On March 26th, Cleopatra Records will release a tribute to Badfinger titled, "No Matter What: Revisiting The Hits." It will feature covers of Badfinger classics by Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge, Carl Giammarese of The Buckinghams, Matthew Sweet, Albert Lee, Rick Wakeman and Ian Anderson with Terry Reid.
Oh, and my boy Todd Rundgren.
No, seriously.
This is a real thing. The only ones missing are Dom Deluise and Mel Tillis and it would be "The Cannonball Run."
Take a look at the full line-up.
Individually, I'd be interested in hearing all of these. But as a whole, it seems even more random than most tributes, like Cleopatra told some intern to cold call artists and sign up the first ten who said yes.
That being said, I pre-ordered my copy because that's what fans do. Just keep your fingers crossed for me. A straight reading of "Without You" by Todd Rundgren could be a wonderful thing. But instinct tells me it will either be a swinging, lounge act arrangement or rapped over 140BPM.
You can pre-order yours here, if you dare.
(h/t hpunch)
14 comments:
is this the masked marauders of tributes Jethro Tull & Terry Reid???. But seriously it's got some weird people for a Badfinger tribute ie Sonny Landreth and Albert Lee and the aforementioned J. Tull and Co. Just curious
Hey Sal, I read this on the VNN Music website: "and now Rock Hall Of Fame nominee and producer/songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire Todd Rundgren offers a passionate rendering of the song that is by itself worth the price of admission to this great collection."
Maybe Todd's rendition is being released ahead of the record as a tease. joe
Thanks Joe. That's promising.
Now I want to watch Cannonball Run :)
paulinca
Hmmmm...
Ordered, but with some trepidation. As soundsource mentioned, Sonny Landreth and Albert Lee? How bizarre is that on a Badfinger tribute?
Joe's note about the Todd song is promising/exciting - and the fact it closes the album might indicate it's a more "traditional Todd" take.
Sal, I'm guessing you're familiar with the 1996 powerpop Badfinger tribute comp, Come And Get It with Adrian Belew, Cotton Mather, Dwight Twilley and many other PP greats. This will have to go some to top that one.
Thanks for the heads up!
Randy
Will Rick Wakeman be wearing his cape?
Ha ha ha Rick Springfield and Jethro F'in Tull on the same comp...
COUNT ME IN!
Seriously, life is too short, man. I'm in.
Are Rick and Jethro still alive? I digress, devilishly...
I've heard the Rick Springfield track...it was stinko...
Joe Molland put out a new record a few months ago...it's damn good...I recommend it if it can be found...
Steven,
What's "stinko" about Rick Springfield's cover? It's a faithful rendition, sung well. Nice Harrison-esque slide solo. Pretty good, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmgC-DtDXts
LOVE that Rick Springfield track. It's such a great song, shame it wasn't a bigger hit.
The Rick Springfield was very faithful. The best post Pete Ham Badfinger tune.
I enjoyed the Sonny Landreth as well. So much so that I pre-ordered as well.
I'm hoping that the report of Todd's version of Without You is accurate. If he stays in his range he should be able to nail it and bring his usual emotion which is what the song requires. So far the cuts that have been released on Apple sound good and if the rest of the songs hold up it should be a worthy endeavor, even with the odd lineup.
Sal, just my opinion...my personal preference when it comes to covers is the artist putting at least some of their own musical personality on the song...the track in question is as you describe it, faithful to the original, but with wimpy guitars, and a croaked out lead vocal by Rick Springfield...as I said, one is much better off seeking out and getting the Molland record...
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