Biz Markie's "Alone Again" heavily samples Gilbert O'Sullivan's hit "Alone Again (Naturally)", and was a landmark case of copyright infringement which changed the rules for sampling forever. Seemed an appropriate one to feature on this week's mix: future pressings of Biz Markie's album omitted this song and it is very hard to find a digital copy of it. But not as hard as it is to now find yourself on this blog, gentle reader.
Previous mixes featured the original O'Sullivan hit, as well as a cover by Esther Phillips and reggae group The Now Generation. This week's features covers by Gene Ammons, Sarah Vaughan, Bobby Darin and a typically personal and idiosyncratic version by Nina Simone.
The Darin cover is live, filling out a suite of live songs here. First, Bob Dylan's Vegas-like version of "One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)" performed in Budokan, followed by Darin, then a young Neil Young with a stripped-down version of "Tell Me Why", followed by Paul Westerberg's similarly unadorned version of his Replacements single "I Will Dare". The concert continues with a live version of Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" followed by Gladys Knight & The Pips' live cover of The Temptations' "I Wish It Would Rain".
The other song featured this week is the inscrutable but moving "Mohammed's Radio" by Warren Zevon: the album version, a solo piano demo and a cover by Linda Ronstadt.
The rest: the funky "No Diggity" by Blackstreet with Dr. Dre and Queen Pen, Funk Factory's languid "Rien Ne Va Plus", the spacey "ATLiens" by Outkast, Eddie Floyd's wise "Why Is The Wine Sweeter (On The Other Side)", Waylon Jennings' cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee", the romantic vocal version of Philippe Sarde's "La Chanson D'Helene" and George Fromby's chipper "I Told My Baby With The Ukulele".
