Check Out My Medleys

 

It's been over a month since Koen introduced The Medleys as one of our many series of compilations.  After Koen's first two volumes, Stinky served up a tasty variety of medleys.  At the time, I could only think of a couple of songs.  But after marinating on the idea for awhile (and with some help from Koen and Richard), I have this.  I wanted to include an excerpt from The Third Reich And Roll (which is essentially an LP with a medley on each side), but settled for an outtake from The Residents' Commercial Album.  

There was a lively discussion in the comments about the "Stars On 45" phenomenon, and today we have a few punk and New Wave versions of the fad.  Captain Sensible concocted "Damned On 45", Squeeze did "Squabs On 45", The Circle Jerks did "Jerks On 45", and The New Bomb Turks did "Dogs On 45" for a split single with The Devil Dogs. 

Long before samplers and audio mixing software made mashups possible, we all had fun singing the lyrics from one song to the melody of another.  The Flaming Lips recorded two of these.  They put the words from PiL's "Rise" to the music of "One Toke Over The Line", and they combined "Seven Nation Army" with the lyrics from The Butthole Surfers' "Moving To Florida". Another "live mashup" (probably not the best term for it) was performed by The Tater Totz. They're not exactly medleys, but they're entertaining.

It's not all punk rock -- there's bluegrass and hip hop!  And a classic from Timperly's maestro of medleys, Frank Sidebottom!  Even if you don't like rap, you may appreciate Khruangbin's instrumental medley of funk and soul classics that became famous again as hip hop samples. 

The Medleys, Vol. 3

 

Medley Madness continues with Stinky's contribution to the series!  

Remember when David Johansen first appeared on MTV?  It was years before his Buster Poindexter shtick, back when David was promoting his live album with an Animals Medley of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Don't Bring Me Down, and It's My Life.  Huw Gower from The Records was in David's band, and they were pretty hot!  But not enough to make Johansen a household name.

The menu of medleys includes crooners (Bobby Darin, Englebert Humpernickel, and Ol' Blue Eyes), country (The Texas Tornados, Buck Owens, and Travis Tritt's tribute to Ol' Waylon), rock pioneers (Buddy Holly, Richard Berry), harmony singers (The Everlys, The Hollies) and guitar slingers (The Ventures, and a tribute to Dimebag Darrell by Tina S)! 

I could go on, but it's all spelled out on the tracklist.  Besides, I think I mentioned just about everybody.  Well, I left out Neil Young.. and Rita Ora... and Bobby Vee.  There, that's all of 'em!  

One of the things I've always admired about Stinky's eclectic tastes is that his compilations can go from Neil Young to The Ventures, from there to a contemporary international superstar like Rita Ora, and follow that with an old classic from Frank Sinatra! It's all music, it's all good, and today it's all about the medleys!

The Medleys Vol. 2: The Sidewinder / The Beat Goes On

In Vol. 1 of The Medleys I explained already how my fascination with medleys began, accompanied by 12 carefully selected tracks.

Here's Vol. 2 with another 12 medleys for your musical enlightenment!

Over the years I encountered some medleys which managed to combine unusual songs to say the least, stringing a few Stones songs together is not that special, but going from Lee Morgan’s ‘The Sidewinder’ to Sonny & Cher’s ‘The Beat Goes On’ is a whole different story.

And combining Thelonious Monk with Bob Marley is simply mindblowing, no other words for it!
Besides oddball song combinations you will also have a chance to listen to
Hank Williams Jr. playing with John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, & Dickey Betts, as well as the The Sun Ra Arkestra fronted by Phil Alvin!

The Medleys Vol. 1: I Feel Fine / The Sidewinder

I guess it all started in 1966, my parents had a record player, and one of the lps my mom bought was James Last’s Non Stop Dancing 66 (28 Hits Für Ihre Party)…
Unnecessary to say I had never heard of this guy, he certainly wasn’t played much on Dutch radio, but my mom loved dancing!
So bit by bit I got familiar with his style; big band medleys (or ‘potpourris’!) of hits of the day, a totally new experience to me!
Even so, this was not really my cup of tea, I preferred the original hits.
But somehow the concept of a medley stuck and I started paying more attention whenever I encountered one.  

Beatles and 50s rock ’n roll medleys were usually not particular special, but Jerry Lee Lewis did a great one on his London Sessions!

Lately the Dutch have been blamed for lots of crimes in the past (slavery, genocide, invention of the stock market, clogs, windmills, 2nd rate Flying Burrito Brothers, tulips, Heineken, etc.), but if there’s any reason for exterminating the Dutch once and for all we must go back to 1981 when a Dutch (no surprise) dude called Jaap Eggermont came up with the unholy idea of releasing an onslaught of disco medleys which were ridiculously popular…

Any serious music lover started vomiting whenever they heard these Stars On 45 abominations played on the radio…
Despite this aural torture I kept my faith on discovering more superior medleys.

Over the years I encountered some which managed to combine unusual songs to say the least, stringing Beatles songs together is not that special, but going from their ‘I Feel Fine’ to Lee Morgan’s ‘The Sidewinder’ is a whole different story.

And ABBA’s folk medley isn’t bad either, the only time they recorded songs NOT written by themselves!

So here for your listening pleasure I gathered 11 tracks which imho raises the medley quality quite a bit.
Number 12 is a kind of wonky bonus, added just to give you an idea of how James ‘The Gentleman of Pop’ Last did it!
In hindsight going from Bob Dylan to Shawn Elliot to Screaming Lord Sutch is quite a feat, although perhaps not a particularly great one, but still…

Please let us at JOKONKY know your favorite medley!

p.s. A second volume will follow in due time.

LINKS:

https://www.discogs.com/master/297034-James-Last-Band-Non-Stop-Dancing-66-28-Hits-F%C3%BCr-Ihre-Party
https://onebuckrecords.blogspot.com/2024/05/uh-oh-those-burrito-brothers-are-flying.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_on_45

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/james-last-non-stop-dancing-box/