Disc #4 SUNNY - the Cover Versions

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The 26 renditions of "Sunny" included on this disc from a variety of artists took quite a bit of time to compile.  How do you sift through about 1,020 recorded (on vinyl or CD) versions along with another 800 or so on YouTube and other on-line venues?    

Back in 2000 I was at a college radio station 91.5 FM in Medford where I interviewed Bobby,  compiling versions of "Sunny" from the library that Bobby and I were considering for the first collection.  Lo and behold, Bobby calls me and says that a fellow in Germany (our good friend now) Rudiger Ladwig, was in the process of doing the same exact thing. Great minds think alike.

Thus was born  A Collection Of Various Interpretations Of Sunny - the first of these compilations which included looks at "Fever" and a second edition of "Sunny" as well.

A Collection Of Various Interpretations Of Sunny

These releases, along with the original draft Bobby and I were working on, and with 14 years of hindsight being 20/20, led up to what you hold in your hands now.

With Track #17 we bring you a special medley of "unreleased" Sunny versions -

Connie Francis on the Ed Sullivan Show

Tom Jones and Ella Fitzgerald duet on the

Tom Jones TV show

Liberace live on television

Moms Mabley's 45 tucked inside the medley

and Jennifer Love Hewitt performing as

Nancy Sinatra on the TV show             American Dreams

The Boney M version is a dance mix by the Boogie Pimps - you can do a web search on Who Sampled Who to have a fun a/b as they call it with both renditions.

Toots and the Maytals take on "Sunny" was done in conjunction with Bobby's publisher, Portable Music, while we utilize Frankie Valli's 2007 remake, done in a samba style rather than the Frank Sinatra kinda rendition Frankie did on his Timeless CD, now on a Frankie Valli boxed set. 

There are a variety of dance mixes of the Marvin Gaye version (which includes the Mercury II mix used in the TV show Ray Donovan in August/September 2014) as well as the multiple James Brown versions (studio, live and remixed galore) and Jose' Feliciano, so the key versions by key artists get new makeovers from samplers and remixers, and it all adds to the Sunny legacy.

How can you argue with renditions by Cher, Bill Cosby, Herb Alpert and the exquisitely sublime/dreamy Johnny Mathis epic. That we had to leave off so many greats - Ferrante & Teicher, guitarist Greg Howe, Pat Martino and John Scofield - indeed, we could do a full boxed set on jazz renditions alone - means that this is one of many entree main course dishes of delicious Sunny selections. 

Melba Moore appears on Bobby Hebb's version while Mieko Hirota and David Pike released earlier 1965 takes on the classic prior to Bobby's worldwide smash.   Hirota is included here, as are four Motown artists - Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and Mary Wells (after she left Motown for Jubilee.) Wilson Picket's wicked version from the Wicked Pickett classic lp moves nicely into Motown territory, as does Buddy Miles soulful escapade (not included here) from the Electric Flag.

This CD closes out with one of the many dance remixes of Bobby's version, this producer's favorite so far, the Pillow remix.


FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY
Boogie Pimps, Boney M

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/2319/Boogie-Pimps-Sunny-Boney-M.-Sunny/