One of my passions outside of cover songs is baseball, and in particular fantasy baseball. I helped found a Rotisserie league over twenty years ago and last week I won my league championship. This is almost as good as when I won the championship the same year young Freakette was born. I’m very happy and very proud of myself and I’m going to shout it from the top of the tallest gasoline refinery in town. Hopefully things will work out better for me than they did for James Cagney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjVWORC3Wcc

Shonen Knife “Top Of The World” (The Carpenters)
The original version was happy enough but this one is positively joyous. The world’s greatest Japanese girl pop group sounds elated to be on top of the world. As am I.

Susanna And The Magical Orchestra “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock And Roll)” (AC/DC)
Bon Scott almost bragged about being ripped off and abused by record labels, concert promoters and other lowlifes as he celebrated his ability to rise above those hardships and find success in the music business. Susanna Karolina Wallumrød takes a much more thoughtful approach, pondering every screwjob and wondering if it was all worth it in the end.

The Bobs “Lonely At The Top” (Randy Newman)
Randy Newman wrote this song for Frank Sinatra, who apparently lacked a sense of irony and refused to sing it. Too bad, because it would have been fun to hear the Bobs sing against his version. Check out the subsonic low notes Richard Bob hits. I feel sorry for his house pets when he sings in the shower.

The Oath “We Are The Champions” (Queen)
I was a big Queen fan when I was in high school, which wasn’t easy when all my peers were devoted to the Holy Trinity of the Who, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin. I never liked this song though. It always seemed very calculated to be played at sports venues to rack up royalty payments. The Oath completely deconstructs it into a barely-listenable noise soundscape. Somewhere Freddie Mercury is spinning in his grave.

Ksine “My Way” (Frank Sinatra)
Here’s a song that Sinatra didn’t like (he found it pretentious) but sang anyway. In terms of attitude and irony I prefer the Sid Vicious version but this one has a nice bouncy rhythm and beautiful washes of distorted electric guitars.