dEFROG ON 45 # 33: IT USED TO BE SO GOOD

If you’ve been following this series long enough, you know that much of my 45 collection was amassed during the 1970s at a time when my musical tastes were more Top 40 than college radio.

And since I’ve already fessed up to owning disco records (and believe me, we’ve only scratched the surface here), by now yr probably thinking, “We’re 32 entries into this series – sooner or later he’s going to be rolling out the ABBA records.”

Later is now.

Well, why not? ABBA have sold 375 million albums (and counting) for a reason, and it’s not just because of Muriel’s Wedding and that bloody musical.

Granted, I didn’t get into them much beyond a few late-70s 45s (and the Voulez-Vous album), and I don’t listen to them much nowadays.

Still, this is the first 45 of theirs I heard (and bought), and it’s still got one of the greatest choruses in pop music.

PRODUCTION NOTE: I have some more ABBA 45s, but maybe we can just take those as read and move on.

How can I carry on,

This is dF

BAD COVER VERSION 050: IT’S ONLY FAIR THAT I SHOULD LET YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

One reason I started this series was to explore the idea that it’s not often that cover songs become the default standard over the original, and it’s rarer still that the cover becomes so huge that many people are unaware that it’s actually a cover song at all.

Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”, for example (originally by Gloria Jones).

Or Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” (originally a Bob Dylan song).

Or Harry Nilsson’s “Without You”. Which was actually originally written and recorded by Badfinger.

Which must be a double-edged sword for Badfinger. On the one hand, their song has been covered by over 180 artists, which means a hell of a lot of royalties, probably more than they ever would have made on their own steam. On the other hand, most of those artists think they’re covering Nilsson – and indeed most use Nilsson’s version as the starting point.

To include Chicago-based glam pixie Bobby Conn, who gets my vote for the most awesomely frightening version of “Without You” ever.

Admit it. You’ll be sleeping with the light on tonight.

VIEWING TIP: Try to hold on until around the 4:00 mark when the harmonies kick in.

FULL DISCLOSURE: For the record, I like the Badfinger version more than the Nilsson version, which is a little too overwrought for me. But then I’m emotionally available, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?

I can’t live,

This is dF