Love is (Thicker than water)
The Songs oF Andy Gibb
Curry Cuts (2021). Pop 4 did the opening track "(Love is) Thicker than Water." Andy Gibb was my biggest middle-school obsession, except for maybe Leather Tuscadero. What a dreamboat.
Barry Gibb is currently in possession of this album. If you had told me when I was in 7th grade that Barry Gibb would one day hear me sing and play on a Gibb song, I would have...I don't know!! Floated around in a cloud of amazement and joy and been way less miserable.
My singing the verses on this turns it into a lesbian song, just like that.
Here is a review of our contribution.
Long Long Long
The Beatles
2021 Unreleased. George Harrison wrote this White Album gem in 1968. God is the "you" Harrison addresses. I've loved this gorgeous, haunting song my whole life. It is one of my favorite Beatles songs and one of my favorite songs, period. I sing it and play piano, acoustic guitars and organ. KC Bowman plays bass, drums, 12-string acoustic and 6-string acoustic.
Porpoise Song (Theme from HEAD)
Carole King and Gerry Goffin
2020. Unreleased. KC Bowman and I had threatened to cover this song for years. Pandemic quarantine finally delivered up advantageous conditions. KC did the music in half an afternoon. Then I added vocals and a few little instrumental flourishes. Shortly after making this I saw on IG that the Goffin-King Foundation was sponsoring a Carole King covers contest. We did not qualify because they required a live video, but we entered anyway just because we wanted Carole King to hear our cover. We were disqualified, as expected, but we heard back from the foundation months later saying they loved our cover and would like to represent it for Film/TV. We signed a contract and everything.
Fill Your Heart
Paul Williams and Biff Rose
Released on Curry Cuts, 2018. I always thought this was an original David Bowie song. I listened to it hundreds of times as a teenager, as Hunky Dory was one of my very favorite albums. When I was asked to contribute a song to this Paul Williams tribute I perused the list of his songs and found that Williams was actually one of two writers. I was thrilled to get to cover it. I arranged it, played all the instruments and sang it.
We Need some money
Chuck Brown and the SouL Searchers
Released on Re Covered Records in 2020, I covered Chuck Brown's "We Need Some Money." I did the arrangement and played all the instruments on the keyboards, bass and guitar. CaiNo of Philadelphia brought it to life with his charismatic vocals. I had him sing it to just a drum loop and then I built the whole song around his vocals. Having his vocals beforehand made the arranging very very fun. About as good a time as I have ever had filling out a song.
You Make Lovin Fun, Say You Love Me
Fleetwood Mac
Released on Re Covered Records in 2020, I covered these 2 Fleetwood Mac songs. I did the arrangements and played all the instruments on keyboards, bass and guitar. CaiNo sings "You Make Lovin Fun" and Thibault sings "Say You Love Me."
You are so Beautiful
Joe Cocker
Another 2020 Re Covered Records release. This includes the aforementioned cover of "We Need Some Money" which was also released as a single. And it includes a cover of "You Are So Beautiful" with Moia Bri. She did the vocal arrangement and sang all the vocals. Her vocal arrangement carries the song. I just added some instrumentation to go along with it. I had her sing it a cappella and truly her a cappella version could have stood on its own.
Telephone Line
ELO
In 2017 Pop4 covered ELO's "Telephone Line" for this fundraiser for WFMU New York. Pop4's Scott McPherson, master of all things ELO, did most of it himself; but we all sprinkled some vocals and instrumental embellisments here and there.
Brainiac's Daughter
Garden of Earthly Delights: an XTC Celebration
Pop 4 covered Brainiac's Daughter for this 49 song compilation. I play bass and add some backing vocals.
Fortress
Pinback
For my 2013 Kickstarter campaign I offered as one reward option to cover a song -- any song. Only one person chose this particular reward. It was a high school classmate with excellent musical taste. He gave me a list of a few songs to choose from. I was already a big fan of "Fortress" so was happy to have a reason to cover it. I literally sang this vocal while crying, as I was having a difficult time (not with the song, but with life).