Years ago, I was a big fan of a local musical group called Big Daddy. They had a gimmick: They'd take modern songs — "modern" being defined more or less as anything since Kennedy was shot — and rearrange them to sound like fifties' tunes. But they were also a very good band — good singers, good musicians, good arrangements. I dragged a lot of friends out to see Big Daddy play at a local club that ain't there no more called At My Place, and I of course bought all the Big Daddy records and even hired one of their number to do some voices on Garfield and Friends.
Here's the kind of thing they did. This is the infamous Barry Manilow "I Write the Songs" as arranged and rearranged by Big Daddy. Ignore the silly Shakespearean open which was part of the show on which they appeared…
Good stuff. Big Daddy did several albums which are alas not all in print but which they have happily (for us) posted online at their website. You can also purchase them as digital downloads on Amazon or iTunes. Go there, listen around and I think you'll become a fan. Which brings us to the next step…
The core members of Big Daddy have reunited and are working on a new album which they're attempting to fund via Kickstarter. I have received literally hundreds of requests to plug, endorse or otherwise urge followers of this site to support Kickstarter campaigns and until now, I just kind of put them off and declined to get involved. I will probably still abstain on those who ask but the Big Daddy guys didn't ask…so go to this page and pledge to support them. At this moment, they're $31,880 from making this new creation a reality. Here's more about it…