Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits

(Pravda/Backyard)
by Ryk McIntyre

This should’ve been titled The Bastard Sons of K-Tel, but it wasn’t. But just because I was disturbed to find myself old enough to remember these songs, still there are gems to be found. Usually cover songs work when they are, A) slavishly and affectionately true to the original (Sneetches & the Shoes doing the Raspberries “I Wanna Be With You”), B) rearranged in a quirky, offbeat manner (Southern Culture On the Skids‘ “Venus”), or C) just plain goofy stuff to begin with (New Duncan Imperials tackling that CW/Rap crossover “Convoy”). But when Smashing Pumpkins do “Jackie Blue” so straight and narrow, you wonder, why bother?