After a pretty long lay-off, I've re-visited the budget bins to assemble yet another collection of vintage Beatles cover recordings.I've plundered not one, but two sets of "Alvin & The Chipmunks" cash-ins. Yes, the"real" Chipmunks recorded their own LP of Beatles covers, but the WYNCOTE and DIPLOMAT budget labels pulled off a bank-shot by ripping of rodents ripping off insects!
One source was "The Grasshoppers Sing The Beatles Hits" which featured some nice interplay, David Seville style, between the main grasshopper, Henry, and the manager, Jerry.
The other group of sped-up vocals came from a Wyncote LP that didn't even bother giving itself a title or identifying the "artists" in print. The cover just showed four chipmunks with "A HARD DAYS NIGHT" and a few other song titles splash across it.
Also featured are some "karaoke" versions of Beatles tunes from the "Sing A-Long With The Beatles" LP that was released on the Tower record label. At least this was a Capitol Records subsidiary.
Sprinkled in are also covers by a (mid-70s?) LP recorded by The Rip-Offs. Well, at least they're up front about it!
For the final track, I was able to create my own chipmunk version of "My Bonnie" by tweaking the Tony Sheridan recording. His guitar parts were also pitched up an octave, so now it sounds like he was rocking out on a mandolin!
Let me know if I need to upload a link to this masterpiece...
