Tuesday, October 13, 2009

If you ever think about me...



This is Bobby Marchan's first record after leaving Huey Smith & the Clowns. It's also one of the more bizarre singles to ever hit the charts.....No.1 on the R&B charts in 1960.

Part 1 is basically a straight-up cover of the original version recorded by Big Jay McNeely's band, for whom it was a huge hit in 1959.

Part 2 is where things get strange. Here, Marchan proceeds to 'murder' the original as clearly and as cleanly as the confession states.

In short, the song becomes a murder ballad and everything you thought you knew, suddenly falls to ashes.

Once the refrain "if you ever think about me" shows itself to be the unspoken words of the dead sweetheart echoing in Marchan's head, the specter of psychosis retroactively blankets the entire song.

The ease with which Marchan subverts the original while barely changing a note is deceptively simple. It's truly a mind-f*ck of a very high order.

Just so you can judge for yourself, I'm also including a copy of the original version by Big Jay McNeely, even though I don't actually own the record [it's well worth a listen].

Enjoy




No comments:

Post a Comment