2. In 1968 anything sounded cutting edge
if it included a sitar
— and "Lord
Sitar"
was
happy to oblige. He tucked the Monkees song in between his versions of
"I am the Walrus" and "I Can See for Miles".
3. Off the 2005 album "Resolution
[Explicit]," the alternative band
Blue Kite imagines the song as a
sinister and insinuating journey into their tortured
souls of darkness.
4. Hey, British football fans. Rabid boosters
of Sunderland recorded a tribute to manager Peter Reid
which became a top-50 hit in 1999 after
changing the title to "Cheer up, Peter Reid."
They took their name from the teams' colors,
calling themselves
Simply
Red (and White)
5. I've
never heard of Mary Beth Maziarz, but in 2001 she did a Tori Amos-style
piano-and-vocal ballad version as the
last track of her album
"A
More Perfect World"
6.
John Stewart joined the legendary Kingston Trio in the 1960s, and though
you've never heard of him — he wrote "Daydream Believer."
When he released a career retrospective in 1995, he titled it:
"Airdream
Believer"
7. Santo and Johnny were born in
the 1930s in Brooklyn. Their career peaked in 1959 with an early Gibson
steel guitar recording called "Sleep Walk." After it
reached #1, they cranked out novelty guitar albums
throughout the rest of the 1960s —
and they eventually got to "Daydream Believer"
on
"Santo
and Johnny, Volume 6"
8. Anne Murray had a #1 hit in 1980. But nearly
30 years later, at the age of 63, she recorded
a
twangy country
version with 20-year-old Canadian vocalist Nelly Furtado, launching
the song into its fifth decade.
9. Buried on Amazon is this ultra-rare Davy Jones track,
the
"Millenial
Dance Version"
of Daydream Believer. Released as part of a three-song suite titled
"Studio Versions of Monkee Songs," it's available
only as an mp3.
10. Alan Merrill
"played in several bands in Greenwich Village," according
to Amazon before he became
a Japanese TV host and soap opera actor.
Alan also recorded with Rick Derringer and Meatloaf,
and judging from this song — he's very sensitive.
11. The Monkees' original.
12. "Studio 99" is an artificial
construct of the music industry.
(Even more than the Monkees were.)
They've issue entire "tribute" albums in which they
mimick the sound of the Beatles, CCR, the
Rolling Stones — and even ABBA.
"No customer reviews yet. Be the first!"
13. The band "Life in General" couldn't
resist contributing their own version of the
song. "This album is a slight departure for Life in
General," writes their only fan on Amazon — but
they still give the album five stars.
14. Daniel O'Donnell wants to share
"The Best of his Rock and Roll Years"
(now available as a bargain-priced mp3 album
for just $6.99). The aging Davy Jones wannabe released
the album in 2007 — very close to the song's
40th anniversary.
15. "Daydream Believer' is surprisingly popular on the karaoke circuit -
- which is what attracted the karaoke producer "Ameritz" to issue their
own singalong-friendly version just for bars.
16. Who are "The Hit Crew"? They're another music industry construct,
best known for their concept album "Milf: Music I Like 2 F**k 2."
But besides trashy album covers, they've also
created their own version of this song.
Many of the rest of Amazon's matches
are false postives — same title/different song, or alternate
listings for
the same song.
But the search returned over 72 matches — enough to fill nearly
six entire albums.