RFI: "Original Artist" oldies re-recordings

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You know the type: Granny or somebody's got a cheapo sampler disc (or, more likely, cassette) with hits of the 50s on it, proclaiming it features "original artists." Then you pop it in, only to hear egregious contemporary re-recordings, like the time I swear I heard the Olympics' "Western Movies" complete with Linn drum!

Sometimes they're okay, though. Chuck Berry and Little Richard, for example, both seem to have re-recorded lively versions of their hits in the 60s that are interesting, if only from an "alternative version" perspective.

So, which re-recordings are howlingly inappropriate? Which ones are worth hearing? What cheesy samplers are they to be found on?

― briania, Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Jerry Lee Lewis & Friends - Duets
released in the late 70s on Sun International, it's old 50s masters of the Killer with new "duet" overdubs that are supposed to sound just like Elvis, who had just died. Several of them are actually original recordings by longtime Sun-ster Charlie Rich (who could sound a lot like Elvis) but the rest are by Jimmy Ellis, aka Orion, the Masked Elvis Impersonator who began his bizarre career just before EP bought the big one.
Best track is "It Wouldn't Happen With Me" where Orion tries to sound like he's answering JLL's verses.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

this yellow cover record is availabe at Garage Sales everywhere!
http://www.sunrecords.com/images/scans/7028.jpg

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Exactly the kind of info I'm lookin' for, Horace! The Killer's catalog has probably been subjected to as many of these indignities as anyone's. I suppose even his new recordings for the "Great Balls of Fire" soundtrack would qualify. Anybody rate those very highly?

― briania, Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I think its probably because the 50s recordings sound terrible (too much echo on the voice, piano down too low etc), but all the re-recordings make an even bigger hash of it.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 19 September 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

nine years pass...

Glad there was a thread on this, because now I can link this story to it:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/05/re_recordings_runaway_and_other_classic_songs_redone_in_the_studio_can_we.html

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 May 2013 15:37 (thirteen years ago)

yeah Spotify makes it difficult to find the original versions of oldies.. they're sometimes hidden at the bottom of a long list of re-recordings.

― billstevejim, Friday, 10 May 2013 16:30 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

Ha, came to post "Spotify to thread."

― Dedekind Cut Creator (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 August 2014 17:00 (eleven years ago)

My mother has a cheap Righteous Brother comp CD on Curb Records that mostly has the original versions of the hits, but "Just Once in my Life" (my fave song of theirs) sounds like some bizarre rerecording with cheezy '80s production with synth drums and Casiotone keyboards. Just awful.

― and in his absence, she (Lee626), Monday, 18 August 2014 04:24 (eleven years ago)

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