Saturday morning, I embark on my heroic quest to retrieve my lawn mower — the mighty grass‑slayer that the repair shop has allegedly reassembled in the correct order this time. May it have a sharpened desire to maul grass.
While I’m at it, I’m trying to convince my wife that this is the perfect excuse for a date night. You know: “Hey babe, want to eat food someone else cooked and a Movie?” Maybe even pretending we’re people who go out after 7 PM.” I’m pitching it as “community engagement,” which sounds noble enough that she might fall for it.
Meanwhile, Friday Soul is serving up Latin Boogaloo, and this week’s selection is basically the multiverse of cover songs. A cover… of a cover… of a cover… of a cover. At this point the song has had more reincarnations than a Buddhist housecat.
If the timeline is to be believed (and honestly, it reads like someone spilled a stack of 45s and tried to reassemble history from memory), the Outsiders kicked things off in 1966, The Models jumped in during July ’67, the American Breed made it a hit in December ’67, and Amen Corner in January 68 and finally Ray got around to it in March ’68. Truly, this tune has lived a life of chaotic glory.
Ray’s wiki page claims he co-wrote it, but there’s absolutely zero evidence of that — unless “co-writing” means “standing vaguely near Scott English while he cowrote it.” And yes, Scott English is the same guy who wrote Mandy, which means he’s responsible for both Barry Manilow’s first mega-hit and this hydra. So yes, the man who gave the world Mandy also unleashed this eclectic Rock and Boogaloo beast
So please enjoy this Latin Boogaloo take on a song that has been bent, shaped, folded, spindled, reissued, misattributed, resurrected, and hopefully — unlike my lawn mower — assembled correctly at least once in its lifetime.
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