In football there's a truism that when you throw the ball, only three things can happen, and two of them are bad. It may be a bit of a stretch, but when covering a song, it seems to me there are three potential outcomes, two of them bad. A good cover should somehow transcend the original. If it merely mimics, or fates forbid falls short of the original, well then, why bother? A good cover can take an already wonderful original and ramp it up to another dimension. One song in particular comes to mind when I think of soul.

When I was 10 years old I got an AM clock radio for my birthday. I finally had my own device with which I could listen to music. I no longer had to sneak my sister's Beatle's albums out of her room; under the knowledge of certain death if I was discovered (I still did borrow her albums, just less often). The radio was constantly tuned to WFIL 560 for all the hits of the day. I took a lot of ribbing from my friends who were all getting in to FM radio - WMMR in particular - and the rebellious and the weird and the hip. While I was listening to bubble-gum pop and main-line soul they were getting into Bowie and Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane. I eventually branched out, but for a couple of years I was content with my AM station.

One of my favorite groups at the time was the Stylistics. Russell Tompkins Jr.'s falsetto was so clean and pure and high - it was to my ears the voice of perfection. As a pre-adolescent I could hit those notes too, and I sang along with all my heart. The romance and passion that the Stylistics promised was very appealing; much more so than revolution or acid trips or space travel. I may have been on the early edge of puberty, but girls were compelling and mysterious things, and I knew instinctively that songs about love would lure them to me better than songs about anything else.

The simple message of the Stylistics was "I love you, baby. I always will." Simple and straightforward; easy for a boy to digest and understand.

35 years later I was at the iTunes store, buying random stuff, and I found a cover of Betcha By Golly Wow by Mr. Symbol With No Known Pronunciation, also known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (TAFKAP - one of my favorite deflations of a pumped up ego ever). The song had been released almost 15 years earlier (yes, I am very often late to parties).

If you have the misfortune never to have heard this rendition of "Betcha By Golly, Wow" stop reading this now and go get it. I'll wait...Click here to look and listen

Did you listen? I hope you cranked it up really loud - loud enough to rattle the windows. I still love the original: the gentle, almost minimalist instrumentation; the straightforward vocal harmonies; the subtle horns, and of course the gorgeous oboe solo. And Mr. Tompkins nails down the lead vocal impeccably. It is truly a beautiful song.

But Mr. Unpronounceable just cranks it up, pushes it to the edge and then over the edge - but it doesn't do a free-fall into an over-produced abyss. No. It soars. The backing vocals consist of nearly impenetrably complex (to these humble ears) harmonies. Even the corny spoken word interlude works.

It is a rare vocalist who can get away with such a conceit. Elvis did it in "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and Mr. Unpronounceable pulls it off here. Where the original cruises along pleasantly to its unremarkable conclusion, in contrast, Mr. U's vocals build to a frenzied crescendo until spent, he ends with a half whispered "I love you, baby" which is what it's really all about.

I'm sure there are those who would disparage the thing as over worked, over wrought, over produced and fit only to inflate TAFKAP's puffed up sense of himself. Fortunately, when it comes to music, we can make our own decisions about that which we enjoy. The ex (at the time) Prince took a lovely little song and made it operatic in its scope. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Editor's Note:
Bryant Belknap and I attended high school together. I've always admired his wit, cadence and sense of prose. By writing this article he introduced me to an unbeknownst cover version of this timeless classic! He recently posted a blog entry about his first experience at an opera which prompted me to invite him as a guest for this column.

If you would like be a guest blogger contact me via this website.

Thanks!

Carter Burnette
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