Tom Jones Vs. Sammy Davis, Jr: The Ides Of March Horn Rock Showdown

I grow increasingly  fascinated with the late 60s/early 70s genre of "Horn Rock" with each passing year. On the one hand, it took legitimate musical skill — the sort of jazz chops we rarely see in popular music these days — to pull Horn Rock off; on the other, it was undeniably cheesy as fuck, the sort of sound tailor-made for variety shows and high school marching bands looking to add a bit of "now" to their musical programming.

The postive aspect of that putative downside, however, is that Horn Rock was also tailor-made for such variety show denizens as Tom Jones and Sammy Davis, Jr., guys who clearly relished the chance to strut their stuff (vocal and otherwise) against the gonad-grabbing vibrations of a live horn section. Both ToJo and Sammola were born to sing Horn Rock; and since today is "the Ides of March," let's pit them mano-a-mano on competing versions of The Ides of March's "Vehicle," perhaps the quintessential Horn Rock hit. Yes, that's right — we've got a Horn Rock Battle Royale on our hands. Who will be the winner?

The Pontypridd Powerpack wins the toss, and elects to go first:

And now it's Sammy's turn to do HIS thing:

And the verdict is...

Great God in Heaven I love 'em both, but even with the superbly testosterrific performance from ToJo (which is also abetted by a killer Big Jim Sullivan guitar solo), I've gotta give the crown to Sammy for his masterful command of the band, his killer soul scream at the end, and that unexpected "lemme lay it on you one more time" key change at the 1:14 mark, thrown in just to let you know he can indeed "take you anywhere you wanna go". And that, peoples, is how a consummate entertainer rolls...

(Now, if I could only find a clip of Gary Puckett doing this song...)

Comments

[stu]

I think if Gary Puckett had to sing this, his head would pop off like the top of a dandelion.