Before praising today's cover tune, here's wishing everyone affected by Tuesday's passing of Cory Wells, one of Three Dog Night's three lead singers, well. Wells sang lead on the Randy Newman-penned tune, "Mama Told Me (Not To Come)," and it's difficult to imagine anyone singing it more distinctively than he did.
The Wolfgang Press covered "Mama..." in the early '90s. I played their version on KCOU and was struck by how quickly it got my attention. The keyboard intro drew me right in, the subtle vocals were an interesting choice, and the band's decision to transform the song into a dance tune worked. It's not the way I'd ever imagined hearing a tune that Three Dog Night popularized, but The Wolfgang Press deserves credit for thinking outside the box.
