Simon Gitter Top Ten

This weeks Top Ten is from one of our favourite customers – Simon Gitter!

1.       Flying Lizards “Money”.  The benchmark by which all cover versions must be measured.  All the sass and swagger removed from the original and replaced by the cold, hard reality of impending Thatcherism.

2.       Deborah and the Puerto Ricans “Respect”.  Take Deborah from the Lizards and replace David Cunningham with Dennis Bovell and you get this brill 1981 single. 

3.       Anomy “TVC15”. Girls keep swinging.

4.       The Associates “Boys Keep Swinging”.  Released mere weeks after the Dame’s own version.  Reckon I prefer Billy’s vocal to Dave’s in some ways.

5.       Plastics “Last Train To Clarksville”.   The Monkees reimagined as the Silicon Teens.  Not much of a leap really.

6.       Fragments “Nutbush City Limits”.  If Nutbush was actually near Sheffield.

7.       Antena “The Boy From Ipanema”.  Deeply moving.

8.       Anyway AKA “It’s My Party”.  A Peel favourite, this.  In a slight twist to the original, Johnny runs off with Jerry in this version giving the line “Jerry and Johnny just walked through the door – Like a queen with her king” extra poignancy.

9.       Big Hair “Puppet On A String”.  Imagine if this had been how Sandie had presented at the Eurovision in 1967!  I love the gleeful shrieking on this one. Utter contempt for the song.  I blame the Flying Lizards.

10.   Balfour Chorus “Jilted John”.  They appeared on New Faces apparently. Not singing this one though, I’ll wager.  An acapella version of JJ, because why not?  I blame the Flying Pickets.

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