Weekend Listomania (Special Remake/Remodel Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental testicular adjustment engineer scheduling czarina Fah Lo Suee and I will be attending the Weekend Ice Tea Bagging Protests in Fairbanks, Alaska (they get everything late up there) along with the suddenly single Levi Johnson, formerly of the comedy team of Olsen and Johnson the comedy team of Palin and Johnson.

As a result, posting by moi will necessarily be sporadic for a few days.

But in my absence, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

Post-Elvis Pop or Rock Song or Record You'd Most Like to See Covered!!!!

Self-explanatory, I think, so no arbitrary rules this time. You're welcome.

And my totally top of my head Top Five is:

5. My Best Friend's Girl -- The Cars



Strip away the po-mo irony and the icy synthesizer veneer from this and what you're left with is a fantastic Buddy Holly-ish pop gem. I've been saying for years that some smart alt-country or Americana band should do a remake of this one pronto, and I see no reason to change that opinion.

4. Here Comes My Baby -- The Tremeloes



The Cat Stevens song, of course, and like the Cars above, chanelling Buddy Holly as well. The Trems version is vastly superior to its composer's gentle version, but lordy, this one just cries out for a high energy run through with loud contemporary guitars. My 80s skinny tie band did a killer version, with 12-string, but alas no recorded artifact of it survives.

3. Bits and Pieces -- The Dave Clark Five



My word...can't you just imagine Led Zeppelin stomping through this one?

2. It's Love, Come What May -- Bobby Fuller Four



Cool guitar riffage, winsome vocals, a bridge so good you could plotz...just a perfect pop confection, and vastly overlooked. I think Marshall Crenshaw could do this one justice, don't you?

And the number one song you'd most want to hear transmogrified to a fare-the-well, and who can argue with this, is obviously --

1. Theme From Perry Mason -- Fred Steiner



While Googling this, I discovered to my surprise that Steiner wrote it before the show as a stand alone piece, and that its original title was "Park Avenue Beat." In any case, it's a great sleazy rock-and-roll song, right up there with "Harlem Nocturne" or Mancini's "Peter Gunn." The Blues Brothers mangled it, and the Pixies did an homage, but can you imagine, say, Jeff Beck getting his noisy little mitts on it? Wow!!!!!

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: Best work by a victim of the Hollywood Blacklist -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and posting a comment, thus justifying my humongous freelance fee to management, I'd be your best friend. Thanks!]