Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "The Bird is the Word" Edition

From 2000, and their album Odd Fellows, please enjoy North Carolina power pop legends The Spongetones and their to die for cover of Sir Paul McCartney's "On the Wings of a Nightingale."

As you probably know, the song was a minor hit for the Everly Brothers on their wonderful 80s comeback album EB 84. That version was produced by Dave Edmunds and was very much in his vein, with lots of massed acoustic guitars. The Spongetones, however, reworked the song a la vintage Merseybeat guitar rock, sounding as it might have if the Fab Four had had a go at it back in the day. As you can hear, they did an absolutely brilliant job-- the basic track recalls the Fabs circa '64 or '65, but with a lovely recreation of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass lead guitar stylings on top. I think it's a knockout.

Anyway, I bring all this up because the Spongetone guys are about to drop a series of new singles on Big Stir Records; I've heard the first one, "So Long," which is absolutely wonderful in a kind of McCartney/early Who sort of way, but unfortunately I can't figure out how to embed the audio, and it's not on YouTube yet. I'll keep you posted as soon as that changes.