Battle of the Bands Results and A to Z Theme Reveal

Good morning friends.

It is Saturday and the birds are singing. I am trying to keep my eyes open and slugging coffee. However, I am *slowly* learning to appreciate waking up early (or earlier) and reading, writing, and blogging.

I promised you the results from the Battle of the Bands match-up on the song Sea of Love. The Honeydrippers, a band that Robert Plant put together in order to record more songs like this one, duked it out with Tom Waits.

I like both versions of this song. I think that I like Waits version best after watching that suspenseful version of the movie, Sea of Love. It was a bit dark and so is the Tom Waits interpretation. In other words, so much music has a time and place. However, I really enjoy The Honeydrippers all of the time. It is like opening a memory box. It even has the feel of a "different time." A better time. So, like so many of you, I cast my vote for The Honeydrippers (not that it changes anything).

The final tally...
The Honeydrippers - 20
Tom Waits  - 5

Before we leave this behind, I MUST share what some of you said about the Tom Waits version of this song. You guys are hilarious.

Empty Nest Insider was kindest with her use of the word "gruff." Gary, or klahanie, said "he sounds like he is in a lot of pain." Carol Kilgore said he sounded like "a dirty old man." Robyn said he "sounds like a dying frog." And Jay Noel said he "sounds like he needs more fiber." hahahaha. You all crack me up regularly. Don't ever, ever stop.

A whole bunch of you participated in the A to Z Theme Reveal yesterday. I had no intentions of blogging yesterday, so I didn't sign up for that blog hop. However, I will be A to Zing with a theme.

Are you ready for the reveal????

This is the bit that I have written for every post - placed right at the top - explaining my theme.

My theme for A to Z this year is a wildly different, but very exciting, HERE'S TO YOU all month long. 26 posts to be precise. The most difficult part was narrowing down the 26. All of you deserve your own post. What you will find here is a post by the featured blogger, with traveling music chosen by me that complements said post, and two links. One will link back to the original post and the other to the main page. This year's A to Z is all about making new friends!

Since I have already chosen the blogs, the specific posts, and the music, the only thing to do is create each individual post with everything linked in. So far, I have drafted the posts up to "I." That took a couple of hours. I expect to have everything locked and loaded by April 1. The only difficulty I see thus far is that some of my favorite posts by you guys exceed the suggested word count. I hope that the writing is compelling enough that it won't be an issue. Well, the other difficulty is that some of my favorite blogs just wouldn't work with the letters, and then I ran out of letters, but not blogs. Yikes.  So, if you don't find yourself here it doesn't mean that you aren't beloved by me. YOU ARE.

Battle of the Bands ~ Sea of Love

It is March 15.

First, I must say that I cannot believe how QUICKLY this year is moving along. It's flying, right???

Second, if you have been following this blog for any length of time, then you know that the 1st and 15th of the month means Battle of the Bands. SO MUCH FUN!

Have you ever wondered how I come up with the songs? Well, I have this list of songs that I know have covers. This installment, though, was not on my original list. Nope. About a month ago, I was watching Sea of Love (the movie with Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin) again. I hadn't seen it since... well, a Long Time. So long, in fact, that I forgot who the killer was. It was almost like a brand new movie for me. And that made me think that I am losing it. Getting old. One step away from the Nursing Home. Well, maybe that is a bit much. But you get the idea.

Anyway, at the first crime scene the guy had a record player and the 45 for Sea of Love was set to play on continuous. Now, if you don't know what a 45 is... google it. Just watching that needle touch down on the record made me long for easier days. Kid days. Days when where to play was my toughest decision.

Anyway, that song showed up over and over again throughout the movie. Not a big surprise given that they named the movie after the song. And it had a crackerjack ending. It reminded me of why I liked the movie so much when I saw it the first time. As is my habit, I sat through the credits. Do you do that?

So, the upshot of this story (and how it pertains to this battle) is that Tom Waits covered Sea of Love. That was the version of the song that played while the credits ran. My first thought, "Was who is that guy?" So, I carefully perused the musical information as it rolled by. My second thought was, "I need to add this song to my Battle of the Bands list." So, when Arlee posted yesterday about Battle of the Bands being today, I smacked myself in the head. Once again, I was unprepared. This is beginning to feel like a pattern.

I hauled out the list and there was Sea of Love at the bottom. So, I pulled up Wikipedia. The song was written by Phil Phillips and George Khoury. Phil Phillips recorded the song in 1959. That was also the version used in the movie (the record). It's been covered by various artists. The Tom Waits version, recorded in 1989, is the *most* different, though when I went to YouTube, I listened to close to all of them. Then the hard part of this choosing process set in.

Do I pair off the original Phil Phillips version against Tom Waits? OR do I use The Honeydrippers version, recorded in 1985, against Tom Waits? The Honeydrippers (feat. Robert Plant as the lead singer) also scored a hit with this song. In other words, should I pit the covers against each other or use an original and a cover? I rather liked the cover vs cover action from the last battle, so we are doing that again!

Let's bring them up chronologically. Since The Honeydrippers recorded their song in 1985. They are first.

Take it away....



And now for the Dark Horse, Tom Waits!

Take it away...



Other battles can be found by clicking the following links, so be sure to visit them and cast your votes there!

Faraway Series

FERRET-FACED FASCIST FRIENDS

Tossing It Out

DiscConnected

Donna Hole

The rest of this post is up to you. Your vote counts!!! Just tell me in the comments which version you prefer and why. I will be back in one week (the 22nd) to report the final tally (and cast my vote). Be sure to visit the other battles listed above. You can sound off and they will LIKE IT:)