Battle of the Bands

#BoTB Round 16 The Lion Sleeps Tonight Vs Shop Around cover songs showdown

December 1, 2019 /

I know what you’re thinking, Cathy’s messing with my head again. You came by this morning expecting to hit the dance floor (4M link-up at bottom of post) with me but instead, you found yourself boogieing into a battle, a Battle of the Bands that is but before I kick off a new showdown, let me pass the results of my previous battle between the duet teams of Eddie & Mavis verses Steve Tyler & the Loving Mary Band. 

Here are the ballot readings Peter, Lee, Birgit, Stephen, John, and Amy voted for Mavis & Eddie. Tom, Debbie, Sandee, Janet, Ellen, Eugenia, and Mimi voted for Steve Tyler & the Loving Mary Band. Making the tally 6 to 7!  That is What It Takes for Steven Tyler & the Loving Mary Band barely take the win in this BoTB!

December is my birth month, so I thought I’d use two popular songs from the year I was born, 1961 by two cover artists, then ask you to vote on your favorite cover artist.

 The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens is my first pick.  I’m sure some of y’all know that even this version is a cover but popularized by the 60s group.  The original dates back to 1939 by the title, Mbuba (Zulu for ‘lion’) by Solomon Linda’s Original Evening Birds. Here is They Might Be Giants singing their version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

The Miracles featuring Smokey Robinson released Shop Around the year I was born but it was Captain & Tennille’s 1976 cover I grew up boogieing to. I listened to a number of covers but it’s the funky soulful vibe by Flavor that I enjoyed the best from this list of 25+covers.  Listen to their 1968 rendition of Shop Around!

 

Which cover artist gets your vote, They Might Be Giants or Flavor?

Remember there is no such thing as a wrong vote, except a no vote. You don’t need to know the artist or song if you have an opinion and I’m sure that you do then freely offer it up in comments. 😉

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 Dec. 7th!

 

I’ll share the results of this battle in my mid-month showdown, so mark your calendar! 😉


After composing this post, I came up with the idea of having a Christmas Mewsic Marathon for the month of December where I’d keep things simple sharing one song.  To kick off the holiday fun in song here’s my first choice Winter Snow Song (lyrics) by Audrey Assad with Chris Tomlin!

 

One more thing before I close, I promise! All month, I will do my best to bring to you each day something cool and interesting, even free.  With it being the first of the month I wanted to share this fun idea with you straight off, especially if you have young kids.

Would you like to send your child a letter from Santa?  Well, it’s easy. You can download Santa’s letterhead*, write your own letter exactly the way you want it, and even get a North Pole postmark on the envelope with these instructions* (*broken links removed).  Isn’t that neat?  

 

Please join me tomorrow on the dance floor with your favorite Christmas music on Monday’s Mewsic Moves Me!

Have a joyfully blessed day! X💋X💋, Cathy

29 Comments

  • Cherdo

    December 3, 2019 at 8:31 pm

    Hey, Cathy dear – love the changes on your page. NICE!

    As for my blog responsibilities, I thought this was going to be a big ole’ challenge – I love “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” but I’m less fond of this particular version. Sooooo….

    “SHOP AROUND”, you get it! After all, that is the perfect song for the month of December. We’re all shopping around, except for the Type A, go-getters, who were done before Thanksgiving.

    [Your ole’ pal, Cherdo, won Best in Show at the Ft City Art Guild Holiday Show, if you are in the neighborhood – it’s on display till January.]

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 11, 2019 at 11:02 pm

      Cherdo,

      Sorry for being so late to respond. First off, congrats on placing in the holiday art show. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to check it out before the display is taken down. Thanks for letting me know. Also, thanks for voting for FLAVOR, girlfriend! Have a happy Christmas season!

  • Kim @ Storms and Stardust

    December 1, 2019 at 7:55 pm

    These are both great covers, but I think I prefer They Might Be Giants. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a band that is more of my generation (though I’m not all that familiar with them), but I do appreciate their white boy funk even if they changed quite a bit of the song.

    Kim

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 1, 2019 at 10:07 pm

      Kim, score another for THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. I’m not sure which I like the best but Flavor was clobbering TMBG so I’ve been cheering them on secretly. 😁

  • Mary B

    December 1, 2019 at 4:17 pm

    Hi Cathy!

    I really wanted to like The Lion, but had a hard time getting into the groove with They Might Be Giants. However, Flavor got me up and moving… So by default, Flavor gets my vote.

    I’ve got a battle going on this time around. Reindeer Gamed Edition Stop by with a vote 🙂

    ~Mary

  • John Holton

    December 1, 2019 at 1:09 pm

    Usually They Might Be Giants would take it, but I didn’t like their approach to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a song that desperately needed a sendup like this. I’ll go with Flavor on this.

  • Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden)

    December 1, 2019 at 12:51 pm

    Here’s my two (or three) cents. They Might Be Giants by a mile. To use a cliche, they made that song their own. The first few seconds made me hold my ears but I stuck with it knowing it was They Might be Giants at work, and did they ever deliver. Not just a cover, but a… don’t know what, but it was good. Shop Around was pleasant, but did not begin to compare. Enjoy your week. Sleeting on and off here where I live, and the snow isn’t far away.

