The search for Rock N' Roll Standards continues!
The last posting mulled over the works of great Rock N' Roll composers. Yet a definitive answer as to which songs may constitute a Rock N' Roll version of the "Great American Song Book" wasn't quite achieved.
I spoke of a so-called "Garage Test". Here's an explanation:
In the 1960s a popular sub-genre arose in Rock N' Roll now called "Garage Rock". Many garage rockers did put forth their own new material to become hit songs, like Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels hit "Sock It To Me Baby" or the majority of hits by Paul Revere & The Raiders (hits include "Kicks", "Just Like Me", "Good Thing", and "Steppin' Out") or the eventual works of Tommy James & The Shondells (such as "Crimson And Clover", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and "Draggin' The Line"). Yet many other garage rockers, including the ones aforementioned, did indeed have hits by doing covers of other songs.
Thus, the Garage Test is a test of how well cover versions of songs translated between the 1960s Garage Groups and how lasting the legacy of such covers have achieved, or how well such covers propelled the recognition of a song.
I believe that the measure of a song's success isn't in how well it sells under one artist, but by how long it survives generations of cover versions across generation gaps.
Most of the Great American Song Book itself is a collection of songs so great that great performers still cover them today, and they've withstood the test of time and talent. Whether it's sung by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, or Rod Stewart songs written in the 1930s and afterwards can still hold popular mass appeal to this day.
Though the majority of the Great American Song Book can be broken down into chapters by composer that's a very hard task to achieve with Rock N' Roll.
How tough can it be?
One song that has survived since the 1950s into the 21st century is "Real Wild Child (Wild One)". It's a rock song from 1958, and it's not even American! It was partly written and fully recorded by Austrailian rocker Johnny O'Keefe. Jerry Lee Lewis did cover O'Keefe's version in 1958 but it wasn't released until 1974. It was actually a member of Buddy Holly's Crickets, Jerry Ivan Allison using only his middle name "Ivan" that made the first USA Rock N' Roll cover released in 1958.
Ivan's version is the one that's been covered by the likes of Iggy Pop, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and appeared on the soundtrack of the film "Josie & The Pussycats" amongst a flood of other covers springing from the popularity of Iggy Pop's 1986 cover version. Ivan's cover does have lyrics that diverge from the Johnny O'Keefe original, but they start off with nearly identical lyrics before the divergence which caused the song's evolutionary break.
Does "Real Wild Child" deserve to be a Rock N' Roll Standard?
I believe it does. The song has already been hailed as the song that initiated Austrailian Rock N' Roll, which eventually brought us AC/DC, Spiderbait, Jet, Olivia Newton-John, and all rockers from down under. Yet more importantly the song encapsulates the wild and free spirit of young Rock N' Roll rebellion.
And then there's Motown.
Now, Motown can be problematic. In Part 3 I'll go into "Anthems VS Standards", but here's a quick Motown example. "My Girl" by the Temptations is a much treasured song, one surely to be considered one of the greatest rock love songs of all time, but it's not a song that's widely covered. Why? Because the original recording by the Temptations is so iconic, so visceral, that to cover it may seem like musical butchery.
Yet Motown is one of the greatest sources for "Garage Tested" songs. "Money" by Barrett Strong was Motown's first hit. It was then covered by the Kingsmen, the Beatles, the Sonics, and became a garage rock standard even having a modern rendition recorded on the "Josie & The Pussycats" soundtrack. I believe the cover by the Kingsmen was the best I've heard thus far.
Another Motown tune that's been covered even more so, and more fluently, is the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles tune "The Tracks Of My Tears". Seriously, while going through my massive CD collection I've found cover versions including Johnny Rivers (1967 cover), Linda Rondstadt (1976 cover), Peter Andre (1997 cover), Michael McDonald (2005 cover), Rod Stewart (recent cover off his album "Soulbook" from 2009), and I think that's all the covers I've already got of the song. The amazing thing about "Tracks Of My Tears" is that almost every cover has been a hit just like the original.
Motown had yet another song that became a garage rock favorite, and that was the Contours hit "Do You Love Me?". Whether it's covered by the Tremeloes, The Sonics, The Kingsmen, and even The Blues Brothers it still rocks.
Based on the Garage Test songs like "Louie, Louie", "Wild Thing", "Gimme Some Lovin'", "Land Of 1,000 Dances", "Shout", and "Mustang Sally" would make the cut as Rock N' Roll Standards.
Yet some of those songs may qualify as Anthems instead of being Standards, and that means onto Part III!
Sincerely,
Bob
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