Bath - Harry Nilsson

We've spoken about the illustrious Harry Nilsson before. His refusal to perform live. How he almost became a member of The Beatles. How his voice is one of the Greatest Gifts to Pop Music Ever.

Bath, the final track on Nilsson's third album Aerial Ballet is one of the greatest album closers of all time. It clocks in at just under two minutes, and is filled with jazzy rag piano, storming brass sections, and some of the best high notes Harry has ever hit. There are few better ways to end an album than a rag belter about having your faith in mankind restored after a late night visit to a brothel. Hell, it's a great ending soundtrack to pretty much anything. If ever I feel the need to pull down the shutters on That Song Blog forever (which I promise is not something in any way forthcoming), I'm going to embed some code so that every page you go to plays this song on an infinite loop. So it shall be.

Norwegian Wood - Kevin Roth

Norwegian Wood (Spotify)

Time for an Appalachian Sunday morning.

Kevin Roth is one of the world's foremost mountain dulcimer players. This is a bit like saying he's the worlds foremost amplexus coordinator as far as how much people understand or care. Which is a shame, because the mountain dulcimer (different from a regular dulcimer) is a beautiful and unique sounding instrument.

The instrument has its origins in the Appalachian Mountain range and is considered a key part of the indigenous music of that region, though Roth plays the dulcimer in an unconventional style almost more like slide guitar.

This is Roth's reading of The Beatle's Norwegian Wood. As opposed to a straight cover of the song, Roth has used the melody framework to create a mini suite more suited to the sound of the dulcimer.

Blackbird - Bobby McFerrin

When most people think of Bobby Mcferrin, they think of Don't Worry Be Happy. I'm not knocking that song, but this is the sort of thing Bobby should be remembered for:

Recorded live on a tour of Germany in 1984, the album was the first of it's kind to feature a jazz vocalist completely unaccompanied.

The opening track, his reworking of The Beatles Blackbird, is the perfect showcase for McFerrin's rapid pitch shifts, dropping and rocketing through registers at the speed of light.

Beatles Medley - Hank Handy

Continuing the Mashup Mood, today we have Hank Handy's Beatles Medley. The track takes segments from over forty separate Beatles songs and splices them together to create three and half minutes of kaleidoscopically splintered pop.

The whole experience feels like a giant Rube Golderberg machine. The disparate elements kick off one another in spiraling series of technicolor clockwork madness. The drum solo from The End cascades into helium speed vocal samples from Love Is All You Need just as Piggies harpischords begin stomping and chiming with Get Back's organs and blues licks. That describes twenty seconds. Nearly.

It picks and plucks song segments like a schizophrenic magpie but builds them all into a towering piece of sonic architecture, shortly before dropping said structure into an industrial strength blender.

Get it forever here.