Pat Boone sings heavy metal?
William Shatner sings "Mr. Tambourine Man"?
These are extremes, and of course, created for the sheer hell of it.
Novelties.
But when Elton John took a left turn in Philadelphia in 1977 to work with Philly soul legend Thom Bell, I'm sure his idea was to create hits, not an E.P. than sunk faster than the Andrea Doria.
"Doing That Scrapyard Thing" was a Cream track written post-breakup, out of necessity. The band needed material to fill up the second side of a live farewell album. And while Cream covered a lot of unique ground for a power trio rooted in the blues, I think this song represents the best of their experiments. "Scrapyard" is a gem.
There are many obvious examples of artists venturing outside of their comfort zones, but rather than creating what will read as a laundry list---Dylan goes Christian, Bowie sings soul, etc.--can you restrain yourself to just one song, one wonderful, near-perfect selection that represents an artist successfully trying his hand at something new and different?
Go...
16 comments:
First thought that comes to mind is Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band. The perfect example from that (IMO) is 'Pay Me My Money Down'. What a joyous detour he took with that!
Two records come to mind.
1. The Band singing En Vogue's Free Your Mind (still not sure how I feel about that. At first I hated it, but I have mellowed somewhat).
2. Al Kooper and Jeff Baxter's Four on the Floor LP. I had this in the 70s and as I recall it was disco-based rhythms to the Stones and some soul songs. I played this a few times and it kind of got buried in my collection. Not sure what I did with it (maybe I gave it to you Sal, don't remember).
joe
Ian Hunter's Short Back n Sides was a wonderful dive into the New Wave sound that was quite unexpected (at least for me). Lisa Likes Rock n' Roll is probably my favorite on the album, crazy noises and all.
The one that jumps out at me is "I Can't Stop Loving You," from Ray Charles's country record.
Pretty much any Joe Jackson LP.
For me it's probably Neil Young's Trans...Sample & Hold or Computer Cowboy (AKA Syscrusher???) fighting for top-worst idea ever.
Tiny Tim singing "People Are Strange".
https://youtu.be/kzoH88GFqK0
Herb Albert's "This Guy's in Love With You".
Linda Ronstadt's "Canciones de Mi Padre"- the whole album really. Yes she grew up in Tuscon not far from the Mexican border and knew this music and had sung it as a kid, her Dad was part Mexican- but of all her vocal musical adventures away from rock/pop/country (and there have been many), this was the one that was probably the most different to those who didn't know her history and the one that arguably best fit her voice. It's not easy to do these songs or to go in this territory, and it was an artistic and popular success.
Good call on HA, a one-off too, like hearing Teller speak. Herb Alpert also steps out of his comfort zone by starting a record label and later on with his totem sculptures
Big Roxy Music fan in real-time so Ferry’s 1St solo lp came as one strange origin story.This was not source material that made up what the first 2-3 RM albums are.They were from outer space. His material on solo lp was from anyone’s teenage years.have grown to enjoy/love it but at the time...
KISS -- "I Was Made for Lovin' You". Supposedly written when Paul Stanley said "anybody can write a Disco song" -- but still in their set lists to this day because it was a very successful tune. Definitely fits the qualifiers "new and different" for KISS at the time, too, being in-your-face as the opening track on Dynasty.
I immediately thought about "Trans", too, but I don't know if I would call any of those songs "successful".
Joni Mitchell - Twisted
The Elvis Costello venture into country on his album "Almost Blue." It opened the door to country for me. For a single song, I'll pick his cover of Gram Parsons' "I'm Your Toy."
Not sure if this counts but "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by YES was a complete surprise to me when this came out. And it gave the band a 2nd life in the 80s
Bobby Darin "If I Were a Carpenter"
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