What's This? - Flip Kowlier, featuring Gabriel Ríos and Michael Franti

I know that there have only been once-a-week posts here at Covering the Mouse lately. It has bee a busy time and I hope to get back to five days a week after New Year's Day.

But in the meantime, here is a special Christmas cover or you!

FLIP KOWLIER is a Belgian singer-songwriter who arranged this cover of What's This for the Music For Life fundraiser to help raise funds for the Red Cross Anti-Mine campaign by the popular Belgian radio station Studio Brussels in 2006.

The vocals are provided by GABRIEL RIOS, a Puerto Rican musician who lives in Belgium, and MICHAEL FRANTI, frontman of the band Spearhead and a political activist.

There are not many covers of What's This out there but this one is one of the best.

Merry Christmas!

What's This? Flip Kowlier, featuring Gabriel Ríos and Michael Franti 2006

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Diana Ross & the Supremes

Here's another track from the unreleased album by DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is one of the best tracks on the album and one of the most fun too! Some of the words have been changed to be relevant to the gender. Here is an example:

Because I was afraid to speak when I was just a lass
Me father gave me nose a tweak and told me I was sassy.

Clocking in under two minutes, this track is a great cross between motown and showtunes and features a great horn section.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Diana Ross & the Supremes 1967

My Name is James - Tico (Little Tempo)

The music of James and the Giant Peach haven't gone down in the history books as great Disney music, but some people seem to like the music enough to cover a song or two.

My Name is James has been covered here by TAKESHI "TICO" TOKI, the steel pan player from the Japanese dub group LITTLE TEMPO.

Little Tempo has been the number one dub group in Japan for the past ten years. They have recorded multiple albums, including one earlier this year! While not playing with Little Tempo, Tico is a DJ and a producer and tours the world with his other band, Breath Mark.

Whistle While You Work - Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, feat. Bea Wain

Shortly after the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Whistle While You Work became a hit song, topping the charts for several week following. The song became an instant classic and was used in many jazz and big band performances all over the country.

One of the earliest covers of this song was recorded in 1938 by jazz orchestra leader LARRY CLINTON featuring the wonderful voice of BEA WAIN.

Clinton was a prominent big band leader in the late 30s and 40s. While is notable for his arranging skills (he arranged music for Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers and many others) he is better known for taking classical work, such as the work of Debussy and Tchaikovsky, and arranging them for his jazz orchestra and adding lyrics for his singers to sing. He called this 'Swinging the Classics'.

When Clinton was putting together his band he knew he needed a singer. He heard Bea Wain sing an 8-bar solo on the radio one day and new that was his voice. He sought her out and asked her if she would sing for him and the rest is history.

Whistle While You Work Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, feat. Bea Wain 1938