Tune du Jour: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” – The Beatles
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: The Band of the Irish Guards vs. Manny Manuel vs. The Smithereens
Broccoli Fields Forever …
“Most rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.”
Frank Zappa
The Original
The Beatles:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
The Band of the Irish Guards vs. Manny Manuel vs. The Smithereens
The Band of the Irish Guards:
Manny Manuel:
The Smithereens:
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On?!!?
cover me impressed 
When I’m in the right mood I can really enjoy the instrumentation of an Irish marching band, as well as the Latin sound of salsa & merengue. But frankly, neither of these two could even come close to capturing the vibrancy of this amazing song. Pat DiNizio (RIP), on the other hand, was a humongous Beatles fan from Day 1, also known as the Sunday evening in early February 1964 when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. His approach to music from writing, arranging and performing was always influenced most by the Fab Four, which I much later came to realize was probably one of the reasons why I love the Smithereens.
No contest here. The Smithereens win this one going away.
Smithereens did such a remarkably faithful cover. That can’t be easy to replicate so closely and…those bobbleheads are just so kyuuute! You just want to pick them up and squeeze ’em and ummm smooch, smooch, smooch! But I voted for Manny Manuel because I got caught up in the intoxicating percussion and there was so much verve that the execution exceeded the concept.
Three very similar version, which makes it difficult to even differentiate them. I throw my hands up in the air and vote The Smithereens …
The marching band version was interesting for a minute, but the novelty wore off by the time the song ended.
Manny’s version was better than expected, with lots of enthusiasm and verve, but not enough to win the vote.
Vote goes to The Smithereeens, who sounded similar to the original. I don’t know what the band members look like, so I don’t know how much the bobbleheads resemble them.
The bobbleheads look very much like the actual band members. Not only that, but the camera work on the bobbleheads copies almost exactly what it really was for the Beatles on the Sullivan show. Watch both again and compare. You’ll see what I mean.