Apr 26 2009
Your Musical WTF Moment for a Sunday Afternoon
Max Raabe performs “Tainted Love” as if the Weimar Republic somehow made it to 1981. Which, you know, wouldn’t have been a bad thing, considering what the alternative was.
Mind the abrupt ending.
Ganked from here. Frankly, I’m too scared to click through and listen to their version of “Oops, I Did It Again.” On that path lies madness. Just ask Britney.
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You should listen to Oops I Did it Again. Thanks for the link! So much fun.
No, not Weimar, it’s more like what Soft Cell did was to unearth a long, lost Cole Porter song (like the glorious collection “Red Hot+Blue”, some of which just re-enact the old stuff, some adopt to modern, almost all of it astounding).
I love “Red Hot + Blue.”
Max Raabe und das Palast Orchester are fantastic, both their large body of “straight” music and their reinterpretations of modern pop songs.
It’s like he coerces me into listening. Best cover of the song ever. The way he sings the line “Touch me baby” has to become the subject of a study. Maybe it already is.
Like! Almost as good as The Living End version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxOpxeIJHBY.
And you can’t neglect his cover of “Mambo #5″!
His music has become a weird staple of the local burlesque scene, so I’ve heard a lot of his covers. Very compelling in a strange, retro, out of step fashion.
Also of note is his rendition of ‘Mambo #5′. It’s just as much fun as ‘Tainted Love’, but, well, upbeat.
The rendition of ‘Oops, I Did It Again’ doesn’t work even half as well as those two.
Britney might have fits at that version of “Oops!…” but the all-time best version is, of course, Richard Thompson’s — and the somewhat different version from One Thousand Years of Popular Music is even better (just not online).
I’m hereby deleting the Queen cover of “We will rock you” from my brain, since this is clearly the ur-text. Or whatever.
‘81? ‘Tainted Love’ is from the 60s..
That is… fantastic.
Clicking through brings more fantastic-isms. Barring Oops, which doesn’t work nearly as well.
This is a second strong vote for Richard Thompson’s cover of “Oops!” If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen. His version converted me into a fan.
That’s genius.
I agree. Richard Thompson’s cover of “Oops, I Did It Again” is pretty awesome. Darker than the Britney interpretation, certainly.
What’s kind of scary is that his “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt” (in 1000 Years of Popular Music) sounds surprisingly authentic to its putative (based the title) time period. It settles quite nicely in to a compound duple meter.
Although, the ending of “Oops, I Did it Again” is very special indeed. Oh, the specialness.
And then there’s this bluegrass version of "All Along the Watchtower" that, surprisingly enough, works nearly as well as Mr. Hendrix’s… and quite a bit better than either Dylan’s or Bear McCrary’s.
I think Richard Thompson’s version may have been inspired by the rockin’ Dweezil Zappa version of Hit Me Baby that you find on one of the La Musique de Paris Derniere collections of demented covers.
Thompson’s version is definitive, I agree.
His takes on “Tempted” and “Friday on My Mind” are also pretty great, but I think I might like his version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “There Is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast” best of everything on that album.
On the soundtrack to the film “Easy Virtue” (based on Noel Coward’s play) you can hear 20s salon orchestra versions of Car Wash, Sex Bomb, …
Sorry for the third post, but i couldn’t resist adding my favourite strange cover, Frank Bennett’s lounge version of Radiohead’s Creep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JiMJUNWwg
That was most awesome. I think that has become my favorite version of that song.
I never knew that Kurt Weill wrote Tainted Love.
I like this! And my husband says he has more Max Raabe. I knew I married him for a good reason. I also love Red, Hot & Blue. And I was over at a friend’s house yesterday and he was showing us some fun bits from Fallout 3 which uses a variety of older music like “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” by the Inkspots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glqNk7S0DE4
I love Max Raabe actually. Thanks for the reminder. :)
Run, do not walk to listen to his Oops, I did it again. It is an awesome version.
This gave me the strange urge to do a search on “Tainted Love” on emusic. They came up with 82 matches in song title. Going through the first couple of versions gives me an idea for a theme album.
Umm, so much good music, and this is what the world endures. (from a lover of cheesy music, a la Styx) feeling somewhat queasy.
I *love* Max Raabe and Palast Orchester. I’ve been trying to get both their Superhits albums (where they cover lots of other pop songs in the same way), but have been thwarted so far. Their version of “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” is also pretty great.
Jason @29: The albums seem to be easy to obtain e.g. Amazon, eMusic etc
Oh, the “Oops I Did It Again” is simply classic. Infinitely better than the pop-ish-version!!!
Love it! Cole Porter-y.
No
The man is a genius. Available on iTunes.
At some point, I am going to have to use this song in a swing dance competition, that’s all there is to it.
Holy crap. How have I never encountered this before?
John: I know it looks like a Link of Madness. But you should click on the “Oops! I did it again” link anyway. That way lies hilarity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mjonrqYtyY
I decided to go there and listened to the Britney cover and I haven’t laughed that hard in weeks. I am not sure what that says about me geek-wise though. Nothing good I am sure!
I don’t know if you have heard it but there is a song that is using the music from the Cure’s Close To Me – it is horrid and I refuse to link to it or even find a link… BAD BAD BAD