Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat/The Siamese Cat Song/The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room - On the Record Cast
It's been a few months since I posted a track from the On the Record Broadway Musical.

The main bulk of this song is Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat from the Aristocats but you will also hear a sample of the Siamese Cat Song from Lady and the Tramp as well as the Tiki Tiki Tiki Room from the Enchanted Tiki Room ride in Disneyland.

Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat/The Siamese Cat Song/The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room On the Record Cast 2005

Labels: aristocats, enchanted tiki room, everybody wants to be a cat, jazz, lady and the tramp, on the record, siamese cat song, tiki tiki tiki room

  ¶ 4:15 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Everybody Wants to Be a Cat - Brian Setzer
The famous Rockabilly singer and guitarist BRIAN SETZER turns 49 today and I have chosen his cover of Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat from the Aristocats for today's post.

Setzer has been in the music scene since the early 80s when he fronted the rockabilly act known as the Stray Cats. After the group broke up in 1984 and Setzer released a solo album, Setzer decided to take a more swing approach to his next project. He formed the 17 piece BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA which still performs across the country to this date. Setzer also wrote and recorded the theme song for Disney's House of Mouse

If you are a fan of cover songs like I am, then you should check out the Brian Setzer Orchestra if you haven't already. Since the band's style is taken from the Big Band era you will hear a lot of jazz standards on their albums (Jump, Jive and Wail, Mac the Knife, Pensylvania 6-5000). They also have two albums of Christmas music for all you Christmas cover lovers (You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and Nutcracker Suite are two good ones)!

And to top it all off, last year the Orchestra released Wolfgang's Night Out, an album of classical music turned Rockabilly which won them a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album!

This version of Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat fits Brian's style perfectly, however, I would have like to hear him include the second half of the song and have the rest of the Orchestra kick in.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat Brian Setzer 2004

Labels: aristocats, brian setzer, everybody wants to be a cat, jazz, mosh pit on disney

  ¶ 9:32 AM 4 Comments Links to this post

  Everybody Wants to Be a Cat - Claude Bolling Big Band
After Walt died in 1966 the Walt Disney Company realized that they still needed to carry on with his work. So they continued to work on a story about a group of wealthy cats in France who get kidnapped by a greedy butler who is jealous that his boss left her inheritance to her cats rather than him. When the film, The Aristocats was finished it was released on this day in 1970, thirty-seven years ago.

What a great tribute to Everybody Wants to Be a Cat to have CLAUDE BOLLING, the famous French composer and jazz pianist, arrange an excellent big band version of this song. Bolling, a child prodigy (he was a professional jazz pianist at 14 years old!), has been recording albums with his big band since the late fifties. He has also scored over a hundred movies and has several albums on which he plays with famous classical musicians.

In 2004, he released CINEMA HITS, a disc full of movie themes in that big band style that he is so good at. Although this is the only Disney track on the disc, there are some other classic movie themes that are worth taking a listen to.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat Claude Bolling Big Band 2004

Labels: aristocats, big band, cinema hits, claude bolling, claude bolling big band, everybody wants to be a cat, jazz

  ¶ 2:28 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Everybody Wants to Be a Cat - Psapp
Hi! I'm Brian Ibbott, and I'm the producer and host of a cover song podcast called Coverville, dedicated to my favorite hobby: babbling endlessly about myself cover songs. I produce the show two to three times a week, and shows are sometimes themed, based around a single artist, or made up entirely of listener requests.

Kurtis has generously asked me to guest post, and to pick one of my favorite Disney covers to talk about.

I was very young when I saw the movie that the original comes from, but I'll do my best to give you a quick rundown of the plotline. A family walks into a talent agent's office, and the father tells the talent agent that he's got a great act. The agent tells him that he usually doesn't book family acts, but he asks the father what they do. The father tells him that it's much better if they can demonstrate it to him live. After putting on a show about a Parisian cat named Duchess and her kittens, and a charming stray named Thomas, the talent agent asks family what they're called. The family answers, "The Aristocats!" Or something like that. I'm really bad with movies.

The covering band is a British duo called PSAPP (pronounced 'sap'). They're most noted for being the artists behind the theme song to the wildly successful Grey's Anatomy TV show, but their choice to cover this song isn't completely out of left field. From their covers to their originals, and even the graphics on their website, it becomes apparent that Psapp are cat fanciers. As part of a recent Q Magazine soft rock anthem cover CD, they even covered Al Stewart's Year of the Cat. A Love Cats cover can't be far behind.

Their interpretation of Everybody Wants To Be A Cat from the 5th volume of the Ubiquity Records' excellent REWIND! series, incorporates the best elements of their sound. Warm organic instruments, layered with electronics and everyday objects used as musical percussion, along with sampled meows, all capped off with the lovely whisper-smooth vocals of singer Galia Durant.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat Psapp 2006

Labels: aristocats, electronic, everybody wants to be a cat, jazz, pop, psapp, rewind

  ¶ 12:27 PM 4 Comments Links to this post