The most depressing version of a Cliff/Shads song?

[almano]

While sorting through some old tapes the other day, I happened across a few minutes of what must have been one of the most depressing radio programmes ever broadcast. Yep, for us poor old Brits in the mid to latter part of the twentieth century, who can forget the misery of “Sing Something Simple” on a Sunday afternoon?

To make matters worse they were destroying Living Doll – just how can an accordion compete with Hank’s Strat? But they had a go at it! Did people actually enjoy listening to such things?

I suppose technically, they were musically accurate and highly professional, but the arrangement of accordion and twelve synchronised singers doesn’t really make for a good transfer of rock ‘n roll into a sort of “she’ll be coming round the mountain” sing along kind of style.

Have there ever been any worse examples of inappropriate and depressing arrangements than this I wonder?

Cheers,

Alan.

[d jones]

Hi Alan you could try Hot Butter's 70's synth version of Apache!!!
Dave

[JimN]

Alan,

Did you know that the guitarist with the Jack Emblow Quartet (the musicians on "Sing Something Simple") was Ernie "Move It" Shear?

And there aren't many songs much simpler than Living Doll...

JN