July he contributed TWO great covers for the Cover Commissions series on over at Cover Me. If you somehow missed it, definitely go there to download his covers of Pulp's Bad Cover Version (HA!) and Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf. Not only is he a talented musician, but he's also a filmmaker with his debut feature film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead currently doing the film festival circuit. It stars Jake Hoffman (son of Dustin) and features an original score by Galland's longtime collaborator and childhood friend, Sean Lennon.

Speaking of Cover Me, he's got a logo design contest going on right now until Tuesday's midnight deadline (er, that'd be tonight). Prizes involved.

I Want More POZ-OR:
Nine months after my initial exposure to the PoZitive Orchestra's unique brand of recycled songs, I'm still loving it and was compelled Sunday to see if there were any updates to their website. No new covers I'm afraid, though they still play the occasional gig in Russia (d'oh!). Coincidentally, a review also popped up Sunday to reiterate that fact that everyone needs to listen to the PoZitive Orchestra. I wholeheartedly agree and you know what? So does Neil Gaiman, so there. To get my fix, I found the website of Gin-Tonic, another band lead by POZ-OR's vocalist/guitarist Cyril Kukharenko, and downloaded three-and-a-half albums of free music. It shouldn't be shocking that this music is pretty awesome too, all in Russian, and FREE. I'm currently listening to a bizarrely jaunty song about Osama Bin Laden called Враг №1 (Enemy No. 1). Go here for Gin-Tonic downloads!

Big List o' Covers
Reader John passed along this article he wrote for Esquire entitled 1,892 Cover Songs Men Could Listen To. I'm assuming women could listen to these cover songs too. While your brain might explode trying to peruse this list, he does offer takes on 10 of his favourites including one of my faves too: Lulu Hughes' rendition of Pink Floyd's Time.

All You Need is Ukuleles:
I hope you're all still keeping up to date with the astounding Beatles Complete on Ukulele project wherein all 185 Beatles songs are being covered and released once a week...for nearly three more years! How can you argue with that much great music for free? I'll admit I was skeptical when first hearing of the project with visions of amateur youtube ukulele players (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I've been continually blown away by the quality and diversity of the covers, which are all linked but not limited to the ukulele. Although they are arguably the most covered band of all time, good to great Beatles covers are in a minority. We're only 31 covers in and most of these are pretty fantastic, a few legitimately great. And you can't accuse any of them of being predictable. Adam Green's I Will is my favourite so far. The project is also having the side effect of exposing me to the incredible Beatles back catalogue, of which I'm fairly unlearned as it turns out despite considering myself a pretty big Beatles fan. If you're an artist, you can even look into joining the project for future unclaimed covers. Last year, project masterminds and arrangers, Roger Greenawalt and David Barratt performed all 185 songs live with guests at a 14-hour benefit show in New York. They're at it again this year, performing the entire Beatles catalogue on December 6th and 7th (All Lennon’s Eve) at Spike Hill in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If I was in the neighbourhood, I'd consider going for all 14 hours just for the experience.

Squirrel Nut Zippers Lost at Sea:
The Squirrel Nut Zippers have got a new album due October 27th, their first in nine years and first live album ever! Previously (I think) the only official live material came from a promo VHS tape I once found on eBay or bootlegs. These are mostly live versions of old favourites as recorded (I'm assuming) over the past two years of touring since their reunion, though I do see one track name I don't recognize.
1. Memphis Exorcism
2. Good Enough For Grandad
3. It Ain't You
4. Prince Nez
5. Put A Lid On It
6. Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter
7. Danny Diamond
8. Suits Are picking Up The Bill
9. My Drag
10. Happens All The Time
11. Bad Businessman
12. Hell
13. Ghost Of Stephen Foster
14. You Are My Radio
15. Blue Angel
16. Do What
17. Missing Link Parade

They're taking the tiered package approach: download only, download & CD, download & LP, and (DROOL.) a deluxe version that includes "extra tracks from [their] deep dark past along with exclusive video and photos all delivered to your computer". Superfans, myself included, will be able to buy the album early from their official website in September!

Last. Shows. Ever.
On Friday, I'm hopping on a train to Seattle to catch the last Harvey Danger shows ever. The past few weekends have been last shows in Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles and now they're back in their hometown Seattle at the Crocodile Club to finish it off basically where it all started. You might be thinking "who cares?" since, after all, they're widely known as a late-90's one hit wonder for Flagpole Sitta. Longtime readers of Fong Songs know that I am part of a small, very devoted group of Harvey Danger fans. I've said it many a time, but their commercial disaster and hiatus-inducing sophomore album King James Version is one of my favourite albums of all-time. Their third and final album Little By Little... is no slouch either, being available as a free download since its 2005 release coinciding with a physical release. I finally got the opportunity to see them live last year for their 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle where they played all three of their albums + b-sides/covers/rarities over the course of two nights. And now I'll be there to say my goodbyes and thanks to one of my favourite bands.

• you can read lead singer Sean Nelson blogging about the first couple tour stops on EW.com with presumably more to come
  
• Watch "famous minor television personality" John Hodgman introduce the band's last show in New York City
  
• at this past weekend's show at the Largo in L.A., Jon Brion was on hand to play lead guitar on Wine, Women, and Song and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard (Mr. Deschanel, sigh) sang HD's Why I'm Lonely
  
• for the HD faithful, a very limited edition CD Dead Sea Scrolls consisting of unheard songs and other rarities was made just for the final shows (only 300 copies I think)
  
• There are three shows in Seattle: an all-ages show Friday at the Vera Project, an early show at the Crocodile, and The Last Show Ever
  
• Cartoonist Peter Bagge ("Hate") apparently has a band called Can You Imagine? and will be opening for Harvey Danger at the early Saturday show

That'll probably be it for this week. Later folks!

