Strange Bedfellows: Cover Versions Quiz

Answer: The Man Who Knew Too Much

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" is actually a remake of Hitchcock's own 1934 film. The song plays a pivotal part in the story as Doris Day plays a mother whose son has been kidnapped and she sings the song in the building where her son is being kept in order to communicate with him. He whistles the tune back and is found.

"Fresh" is Sly and the Family Stone's sixth album, and the song is sung by Rose Stone. It is notably the only cover version the band did on a studio album.

Answer: Lord Sitar

Lord Sitar was actually Big Jim Sullivan, a prolific session musician who performed on over a thousand (UK) charting singles. He toured with Tom Jones in the early 70s, then set up a record label, produced records and also worked on TV commercials and jingles. He also gave lessons to Deep Purple/Rainbow's Ritchie Blackmore, amongst others.

As Lord Sitar he released an album which also included versions of The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" and "Eleanor Rigby", The Monkees' "Daydream Believer", and "If I Were A Rich Man" from the film "Fiddler On The Roof". It's all a lot of fun, but I reckon The Who cover works best.

Answer: Deep Purple

It was on Strasser's "Tanzhits '71" which also includes Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". Strasser has had a stab at many a rock classic, including Alice Cooper's "School's Out", Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" and Santana's "Jingo".

His albums are fairly easy to come across, but for an overview of late '60s/early '70s German groovy, jazzy silliness, get one of the wunderbar "The In-Kraut" compilations.

Answer: We'll Meet Again

According to my nan, England won the war single-handedly and mostly thanks to this song. Luckily she doesn't teach history. There was also a film of the same name that had Vera Lynn, who made the song famous, playing the lead.

The Johnny Cash album was one of six much-lauded albums for the American label run by Rick Rubin. It showed his brilliant versatility, and ear for a good tune, on covers of bands as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Simon and Garfunkel and Roberta Flack. What I love about his version is his accentuated "h" of "where" and "when".

"Lili Marleen" sung by Lale Anderson was hugely popular amongst troops of both the allied forces and the axis and was based on a German World War I poem.

Answer: Status Quo

Laibach are renowned pranksters and this tongue-in-cheek album is all about war. It also features covers of Europe's "The Final Countdown" and Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Indian Reservation", Pink Floyd's "Dogs Of War" and Edwin Starr's "War".

In 1988 they released a cover of (almost) the whole Beatles album "Let It Be", followed by an album of seven different versions of The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil", plus one original track called, you guessed it, "Sympathy For The Devil".

Status Quo released the album "In The Army Now" in 1986, although the title track wasn't an original and was written and performed by Dutch duo Bolland.

Answer: The Shangri-Las

The song was "Leader of the Pack" which The Shangri-Las released in 1964. It's a story song about a girl, Betty, who's going out with a ne'er-do-well called Jimmy, who is the leader of a motorcycle gang (the pack). Her parents are against the relationship and make her break up with Jimmy, who speeds off, crashes and dies.

"Leader Of The Pack" was originally recorded for Twisted Sister's "Ruff Cuts" EP in 1982 that had a UK only release (and incidentally was one of the first records I ever bought), probably as the band were initially much bigger there than in the USA.

"Come Out and Play" was Twisted Sister's fourth album, and came with a snazzy cover with a manhole that opened up to reveal bandleader Dee Snider coming out of the sewers. The title track was a reference to the 1979 film "Warriors".

Answer: Alice Cooper

"Sun Arise" was on Alice Cooper's third album, "Love It to Death" (1971). It was a slight change in direction from the first two more psychedelic outings, and although remnants of that style can be found here too, it's much more focused and mainstream.

Rolf Harris moved to England to study art and quickly got involved in TV, where he used to his drawing skills to draw cartoons. He got involved in music, mostly doing novelty records such as "Tie Me Kangaroo Down", and worked with "the fifth Beatle", George Martin. "Sun Rise" wasn't a comedy record and is basically an imitation of Aboriginal music

Answer: M*A*S*H

The lyrics to "Song from M*A*S*H (Suicide is Painless)" were written by the film director's son, Mike Altman, and the track was used on both the film and TV series.

The Manic Street Preachers version was a charity split-single with The Fatima Mansions in the UK, but released as the band's single elsewhere.

Manic Street Preachers formed in Blackwood, Wales in 1986. Original guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards disappeared in 1995 and has since been presumed deceased, although many hardcore fans don't believe it, and there have been sightings of him along the lines of Elvis and Buddy Holly.

Their early lyrics deal with angst-ridden topics associated with suicide, and Edwards admitted he was prone to depression.

