Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates

The Bird and The Bee has raised the bar of 80's concept tribute albums. That's right, they went and made that Hall & Oates tribute album that you've been talking about doing for the past 10 years. I know you had the idea first, but it's no use crying about it now. You couldn't get it done and they could so please just enjoy it -- 8 Hall & Oates cover songs and 1 original song, Heard it On the Radio.

We'll start with perhaps the best known, if not the best loved, Hall & Oates song, Maneater. Shirley Manson of Garbage provides backing vocals.
The Bird & The Bee - Maneater by k7fm

The original, for comparison:
Daryl Hall & John Oates - The Very Best Of Daryl Hall & John Oates - 11 - Maneater by megatronskunkfartbong

A faithful reproduction that doesn't stray too far from the original's soft-pop source material. Certainly better than you could have done. Suck it up.

Hall & Oates' She's Gone strays so far from their typical soft-pop formula into R&B territory that it's almost difficult to hear them on this track:

Daryl Hall and John Oates - She's Gone by musicfromthebook

The Bird and The Bee's take is decidedly less R&B and more electronic-lounge -- closer to the sound that they themselves are known for.

The Bird And The Bee - She's Gone by user8770901

Interestingly, they cut the original's 5:17 length down by almost half to 2:55. An improvement, in my book.

I'll leave you with a live performance of my personal favorite, Sarah Smile. I loved the original song when I was growing up and they do a great job with it here. This version is recorded in what looks like a coffee shop performance and is just Inara on vocals and Greg on keyboards.

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