{"id":14832,"date":"2021-03-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14832"},"modified":"2021-03-18T13:37:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T13:37:49","slug":"various-artists-no-matter-what-revisiting-the-hits-a-tribute-to-badfinger-cleopatra-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14832","title":{"rendered":"Various Artists – \u2018No Matter What\u2019-Revisiting The Hits; A Tribute To Badfinger (Cleopatra Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Well, this piqued my curiosity. An \u201call-star\u201d tribute to Badfinger, one of the best UK bands ever, from a songwriting perspective. I will spare you their tragic story, if you\u2019re unaware. Let\u2019s just say they deserved so much more, both professionally and personally. And, with a few exceptions, they deserved better than what is on offer here. A few gems, but a missed opportunity to celebrate their talents with a melody.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Never mind. You can\u2019t really mess up songs like \u2018No Matter What\u2019, though the lead vocal of Vanilla Fudge\u2019s Mark Stein is somewhat perfunctory. The song shines through, even a favourite of the departed Wogan. He knew a good tune. \u2018Come And Get It\u2019, unmistakably McCartney, features Rick Wakeman tinkling the ivories here, and sounds almost exactly like the original.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t aware of Carl Giammarese, but he does a creditable job of \u2018I Don\u2019t Mind\u2019. However, the stand-out track is \u2018Day After Day\u2019 with the legendary Terry Reid on vocals and Ian Anderson on flute. Something in my eye, as they say. Quite beautiful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rick Springfield is a suitable singer for \u2018Love Is Gonna Come At Last\u2019, as it sounds much like his tunes, and is as professionally performed as you\u2019d expect, while Matthew Sweet nails a lovely version of \u2018Baby Blue\u2019, another favourite of mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Midnight Caller\u2019 wasn\u2019t their strongest song, but the Legendary Pink Dots do it justice, and Sonny Landreth gets bluesy on \u2018Suitcase\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another \u2018lump in the throat\u2019 moment comes courtesy of Albert Lee\u2019s take on \u2018Sweet Tuesday Morning\u2019; a feather-light touch, he really pays tribute to the song. And even Todd Rundgren holds back to give a tasteful version of \u2018Without You\u2019 that I imagine would get a thumbs up from the band themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not a disaster, but it could have been so much more satisfying with perhaps some unexpected guests. The highlights are, however, a real treat.<\/p>\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Martin Chamarette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, this piqued my curiosity. An \u201call-star\u201d tribute to Badfinger, one of the best UK bands ever, from a songwriting perspective. I will spare you their tragic story, if you\u2019re unaware. Let\u2019s just say they deserved so much more, both professionally and personally. And, with a few exceptions, they deserved better than what is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[6411],"class_list":["post-14832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-badfinger","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14929,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832\/revisions\/14929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}