Words can’t express how much I love the Shirley Bassey cover of Spinning Wheel. I couldn’t find it for ages; all my records in storage in Savannah, and no love from iTunes. In SF in the late 90s I used to go to a club night that was all…cheesy 60s music? But with a brilliant DJ who was good at reading the small crowd. This song was the barnburner. I was always resentful that my mom had once–but no longer–had thigh-high white patent leather go-go boots. (I also lacked the imagination as a teen when I first found out about these missing boots to see how you might just dance through/fatally stank up a thing like that). I only ever had knee-high white patent-leather go-go boots. Good enough when the piccolos attack this furious!
{ 8 comments }
Alan White 01.14.17 at 3:39 pm
More cowbell! I loved it–never heard this version before. That ending mirroring the entry to the song is just wild. Thanks.
JDC 01.14.17 at 4:31 pm
Thanks Belle!
jayinbmore 01.14.17 at 10:36 pm
Was that club night called “PopScene”?
oldster 01.15.17 at 2:10 pm
On the bridge (“if you find etc.”), I like how the strings reach for the fifth above the descending bass figure, rather than just echoing it a few octaves up, as BST’s horns did.
NomadUK 01.16.17 at 12:26 am
There is nothing about or by Shirley Bassey not to love. What pipes.
Scott Lemieux 01.16.17 at 5:18 am
But can it top the Hank Kingsley version?
JPL 01.16.17 at 10:10 am
NomadUK, you are so right! With Shirley Bassey every song is a pleasure. Here is another one that I wouldn’t stay in my seat for if played loud by the DJ in a club or party. (Not her usual kind of music, but the little band is cooking, plus, the video is interesting.)
JPL 01.16.17 at 10:17 am
Here’s the prototype.
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