Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Smells Like...Well, Okay, It Just Smells

Paul Anka sings Kurt Cobain.



Say what you will about it, but it's better than that Pat Boone heavy metal album from the 90s.

I should add, that while I hate "You're Having My Baby" as much as the next person, Anka always had more on the ball than any of those other post-Elvis pre-Beatles teen idols of the Happy Days era. For starters, he was a good enough songwriter to have written this genuine classic.



And he was also the subject of the first great rock documentary film, Lonely Boy...



...which is an artful and genuinely perceptive meditation on the price of stardom.

But don't worry -- I still hate "You're Having My Baby."

5 comments:

Blue Ash Fan said...

I made it through the first minute. What did we ever do to you, Steve?

Didn't Paul write the old Carson Tonight Show theme?

steve simels said...

Yes, he did. He also wrote the English lyrics to "My Way."

Anonymous said...

check out Colorado surf/frat rock band The Astronauts version of "It Doesn't Matter Anymore." Pretty good......

steve simels said...

I love, nay lurve, the Astronauts.

pete said...

I always liked that arrangement of Teen Spirit. It works as a swinging-lovers hit without clogging up the beauty of that melody and those lyrics. A great songwriter can still be heard despite radically varying treatments - witness that "Substitute" we were talking about yesterday.