Tonight my wife choose to watch a chic flick.
Here’s the tag line: A ghost tries to sabotage her former boyfriend's current relationship with a psychic.
You may imagine, if you will, my level of enthusiasm.
No aliens? No boobies? No explosions? Not even a car chase?
Oh goodie (Tomorrow, she will be forced to sit through Predators and at least one Terminator movie, balance must be restored to the Force).
However, as much as it galls me to say it, the chic flick turned out to be a fairly funny and entertaining movie called Over Her Dead Body. Nothing particularly gut busting, but it had its moments. It starts out with Eva Longoria getting crushed to death under an ice sculpture. Since I can’t stand Eva Longoria, I considered that fairly amusing.
Reason I mention it, is towards the end, the soundtrack included a cover of I Can See Clearly Now by a singer whose voice I didn’t recognize.
Now I dig I Can See Clearly Now.
I’ve always really, really liked that tune. I’ve got the original Johnny Nash album, the Jimmy Cliff hit version, and, of course, the Bob Marley. It’s just such a great, upbeat song. I defy anybody to listen to I Can See Clearly Now and come out the other end with a shitty attitude. It’s just one of those truly great songs.
Here’s Jimmy Cliff on Letterman right after Cool Runnings came out (That reminds me, Damn, I miss John Candy):
I googled the movie soundtrack and found out that the cover version I’d heard was by a guy name Eagle Eye Cherry. That’s his real name, the actual no shit name his folks gave him. Eagle Eye Lanoo Cherry. That is my official pick for Most Awesome Bad Ass Name Of The Universe. Turns out he’s a talented artist as well.
Unfortunately, Eagle Eye’s version of I Can See Clearly Now doesn’t seem to be available anywhere, including YouTube.
However, in the process of finding that out, I discovered that I Can See Clearly Now has got to be the single most covered song in the history of music. Everybody, and I mean every damned body, from Gladys Knight & the Pips to The Mamas and the Papas to Willie freakin’ Nelson to the Muppets has done a cover. I spent three hours listening to different versions of the song, including the most awesome Ray Charles and by the end I was in a very good mood.
Then I found this:
Damn.
Now that’s cool.
That was truly the most awesome thing I've seen on the internet in a long time.
ReplyDeleteOf course, my favorite Eagle-Eye-Cherry song is Save Tonight, and know that you've reminded me, I have to go buy it, gosh darn it Jim, why do you hate my money so?
Also I want that cover of it in the video, like, right NOW. If not legally, then I don't know what to do (OK I do, but I'd rather not)
Absolutely one of my favorite songs ever. You can't hear it without feeling good and it never feels dated.
ReplyDeleteAbout 6-7 years ago, I was on the job-from-hell in New Mexico. The Producer was incompetent. The Director was having a nervous breakdown, suffering from OCD, having a Bipolar episode and giving vent to his inner-Hitler...all at the same time. And it RAINED for three days straight...in New Friggin' Mexico!
We called wrap early on a summer evening and just as I was getting in the car, the Johnny Nash version came on and the rain stopped like someone had turned off the shower. And the clouds...vanished. POOF -- they were just gone.
Needless to say, the car radio didn't have a loud enough volume setting.
[pedantic]The general answer to most-covered song of all time is "Yesterday" by Lennon and McCartney, though I'm not sure who's made an "official" count or when. Personally, I suspect Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" has to be pretty damn close.[/pedantic]
ReplyDeleteOh wait--the "Yesterday" factoid comes from Guinness, it turns out, as in the record book people and not Obi-Wan Kenobi or the most-excellent brewer of beer.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia cites Guinness for the claim there are more than 3,000 cover versions of "Yesterday." Well. That would be hard to beat, I guess.
I dunno, Eric, do some googling of I Can See Clearly Now. The number of covers has got to be pretty close to the record.
ReplyDeleteAlso I want that cover of it in the video, like, right NOW. If not legally, then I don't know what to do (OK I do, but I'd rather not)
ReplyDeleteNow obviously I cannot condone such things, Jamie. Ur, do you need the link to the YouTube downloader site? ;)
Despite the fact that I had a flat tire AND a ticket when I walked out of the courthouse after my divorce hearing, THAT was the tune I was humming. Love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jim!
::cough:: Firefox UnPlug extension::cough::
The Johnny Nash version is used very effectively in the soundtrack for Gross Pointe Blank. The song & scene popped into my head the second you mentioned it...
ReplyDeleteOne of my all time favorite movies. John Cusak, Joan Cusak, Dan Aykroid, Minnis Driver, Jeremy Previn and many more. Too much fun for one movie!
Eric, the Guinness most excellent brewer of beer people are also the World Record people. It was envisioned as a book to adjudicate pub bets made by people stoned on Guinness stout by one Sir Hugh G. Beaver (I'm not making that name up. Well, maybe the "G" part.), who got into an argument about the speed of game birds while on a hunting trip.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Guinness was not involved in that argument, though in any case history does not record that Sir Beaver pulled a Dick (Cheney) on his hunting companions.
The marketing stunt proved so successful that it became a huge money maker all by itself. So successful in fact that the Provos shot one of the brothers involved in publishing it (sadly, I'm not making that one up, either, he was a rather famous anti-IRA Conservative).
As an aside, Guinness also contributed to the development of modern industrial statistics. Biochemist William Gosset, working for the brewer, developed a sampling distribution for estimating the means of normally distributed variables when the sample sizes are small. This was of great use to a brewer sampling small lots of large batches. Gosset was forced to publish his ideas for a "t" test under the pseudonym Student to keep Guinness's use of process statistics secret from competitors (this was 1908 after all). Hence the "Student's t-test" every undergrad engineer and scientist uses is not called the "Guinness t-test".
I haz been educated, John. But your comment would have been better if you'd demonstrated that Guinness beer was a Jedi secret, brought from a distant galaxy and preserved for thousands of years. Because I know this is true, I just need proof.
ReplyDeleteYes, that would explain why Guinness tastes like a 10,000 year old peat bog
ReplyDeleteJim, you heathen, you. We're taking away your Irish card.
ReplyDeleteI'm of the Red Ale Irish, not the filthy peat bog and yeast Irish.
ReplyDeleteI believe he's Neneh Cherry's little brother. And Song To The Siren is also a blowout most-covered song.
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't use the Firefox add-on Download Helper to save the video.
ReplyDelete[pedantic]
ReplyDeleteChic (pronounced /ˈʃiːk/ "sheek"), meaning 'stylish' or 'smart', is an element of fashion and the counterpart of posh.
Thus, a "chic flick" is simply a smart and stylish movie.
I have to say that the Croats singing that was literally the highlight of my week.
ReplyDeleteI only played it 12 times.
It makes me wish that a capella singing were more popular here in the US.