Thursday 27 June 2013

"Ace of Spades", "The Passenger" and "Venus" - great rockabilly versions of non-rockabilly songs


Who would have thought that "The Passenger" would make such a terrific rockabilly number! I decided to trawl for other examples of the genre genre - and discovered a rich seam of pop gold. I ignored updated rockabilly versions of rockabilly classics and  concentrated on less obvious tunes - and, let's face it, they don't come any less obvious than Motorhead's "Ace of Spades":


Brilliant! There have been several great rockabilly versions of "Tainted Love". As I've featured Imelda May's stunning version before (listen here), I've decided to go with Dave Phillips bouncy take on it instead:


North Carolina's Southern Culture on the Skids' version of Shocking Blue's "Venus" is a real treat:


The Frantic Flinstones do a pretty good job on Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You":


The Big Six's take on T Rex's "20th Century Boy" may be best of in breed:


Carlos and the Bandidos rock out on Peggy Lee's "Fever":


Caramba! As for The Polecats' 1980 version of "John, I'm Only Dancing", it may just be better than David Bowie's original:


I'll end with The Rattlers' 1989 take on The Yardbirds' "For Your Love" - I was thinking about doing a rockabilly version of this, and thought I'd better check on YouTube to see if it had already been done. Here's the answer:


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