Covers Corner: A worldly exploration with the Gipsy Kings
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Artist:
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Album:The Very Best Of Gipsy Kings
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Track:I've Got No Strings, Volare, A Mi Manera
Well, it's been a few days since I've posted, so I thought I would come back with a bang.In this edition of Covers Corner, I'll be posting covers of 3 wholly different tunes with some rather unique origins, yet all of them have been covered by the same band.And that band is... Gipsy Kings, a group who has popularized a genre of music called Rumba Catalana, which is kind of like flamenco pop. Their music lies in the various members' origins; though they are from Montpelier and Arles in France, their parents fled there during the Spanish Civil War. Their ancestors were Roma, which is a group of actual gypsies that are believed to have originated in India around the 11th century and lived in parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, Western Asia & the Middle East.
I was first introduced to the music of Gipsy Kings when I discovered this first cover on a Disney tribute album titled Simply Mad About the Mouse. Disney hired a wide variety of musicians to cover classic Disney tunes. The resulting album featured covers by Billy Joel, Ric Ocasek (formerly of The Cars), L.L. Cool J, Bobby McFerrin and others. It's a great little album if you are a fan of the classic Disney movies. I originally bought the album when it came out in 1991 on cassette, which was released just a year after their 1982 debut album Allegria was released in the U.S. 
Anyway, one of my favorite tunes from Simply Mad About the Mouse is Gipsy Kings' cover of "I've Got No Strings" from the 1940 animated film Pinocchio. The song was originally sung by Dickie Jones, the young boy who voiced the title character in the film. Though his last film credit was in 1965, according to the Internet Movie Database, ol' Dick (as he is now known) is still around and celebrated his 80th birthday this past February. Here's the Gipsy Kings version:
See next 2 comments for more GK covers.
I was first introduced to the music of Gipsy Kings when I discovered this first cover on a Disney tribute album titled Simply Mad About the Mouse. Disney hired a wide variety of musicians to cover classic Disney tunes. The resulting album featured covers by Billy Joel, Ric Ocasek (formerly of The Cars), L.L. Cool J, Bobby McFerrin and others. It's a great little album if you are a fan of the classic Disney movies. I originally bought the album when it came out in 1991 on cassette, which was released just a year after their 1982 debut album Allegria was released in the U.S. Anyway, one of my favorite tunes from Simply Mad About the Mouse is Gipsy Kings' cover of "I've Got No Strings" from the 1940 animated film Pinocchio. The song was originally sung by Dickie Jones, the young boy who voiced the title character in the film. Though his last film credit was in 1965, according to the Internet Movie Database, ol' Dick (as he is now known) is still around and celebrated his 80th birthday this past February. Here's the Gipsy Kings version:See next 2 comments for more GK covers.
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