More POZ-OR!

In nearly forgot... last week reader How Marvellous sure lived up to his moniker by directing my attention to even more covers by Russian recyclists, the PoZitive Orchestra. So if you can't get enough of them (like me), you'll love these covers of the King of Pop, Deep Purple, Queen(!!), and Tito & Tarantula. I'm trying out a new file host boxstr.com (no relation to box.net, I hope), so let me know if there are any problems. I also re-upped all the covers from the last POZ-OR post, which of course is mandatory listening.


PoZitive Orchestra - Smoke on the Water [originally by Deep Purple]

PoZitive Orchestra - Bad [originally by Michael Jackson]

PoZitive Orchestra - The Show Must Go On [originally by Queen]

PoZitive Orchestra - After Dark [originally by Tito & Tarantula]
You may recognize this song that was featured in a memorable scene from the Robert Rodriguez vampire flick From Dusk Till Dawn. Think Salma Hayek and a snake.

**UPDATE: Boxstr has a 1GB daily bandwidth limit which didn't take too long to exceed, so I'm going to have to figure something else out. For now if you're having download issues, I've uploaded a zip of all 4 covers to Megaupload.

Rockwell & MJ were on to something

Things were slowly getting back into semi-normal, but alas rat-a-tat-tat here comes more fun with "Don't be evil" Google and colleagues. I got another DMCA notification and Blogger deletion for an old Max Vernon post. I panicked, thinking it was my big Max Vernon interview, which recalled 17 Seconds' Glasvegas debacle, but oddly enough it was the post from back in July when I first discovered his I Kissed a Girl cover. I'd re-post it without the mp3 links, but there were no mp3 links. Yay.

Box.net kindly informed me yesterday it deleted the PoZitive Orchestra's cover of The Girl From Ipanema for infringement. Fine, be that way. The whole account will be deleted effective next Thursday anyway, so it's not such a big deal (grab any last active links while you can!). I didn't mention it earlier, but the last straw which led to my box.net account been deactivated was actually a Max Vernon original song, which when it was expunged had Max e-mailing them to give them an earful to sort things out. A week later, my account was cancelled. Yay.

Also, check my last post's comments, for an odd message from the Web Sheriff commending me for talking about Andrew Bird without posting pirate links. Yaaaarrrr.

Morris Day - Somebody's Watching Me [originally by Rockwell]
Warmen - Somebody's Watching Me [originally by Rockwell]
"I always feel like somebody's watching me... who's playing tricks on me?"

I was naïvely hoping this whole anti-blogger campaign would blow over, but it's obviously not. Sigh. I'm mentally projecting lumps of coal in the stockings of my enemies.

The Best Cover Band You've Never Heard Of

I'm often prone to hyperbole, but these guys are probably my favourite cover discovery of the year. I know you've never heard of them because otherwise you would have told me about them already, eh? Somehow I came across this Russian group while looking for a cover of the Dire Straits' Money for Nothing and stumbled upon a treasure trove of brilliant cover songs ranging from Elvis to Bowie to Zeppelin.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the PoZitive Orchestra!



The self-described idea behind the PoZitive Orchestra is combining the classic string quartet sound with Latin guitar rhythms and "vocal hooliganism". Though most of their official site's Russian translation makes only slightly more sense than reading the back of a Chinese bootlegged DVD, this part was surprisingly clear:

"The result is a something that hardly falls under the definition of «a cover version», rather, it might be called: «resaykl version», and the team «PoZitive Orchestra» respectively: «resaykl group»."

Even though the key word "resaykl" didn't make it through the translator, try to pronouncing it phonetically and a lightbulb will go on in your head.... recycle, or something close to that. They consider themselves as recyclers rather than coverers, which is about the same semantically as Tim Burton's re-imaginings instead of remakes, but I understand the desire to escape the trappings of a "cover band" label. A "cover band" implies some sort of bar band or tribute act (of which there are countless) playing rote recreations of another's work, whereas these guys are definitely one of a kind. To each and every cover, the PoZitive Orchestra bring original guitar and string arrangements that consistently defy expectation combined with heavily accented lead vocals that occasionally veer into Elvis territory. They're so fun to listen to that I'm a fan of the cover songs I've never even heard of. Nine of these covers are freely available directly from their site and I came across three more in my google travels. A veritable covers feast! They have no CD that I know of, but the minute they do I'll be all over it.


Shine on You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
This cover is absolutely brilliant, my favourite of the bunch. Reinvents this as a tango and makes it work, still capturing the bittersweet feelings of regret that permeate the original. Two-thirds of the way through it takes an unexpected yet somehow natural turn, transforming into something completely different. A must listen!

Money For Nothing [originally by Dire Straits]

The Girl From Ipanema [originally by Antonio Carlos Jobim]

Fragile [originally by Sting]

All Shook Up [originally by Elvis Presley]

Black Dog [originally by Led Zeppelin]
Is it my imagination or does he sing "one-legged woman ain't got no soul"? Not many bands would throw some Hava Nagila into a Zeppelin cover.

Venus [originally by The Shocking Blue]

How Insensitive [originally by Antonio Carlos Jobim]

The Man Who Sold the World [originally by David Bowie]

Corcovado [originally by Antonio Carlos Jobim]

I Concentrate on You [originally by Cole Porter]

Help! [originally by The Beatles]
Covering the Beatles is generally a recipe for disaster, but they've manage to produce one of those rare Beatles covers worth repeat listens. Love the string section shout-out to Cream near the end too.


If Google Translate is up to snuff, all band photos used here are by Michael Strizhevskim.

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in the US. Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend. Up here it's business as usual, since we celebrated our Thanksgiving more than a month ago. Wikipedia has some interesting laptop reading about the hows and whys of our staggered holidays.