Dear James,
Re: covers which were better than the originals, I offer this 1968 Tiny Tim tune for your consideration. Once you've got passed the silly intro, the rest is interesting in how the phrasing of the words is different, the Bacharach style arrangement and the way it sounds way more like the 60s than Bowie's version, even though this song only came out three years before Hunky Dory. Bowie beats this version with the pace of his version, the sparcity of piano, and the way things build up before the saxophone.
Bowie recorded the cover as a last minute replacement for "Bombers", thus making Hunky Dory a far better album and consigning Bombers to the b-side of... no, I've got that wrong, it was a promo single in the US, backed by Eight Line Poem. Imagine getting home with that single, very disappointing. Fill Your Heart was written by Paul Williams, who wrote the Bugsy Malone soundtrack and any number of Carpenters' songs, and Biff Rose, a banjo-toting standup comedian, it says here. Here he is, selling used cars.
Dear Daniel,
Fascinating. I didn't even know "Fill Your Heart" was a cover, much least all that other stuff. Biff Rose sounds like he could be either endlessly interesting or endlessly irritating. A good firm start to this occasional series.
I'm with you on Bombers. An amusing trifle at best. A bit shriek-y, I always think. Crikey, and it even seems that way stood next to Fill Your Heart: "furrr-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE."
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