To finish off the week, here are a couple of mash-ups, since I know some of you love ‘em as much as I do.
Beyoncé Knowles has been with Destiny’s Child since the group started in 1990, but she has clearly outgrown them and it’s unlikely we see them together again, except for the inevitable reunion tour when Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland need the money. Hey, maybe some day, everybody will kiss and make up and there’ll be a supergroup with LaTavia Roberson, LeToya Luckett and Farrah Franklin (Don’t laugh — Boyz II Men did it and there’s a new Fugees album coming).
Beyoncé started her acting career by appearing with Mike Myers in Austin Powers In Goldmember, playing blaxploitation-style heroine Foxxy Cleopatra. The soundtrack featured the solo single “Work It Out,” produced by The Neptunes. It proved to be an irresistible lure to mash-up producers.
Australian bootlegger bangers&mash took Beyoncé’s vocals and laid them over Ernest Ranglin’s instrumental rendition of “54-46 Was My Number” (the classic ska song by Toots & The Maytals), taken from Ranglin’s 1996 album Below the Bassline.
Guitarist Ranglin was one on the great unsung heroes of ska and reggae. He was born in Manchester, Jamaica in 1932. He became of the key session players at the famed Studio One. He played with Prince Buster, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, and The Skatalites; he’s also on Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop.” The first Island Records release was a Ranglin record in 1958. He’s still active and released the album Surfin’, last year. Read more about him here.
Then we have Dropbass with “Kill Beyonce,” which takes the vocals and drops them over a song made famous from the trailer to Kill Bill. The trail is a little complicated.
Tomoyasu Hotei composed the theme to Junji Sakamoto’s film Another Battle (Shin jingi naki tatakai) (2000), a movie he also acted in. Another Battle’s title (a.k.a. Battle Without Honor) attempts to connect with Fukasaku Kinji’s Battles Without Honor or Humanity (Jingi naki tatakai) (1973). Quentin Tarantino then used the music in his film Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), titling the track “Battles Without Honor or Humanity.” The song became popular in the world of sports; ESPN and other programmers used the song and the Yankees’ Hideki Matsui began using it as his entrance song. It was also used in a number of car commercials around the world. Read more about Hotei here.
In addition, Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions took the vocals and cleverly combined them with Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” (get it?) to create “Work It Out With A Foxy Lady,” but that’s enough for now.
bangers&mash – Work Out My Number
2 Responses
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girish Says:
Merci, Monsieur Pop View.
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Needcoffee.com » New Music. Well, New For Us, Anyway... Says:
[...] Dropbass. Somebody combined “Work It Out” with Tomoyasu Hotei’s song “Battles Without Honor or Humanity,” which is apparently actually called just something like “Theme from ‘Another Battle’”. This mashup should not work. And it does. And that fills me with dread for all mankind. Found via The Pop View. [...]