COVERING THE BEATLES

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but we all know that tired old cliche often masks mockery and satire. Cover songs are tricky. The Beatles were immensely popular worldwide and spawned countless imitators covering their songs, including this horrendous Hungarian VentriloChoir. In Hungary, the rules for ventriloquists are apparently different than over here, and keeping your lips from moving is optional.


Frank Sinatra hated rock and roll in the beginning, sneered at Elvis, and said that the Beatles ruined show business. But old Blue Eyes knew a good song when he heard it, and he eventually overcame his distaste for the Liverpudlian rockers and recorded "Something," saying it was one of the finest love songs of the past fifty or a hundred years. Sure, he fudges the words a little, but he's trying. Jack. Now get the hell out of here.


It's hard to beat Shatner. Recorded during his psychedelic "lost weekend," the Shat took the Beatles' surrealistic ditty one step beyond the Milky Way. When the drugs kicked in, he found himself stranded somewhere to the left of Alpha Centauri on a planet with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. He met a girl with kaleidoscope eyes, but he was tripping balls and this alluring alien life form might have been a Klingon or a Romulan shape-shifter. Dazed and confused, the Shat needed some Thorazine and orange juice to bring him back to Earth. Even so, throughout the voyage, Captain Kirk kept his cool. This mangled Beatles cover is all that remains of his bad trip.