Welcome to another round of Battle of the Bands!

Ben E. King recorded, I (Who Have Nothing) originally in 1963 which was new to me. Thanks to Mr. Shady from Shady’s Place Music & Memories the blind of ignorance is now lifted.

According to Wikipedia, I Who Have Nothing is an English language cover of the Italian song “Uno Dei Tanti” (English: “One of Many”) recorded by singer & actor, Joe Sentieri. In the U.S. King’s version reached #29 on Billboard Hot 100 chart and #16 on the Hot R&B Charts. Many artists have recorded the song but the most popular in the U.S. has been Tom Jones, the cover I remember, Billboard Hot 100 (#14) and the Easy Listening chart (#2).

Today I’m featuring two well-known, talented artists. It’s gonna be a battle between a gal and a guy. Who will win? Only you can decide. Listen and cast your vote in comments.

Contender #1 Shirley Bassey released her cover in 1963 hitting the UK charts #6. Shirley purrforms the song at nearly all of her concerts and is frequently found on her compilation albums.

Contender #2 Joe Cocker included his cover on his 2004 Heart & Soul album.

Who gets your vote, Shirley or Joe?

[tweetthis]I just voted in the ‘I (Who Have Nothing)’ #BoTB showdown & you’re invited to play along. #coverbands[/tweetthis]

You’ll find more awesome battles underway at some of these blog listed below (not everyone is doing the bi-monthly showdowns now) and if you’d like to be included in the fun, then contact Stephen requesting to be added to the list.

✩ai loves music✩ (Amy), Angels Bark (Michele), Cherdo on the Flipside, The Doglady’s Den (Debbie), Jingle Jangle Jungle (Mary), Mike’s Ramblings , STMcC Presents BoTB (Stephen, BoTB Manager), The Sound of One Hand Typing (John), & Tossing It Out (Lee)

Polls close noon (EST) on the October 7th!

I will share the results of this battle in my Oct. 15th BoTB, so mark your calendar to see if Shirley or Joe wins in the ‘I (Who Have Nothing)’ BoTB showdown and be ready to cast a new vote!

My friend and fellow BoTBer, Mary from Jingle Jangle Jungle, is hosting her second annual Rocktober Mewsic Fest and I decided to give it another go this year. I hope you’ll join the party!

This time I’m going to use rock mewsic from the 70s, starting today with Aerosmith. Up until now, I had no clue how old today’s featured song. Dream On released June 1973 written and purrformed by Steve Tyler. It became the bands first major hit. I wasn’t even 12 years old at the time.

Wikipedia says Aerosmith is the best-selling American hard rock band of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide, including over 70 million records in the United States alone. It wasn’t until the past 10 or so years that I rediscovered my rock roots with some of the best classic 70s band with Aerosmith still at the top of my favorites list. What surprised me about the band is despite the popularity of their mewsic, they only had one #1 hit, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing from the 1998 movie, Armaggedon.