1/7/2011 – The “Unchained Melody” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Unchained Melody”

The Friday Night Cat Fight takes on one of the most popular, most covered and best selling songs of all-time with “Unchained Melody.”  Originally, it was written for the 1955 motion picture, “Unchained,” but after Les Baxter released an instrumental version of the tune on Capitol and it hit #1, it became one of the biggest songs of 1955, with versions by Al Hibbler and Roy Hamilton topping the R&B charts and charting top 10 on the pop lists.  We’ll also feature some very unique and heartfelt renditions of “Unchained Melody” by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps (1957), New York’s Vito & The Salutations (1963) and the mega-selling 1965 Righteous Brothers classic.

So listen and then vote for your favorite version of “Unchained Melody.”  With over 500 covers of this tune, I couldn’t feature them all, but I think all six that are featured here are worth your time.

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12/17/2010 – The “Let It Snow!” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

The Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast takes on the classic tale of winter joy, “Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!” which first appeared on record in 1946 by Vaughn Monroe.  We’ll give Vaughn some stiff competition by putting strong performances by Frank Sinatra (1950) and Dean Martin (1966).  Listen to the Cat Fight and then vote for your favorite version of this winter classic.

Let the nog flow and have a wonderful holiday season.  Happy New Year, everyone.  2011 is gonna be BIG!

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12/10/10 – The “Run Rudolph Run” Christmas Cat Fight!

The

Christmas

Friday Night Cat Fight

“Run Rudolph Run”

This week, The Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast puts one of the rockin’-est, rollin’-est Christmas tunes to the test.  Listen to both versions in their entirety and decide which one you truly DIG THE MOST over “Run Rudolph Run.”

Don’t forget to nog, while you’re diggin’ this jive and voting, baby!

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11/19/2010 – The “Peter Gunn” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Peter Gunn”

This week, the Friday Night Cat Fight focuses on one of the most popular and recognizable television theme songs in history.  “Peter Gunn,” the TV show premiered on NBC in 1958 and lasted until 1961 (switching to CBS).  Henry Mancini composed the theme, but it was Ray Anthony’s 1959 version of the tune that put it on the charts (hit #8 US).  Duane Eddy and The Blues Brothers did smokin’ versions of the tune and The Art Of Noise even won a Grammy for their version in 1986.

Listen to the podcast and dig on all the different versions of “Peter Gunn” and then vote for the one you truly DIG THE MOST!

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11/5/10 – The “Seventh Son” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Seventh Son”

This week, The Friday Night Cat Fight looks at a classic blues tune that never became a hit UNTIL Johnny Rivers covered it in 1965 and gave it his “Whiskey Au Go Go” treatment.  The song was written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Willie Mabon for Chess in 1955.

Listen to all three versions of “Seventh Song” and then decide which one you dig the most and then vote for your favorite.

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10/15/10 – “Matchbox Blues” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Matchbox Blues”

The Friday Night Cat Fight takes on one of the greatest and most recognizable classic blues tunes this week with a 4-way Cat Fight over “Matchbox Blues.”  Blind Lemon Jefferson’s 1927 original will go up against Leadbelly’s 1934 Library Of Congress field recording, while Carl Perkins made it his own in 1957, it was The Beatles that took it into the American Charts in 1964.  Listen to all 4 and then decide for yourself which one you truly DIG THE MOST!

Plus, at the end of the Podcast, I’ll have a little tribute to 2 great soul singers that passed away over the past week (Solomon Burke & General Johnson).

Listen, Dig and VOTE!

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9/24/10 – The “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“I Heard It Through The Grapevine”

This week’s Cat Fight takes the classic Motown tune and spins every charting version of the song from Smokey Robinson & The Miracles original unreleased version to The California Raisins’ 1988 near-miss.  In the middle, you’ll find mega-hit versions by Gladys Knight and The Pips and Marvin Gaye.  Creedence’s eleven minute version from 1970 was issued as a three minute single in 1976 and just missed hitting the Pop Top 40, while Roger took the tune BACK to #1 on the R&B charts in 1981.  Vote for your favorite version of this classic tune.

Listen, vote & dig, baby!

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9/17/10 – The “Stagger Lee” Cat Fight!

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

Stagger Lee (Stack O Lee)

This week, a true story (Lee Shelton shot Billy Lyons in 1895) comes to life in song.  I’ve been wanting to do a Friday Night Cat Fight on “Stagger Lee” or “Stack O Lee” for a very long time.

The story comes to life in the form of the Delta Blues of Furry Lewis and Mississippi John Hurt, the New Orleans R&B of Archibald and Lloyd Price (who’s version topped both the R&B and pop charts) and many others along the way.  Listen to the podcast and then VOTE for your favorite version of “Stagger Lee” below.

Leave a comment on this page and let everyone know why you voted for one version of “Stag” over the others.

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8/13 – 9/10/10 – The Elvis Triple Threat Cat Fight!

**Extended Voting**

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

THE
ELVIS
TRIPLE
THREAT

The dog days and cat nights of August are ON FIRE with this week’s Friday Night Cat Fight Battle Royale, THE ELVIS TRIPLE THREAT!  Matt The Cat commemorates the 33rd anniversary of Elvis’ death with not one, not two BUT THREE Cat Fight’s rolled into one.  In round one, the “King” returns from his stint in the Army only to battle Lowell Fulson over “Reconsider Baby.”  Then, round two heats up with Elvis’ top 10 rendition of Ray Peterson’s classic “The Wonder Of You.”  Finally, the crowd can’t sit still as the Big “E” takes it to the streets to battle the gang from Washington, DC better known as The Clovers way “Down In The Alley!”

Vote three times in this week’s historic Cat Fight.  Can Elvis win 2 out of 3 and take the title OR will he be defeated and sent back to the minors.  The answer is in your hands.

Listen to the Cat Fight Podcast and then vote THREE TIMES below!

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8/6/10 – The “Do You Want To Dance” Cat Fight

Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast

“Do You Want To Dance”

Put on your dancin’ shoes for this week’s Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast over the classic rock n’ roll tune, “Do You Want To Dance.”  This week, all six of the versions in competition made the pop charts.  Of course, some did much better than others, but they all cracked the Hot 100.  So I really think we have an even playing ground.  Bobby Freeman wrote the tune and scored its biggest hit to date with his 1958 original.  The Beach Boys came close to Freeman chart-wise as did Bette Midler (the song that really launched her career).  Del Shannon, The Mamas & The Papas and The Ramones all did their own unique versions of the tune, even if they didn’t chart as high.

So listen to the podcast, dig the tunes and VOTE for the one you DIG THE MOST!

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