For a variety of reasons I haven’t had a lot of time to work on a theme this week. So here’s a themeless collection of tunes for your dining and dancing pleasure.

Taut French Joel “We Will Rock You” (Queen)
I’m a Queen fan from back when I was in grade school but I’ve always hated the brain-dead fratboy stomp of this song. It just seemed so transparently calculated to be played at sporting events. So it does my heart good to hear this rootsy acoustic version.

Mel Torme “Happy Together” (The Turtles)
For a long time I thought Mr. Torme’s nickname was the Velvet Frog. I was a little disappointed to find out that he was really known as the Velvet Fog. Sure it made more sense but it just isn’t as cool of a nickname. Speaking of cool, this swinging take on the Turtles has it in spades.

16 Horsepower “Wayfaring Stranger” (Burl Ives)
One of my biggest musical regrets is that I never got to hear 16 Horsepower play live. I think it’s because they were happening when my daughter was very young and I wasn’t going to as many live shows as I usually do. I just love these guys, the singer sounds like a tortured Old Testament prophet.

Christopher Scott “I Say A Little Prayer” (Dionne Warwick)
In Mr. Scott’s defense this is from the days when the Moog synthesizer was a new instrument and this stuff probably sounded modern and contemporary to him. As opposed to how dated and cheesy it sounds now.

Mark Lizotte “I Write The Songs” (Barry Manilow)
I never thought there was anything good inside any Barry Manilow song until I heard this. Who knew there was a slide guitar blues song hiding inside this schmaltz?