Thursday, October 14, 2021

Pre-Rock Pop Songs Covered By Rock Artists (An Occasional Series): Part IV -- Special "Witches? Well, These Guys Were Sort of From New England" Edition

From 1967, please enjoy Connecticut's The Fifth Estate and their left-field hit version of the recurring theme from The Wizard of Oz "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead."

The song itself dates, obviously, from 1939, and it doesn't seem to have been covered as often as "Over the Rainbow." The Fifth Estate's remake, which reached (to my surprise at this point) Number 11 on the Billboard charts, was essentially a novelty record, and not really typical of the band's more garage-y sound.

I should add that when I was researching this I was convinced that I went to college with a guitarist from the group, but it turns out I was mistaken; I had them confused with some other obscure tri-state area group that had a one-off single around the same time. Can't remember who THOSE guys were, but I think one of my old college bandmates may recall; I'll keep you posted.

3 comments:

edward said...

If you had asked me who this was the only possible answer I could have given was The Royal Guardsmen;>

Alzo said...

Ha! The very first LP I begged my mom to buy me was 'Snoopy vs the Red Baron.' It was a toss-up with that or 'Between the Buttons,' but those guys looked too scary.

John K said...

Check out a recent 2 disc set "Garunge Deluxe" by this band it rocks. Quite different from their novelty hit.