Today's recurring song, "Whistle While You Work", was originally written in the 30s for the animated Disney feature Snow White And The Seven Dwarves. I heard an excerpt of the original from the film, by Adriana Caselotti, on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. So I tracked it down, and included the version from his show as well, since it has the singer in character talking to the dwarves, and differs slightly from her soundtrack version. I also tracked down versions from the Artie Shaw Orchestra with scat singer Leo Watson, a Louis Armstrong version, and a live Sun Ra version off a great compilation of various Sun Ra Disney covers that I got a few years ago.
This is my first week back at work, so the repetition is relevant and helpful. And given how many recently unemployed friends I have, I really should whistle while I work. Although I am a terrible whistler.
Of course if I worked too hard, I would need to heed Brand Nubian, with their bizarre Edie Brickell & New Bohemians sample, and "Slow Down". Completing the work theme, I have Paul Weller's great and short version of "Handbags & Gladrags"--the most popular rendition is by Rod Stewart. The tie to work is that this unreleased version was the theme music for the British version of the tv show "The Office", which I loved. I've heard the American version is very good, too, but the original is so perfect that I have no desire to see another.
More stuff: bizarre opera singing from Bo Diddley on "I Don't Like You", Johnny Cash takes on the old "Sloop John B." with "I Want To Go Home", an awesome remix of Eric B & Rakim's "The Ghetto" by Omega One and The Who's anthemic "Baba O Riley".
Not in English: A great Spanish version of Kool & The Gang's "Celebration", called "Celebramos". The original is so overplayed that perhaps listening to it in another language freshens the perspective on what a killer groove it is. And made for espanol!
Long before it became a wedding song cliche, when it was still a current hit, I wrote a play based on The Revolutionary War for my 5th grade class, where a boombox playing the original of this song was cued to the end, when Cornwallis surrenders. Then the entire cast was instructed to dance. Such happy little Americans we were.
Staying with Romance languages: Marlene Dietrich's French version of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone": "Ou Vont Les Fleurs". This is followed by M. Ward's stirring "Chinese Translation."
Roscoe Holcomb was a man, which makes his keening "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" that much more mysterious to me. It was on the soundtrack to the 1970 Antonioni film Zabriskie Point, which had other music written specifically for the film by then-young bands Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead.
Little Milton's great Stax heartbreak ballad, "Packed Up And Took My Mind" (what kind of woman would be cold enough to take her lover's mind when she leaves him?) is sampled to great effect on the gruesome and engrossing story by Ghostface Killah on "Walk Around".
Finally, I have Jimi Hendrix's version of "Born Under A Bad Sign" and Bjork's "Hidden Place". As well as a brilliant mashing of the two by Wax Audio called "Born In A Bad Place" (When Jimi Met Bjork)".
It also adds in some spooky vocals from Jimi's "Third Stone from The Sun" at the very end.
