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?