Answer: I'm A Believer

Robert Wyatt came from the so-called Canterbury scene and made his name in Soft Machine. When he went solo he decided to lighten things up a bit with some cover versions as singles, the first one being the Monkees tune.

It was a "hit" in the UK (well, 29 in the charts for a left-field artist like Wyatt is a hit) and he was asked to perform on Top Of The Pops. However, the producers, in pre-politically-correct 1974, decided that a man in a wheelchair (Wyatt is paralysed from the waist down) was "unsuitable for family viewing". Wyatt refused and was shown in a wheelchair. He was even cheeky enough to rock exaggeratedly to draw people's attention to the fact.

The Monkees hit the number 1 spot in USA in 1966 with the song. Neil Diamond had already recorded the song, but it is The Monkees version that everybody knows and loves.

Answer: T Rex

The 12 inch version had a version of John Cale's "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores".
"Telegram Sam" was the band's fourth single, all of which were released before their debut album "In The Flat Field". The first single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (1979) is widely credited with spawning the goth rock movement, and it certainly typifies the dark, macabre sound.

The band split up in 1983 and members went on to various projects, one of which saw vocalist Pete Murphy team up with ex-Japan bassist Mick Karn in the dreadful Dali's Car. Bauhaus got back together briefly in 1998, then again in 2005 but it had all fallen apart again by 2008.

T Rex had a number one hit in the UK with "Telegram Sam" in 1972 and it also featured on the album "Slider".

Answer: Jessi Colter

"I'm Not Lisa" is seemingly about a man who has such difficulty getting over his previous lover that he keeps mistaking his present partner for her, especially by name.

Killdozer put it on "Burl" in 1986. Killdozer ranked up an incredible repertoire of cover songs, all of them very original in their choice. They demolished Janet Jackson's "Nasty", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through The Jungle" and Neil Diamond's "I Am...I Said" amongst others in their distinguished career. They released "For Ladies Only" in 1990 which was an album of covers.

Answer: Go Girl Crazy!

The Dictators formed in New York in 1973, but the debut album didn't come out until 1975. Although it wasn't a runaway success, it was certainly seminal, and the New York punk scene that blossomed soon afterwards was certainly indebted to The Dictators.

The album "Go Girl Crazy!" shows Handsome Dick Manitoba, who at the time wasn't credited as the lead vocalist but as "secret weapon", in a dressing room dressed in a wrestler's leotard, sunglasses and a beaming smile. The packaging doesn't lie, and what you get is a bundle of laughs carried along by cheeky rock n roll.

"I Got You Babe" was a huge hit for Sonny and Cher both sides of the pond in 1965, and iconic of the hippie movement, which is no doubt why The Dictators chose it to mock.

Answer: Phoenix

The album was the band's third album. The Bad Seeds were a kind of alternative music supergroup; Nick Cave and Mick Harvey coming from The Birthday Party, Blixa Bargeld from Einstürzende Neubauten, and Magazine's Barry Adamson. The album also features covers of John Lee Hooker's "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman", Johnny Cash's "The Singer", Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" and Roy Orbison's "Running Scared". Despite the arrangements differently greatly at times, they are subtly reverent.

The song was written by prolific songwriter Jimmy Webb, and tells the tale of a man who has left his partner and is imagining what his ex will be doing as he reaches various US cities. "By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising". It wasn't recorded by Campbell first, but he made it popular in 1967 and titled an album after it.

Answer: ZZ Top in "Deguelo"

"Deguello" was the first ZZ Top studio album to include cover versions, although they had a couple in their live set that were released on "Fandango". "Deguelo" was released after the band had taken a well-earned break from touring and was a turning point, hinting at the slicker sound that was to come and flashier arrangements. They also covered "Dust My Broom" by Robert Johnson on the album, showing they hadn't lost their blues roots.

"I Thank You" was penned by Isaac Hayes and David Porter for the Stax label and was Sam And Dave's last release for the label.

Answer: Sister Sledge

"The Infotainment Scan" is The Fall's only top ten UK album (as of 2011), and generally highly-rated amongst Fall fans new and old. It's a pretty accessible album, but doesn't shy away from Fall trademark cynicism and mockery, most blatantly on "Glam Racket" which was interpreted by some as an attack on trendy band of the time Suede, despite Fall main man Mark E. Smith's denying it.

The Sister Sledge cover has also been read as "culture critique" (New York Times), of the hedonistic UK rave dance scene to be precise. Whether that's true or not is for Mark E. Smith to know and us to decide for ourselves. I, like many a Fall fan, am just childishly amused by his dodgy French interludes and half sung lyrics.