Sunshine Of Your Love

Cover version of the month #46

Spanky Wilson covers Cream

Those drums, they really kick, the horns jab hard, again and again, the vocals are so clear, raw, clear and if you don't get tingles down your spine when they rise ....

I'll be with you when the stars start falling

And listen to the way the bass becomes more important through the song as it progresses. Spanky Wilson's cover of Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love is seriously soulful, funky and jazzy. She lets rip and her vocals are jaw droppingly, spine tinglingly good. She is totally 100 percent on it!

Sunshine Of Your Love was originally written and recorded by Cream in 1967, the summer of love. It's slower, heavier and although it is still extremely powerful, for me Spanky Wilson's version blows it out of the water, I could listen to her version 10 times in a row.

I was fortunate to catch her live at The Arches back in the day when she was promoting an album she had recorded with Quantic Soul Orchestra - what a voice. Spanky Wilson's song You is outrageous, I discovered it on a Living In The Streets compilation - wah wah jazz, funky soul and other dirty grooves, I would highly recommend buying a copy.

I think I first came across the song in a Jimi Hendrix documentary when it cuts to him playing Hey Joe on the BBC programme A Happening For Lulu, halfway through he announces he is going to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in, I dedicate this to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce.

Hendrix and his band then lock into the groove and play an instrumental over the closing credits, with Hendrix at one stage shouting 'they're trying to throw us off the air'  or words to that effect. Try as I might, I can't locate this on YouTube. It is thrilling television, the best I can find is a mini documentary on it, unfortunately not letting the clip run from start to finish.

Again for me this version is much more thrilling than he original. Hendrix is playing for fun and lets his passion and imagination run wild.

It's not that the original is bad (see further down), it's just that, for me anyway, Wilson and Hendrix take the song to higher places. 

Read on for links to all previous cover versions of the month.

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt

14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine

16. California Soul

18. Wonder wall 

19. Dancing In The Dark

20. Always On My Mind

21. Ceremony

22. Heroes

23. Different Drum

24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

26. Mr Tambourine Man

27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

28. Superstar

29. Twist and Shout

30. Purple Rain

31. Baker Street

32. Not Fade Away

33. Stop Your Sobbing

34. I Don't Want To Grow Up

35. Serious Drugs

36. Dancing With Myself

37. How Does It Feel To Feel?

38. Love Buzz

39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash

41. Discoland

42. Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads

43. The Langley Schools Music Project
44. Witchi Tai To
45. Our Lips Are Sealed

Five for Friday 28/10/11

Here are 5 tunes to kick start your weekend.

We start with the slick, soulful and funky disco of 'Le Freak' by Chic

We the glide into Patti Jo's gorgeous 'Make Me Believe In You', the lyrics are just pure 'heart on sleeve' stuff.

We then storm into Martha Reeves & The Vandella's with the classic 'Nowhere To Run'. Martha will be playing Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January 2012.

Keeping up the pace we fly into Spanky Wilson with 'You', written by a certain Stevie Wonder.

This week ends in serious style courtesy of The Stones and this outrageous take on 'Sympathy For The Devil' from the memorial concert for Brian Jones in 1969.

Five for Friday 19/08/11 - Uplifting

5 tunes that should put a smile on your face, make you feel good and make you wanna dance;

Outrageously good

Michael Jackson singing with all his heart

So powerful, so good

The middle eight in this leaves me grinning from ear to ear


And to end Gladys Knight takes a hear breaking song and sings it with so much soul that it just lifts you