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:: George Morgan - Wichita Lineman ::

:: The Lettermen - Wichita Lineman ::

:: Sammy Davis Jr. - Wichita Lineman ::

And now the last of my Wichita Lineman posts for a while anyway, until I obtain more of 'em anyway. I did in fact save the best for last.

The George Morgan version is nice. George is mainly known for his late 40s hit, "Candy Kisses". By the time he made this album, Sings Like A Bird, his career had lost much of it's sheen, but thankfully George persevered and with the help of musicians like Ben Keith, Pete Drake, D.J. Fontana and a fella named Billy Linneman (?!) he turned in quite a lovely effort indeed.

You can't go wrong with The Lettermen, can you? I kind of liked some of their stuff I heard on the car radio when I was a kid, but now I have to wonder just who bought their records. My guess is it was your grandma. They were such nice looking young men after all, and their music was non-offensive and safe. It's hard for me to imagine any one of those three guys (let alone all three) as the lonely Kansas telephone pole climbing protagonist in our favorite song, but if you close your eyes as you listen, you'll probably fall asleep.

And now for the main event. The one I've been saving all this time. If you find The Lettermen hard to swallow as Linemen, how about Sammy Davis Jr.? Let's take stock for a minute: Glen Campbell? Sure. Tom Jones? Sure, why not? O.C. Smith? Dave Dudley? Tennessee Ernie Ford? Hell yeah! Shit, I'll even believe the chick from Brazil 66 (oh yeah, I made a mistake in a previous post when I said something about female vocalists never attempting this song. I posted that version for God's sake.) before I can see Sammy in that role. I can see Sammy helping a hot chick get high on some fine California weed though.



You might say the arrangement is a little bit funky, however considering this was on Motown Records, it ain't that funky.

Anyway I hope you've heard enough of Wichita Lineman for now. I know I have.


Mike

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 7:07 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.