As a pop music fan, I'm sure that many of you may agree that there are depressingly diminishing returns in the search for the new Great Pop Song. Folks just ain't writin' stuff like they used to. Oh, I could easily launch into my two-drinks party piece about why that is so but now is not the time. Instead, I'd like to introduce you to Canadian forty-something, Michael Thorner, who's been regularly putting his original compositions and covers up on Youtube for the last couple of years.
Checking my FAVORITES, I see that I've bookmarked four of his originals (all near-classics in my eyes) and six of his covers, of which - by the slimmest margin - my favorite is this astonishing cover of Bacharach & David's This Guys In Love With You.
According to the book Bacharach by Michael Brocken, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss owned A&M records (A = Alpert, M = Moss). The Tijuana Brass were offered a TV special and the director suggested Alpert sing a song. Alpert contacted friend and label mate Burt Bacharach to ask him for a song. Hal David actually re-wrote some of the lyrics at Alpert's request:
"He wanted to do our song on a TV special he was doing. It was a song he was going to sing to his wife and the lyric was not quite appropriate for what he wanted to say. He asked us whether we could change it so it would fit what he needed..."
And interviewed by Record Collector, Bacharach said:
"Herb and Jerry (Moss)...asked me to...write the arrangement and conduct the orchestra - I did it as a favor. If you asked me when I got in my car leaving Gold Star Studios that night and thought this was ever gonna be a hit I would have said no way. Then three or four weeks later it was #1. Wow!"
Source: Songfacts
According to the book Bacharach by Michael Brocken, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss owned A&M records (A = Alpert, M = Moss). The Tijuana Brass were offered a TV special and the director suggested Alpert sing a song. Alpert contacted friend and label mate Burt Bacharach to ask him for a song. Hal David actually re-wrote some of the lyrics at Alpert's request:
"He wanted to do our song on a TV special he was doing. It was a song he was going to sing to his wife and the lyric was not quite appropriate for what he wanted to say. He asked us whether we could change it so it would fit what he needed..."
And interviewed by Record Collector, Bacharach said:
"Herb and Jerry (Moss)...asked me to...write the arrangement and conduct the orchestra - I did it as a favor. If you asked me when I got in my car leaving Gold Star Studios that night and thought this was ever gonna be a hit I would have said no way. Then three or four weeks later it was #1. Wow!"
Source: Songfacts
While Aussie band The Reel's cover version (apparently given the thumbs up by Hal David as the definitive interpretation) arguably improves the original, it's still derivative. However, Thorner, on the other hand, has taken this wonderful, schmaltzy classic and mostly through syncopation, reinvigorated it with such skill and passion that he seems to truly makes the song his own. His version aches with an embarrasing puppy-dog optimism and the hilarious / dramatic moments of 2.56 - 3.23 are - for me - some of Youtube's greatest moments.
Michael Thorner: This Guys In Love With You
Michael is proudly gay and while not overtly so - within his own compositions - he nevertheless positions the male straight listener (i.e. me) in an unaccustomed space. I get around it by imagining that a female singer is delivering the lines (and may well do so if my new band Mojo Business - I purchased the dotcom the other day - ever gets off the ground), such as in the superb It Better Not Rain, a definite hit song in my niche, at least.
Thorner's Youtube channel is well worth catching, honestly, check it out, there are gems a-plenty!
Thorner's Youtube channel is well worth catching, honestly, check it out, there are gems a-plenty!