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 1, 2019 at 9:58 pm

      Alana, you’re the second voter to go with THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. I wonder if they’ll gain momentum somehow to pull ahead in this battle? Time will tell. Have a great week, dearie!

  • Stephen T. McCarthy

    December 1, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    Happy Upcoming Birthday, CATHY!
    However, you better slow down or you’re going to catch up to me! I was born in ’59, but you’re now barely behind me, and if I should accidentally trip and fall, you’d go whizzing right past me in a heartbeat!

    I love the original version of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. (By the way, I was also born in August, making me a lion of the Leo variety.) I got so caught up in watching all the peculiar things going on in the video that I neglected to hear the song rightly. So, after listening to ‘Shop Around’, I had to go back and re-listen to ‘Lion’, but without the images in my view.

    They Might Be Giants changed the song so much that it’s barely recognizable. “It Might Be The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Or it mightn’t.

    And although I do kinda like the reimagined version of ‘Lion’, FLAVOR and their flavor of ‘SHOP AROUND’ gets my BOTB bote.

    ~ Stephen
    DogGtor of Alcohology &
    King of Inebriation Nation

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 1, 2019 at 9:53 pm

      Stephen, you share the same birth year as DH. He was born late July. I’m definitely trailing both you boys. When our kids were small they always thought I was older than DH for some reason. I guess I must have been more grownup like in their minds. Lol Thanks for sharing your analysis of the songs and your pick FLAVOR in this round, my friend! Have a good week.

  • Arlee Bird

    December 1, 2019 at 12:19 pm

    From the standpoints of my own stylistic preference and interesting presentation I have to give this round to the recording by They Might Be Giants. There is so much of interest to my ears in this recording of “Lion Sleeps Tonight”. I haven’t listened to this group in ages, but I’ve always liked their approach to music.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

  • Cynthia J. Coleman

    December 1, 2019 at 7:25 am

    Hi, Cathy! I wanted to like “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” but “Shop Around” gets my vote. My high school’s biggest rival had Lions as their mascot, so the first song was heard at school just before game day. What an enjoyable post!

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 1, 2019 at 9:40 pm

      Cynthia, I’m happy today’s post brought back fun memories from your school days and thanks for weighing in my first battle for December. I have you down for Flavor. Have a good week!

  • Thomas Anderson

    December 1, 2019 at 7:08 am

    Hi, Cathy!

    Happy December and BOTB Day, dear friend!

    I am pleased to learn that the Steven Tyler team won the previous battle. A friend of mine saw the Aerosmith show in Las Vegas two nights ago.

    Happy upcoming b-day, sweet sixteen! 🙂 I admire you for coming up with a variation of the traditional band battle based on covers of two different songs that were popular the year you were born. This is a fun exercise and makes the voting decision all the more difficult. Truth be told, “The Lion Sleeps” played so often on the radio when I was young that I got sick of hearing it, and “Shop Around” is not one of my favorites by The Miracles. Both entries in this battle improve on the originals, in my opinion.

    The Giants song “The Guitar” samples The Tokens’ early 60s hit single to the extent that they were legally obligated to add “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to the title. You can tell the recording was built around a jam session because it swings out in all directions. I enjoyed the exciting alt rock treatment with the horns going wild.

    I actually owned this single by Flavor, a late 60s psychedelic blue-eyed soul band similar to Vanilla Fudge and Spirit. “Shop Around” is the B side of the record. I bought it for the A side, “Sally Had A Party” which was hot on my local radio station in the late summer of 1968. Unfortunately the record stalled at #95 on the national chart and Flavor went into the music history books as a no-hit-wonder. With their soulful psych sound, Flavor made “Shop Around” more pleasing to my ears than Smokey’s original. For that reason, and because theirs is a true cover while They Might Be Giants merely sampled “Lion,” I am giving my vote to Flavor, a very tough decision since Giants have the advantage of more advanced audio technology plus an interesting music video in their favor.

    I love your closing video with Audrey and Chris doing “Winter Snow Song.” It’s a wonderful winter song and the footage is beautiful. I can still recall talking walks at night after a substantial snowfall. The acoustic effect of fresh powdery show truly makes for a “silent night” and a very peaceful experience.

    Enjoy your Sunday, dear friend Cathy. I’ll meet you back here for 4M Monday!

    • Cathy Kennedy

      December 1, 2019 at 6:48 pm

      Tom,

      Thanks for being the first person to cast your vote for Flavors a group I did not know until I did this post. In my youth, both of these cover songs got quite a bit of playtime but I can’t say I ever grew tired of either. What surprised me the most is to learn is the originals dating back to 1961. I’m delighted you enjoyed my closing song pick to celebrate our beautiful Christmas season. Have a good evening and I’ll see ya around when time permits while on hiatus, dear friend!

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