GROW BIGGER EARS #20: Roy Wood, Under the Covers w/ Cheap Trick, Monkees, Wombles, Nancy Sinatra, Flashcubes

Got Wood in your ears? Covers of Roy Wood'n'Wizzard songs!

👆A festive way to kick off our Roy Wood and Wizzard Cover Playlist: Acapella men’s chorus, Out of the Blue, from England, with an all-singing, all-dancing Holiday ho-down!

As native Brit,

Ian Sharp

(of Substack’s LP, A Celebration of the Rock Album), asserted on our recent Roy Wood collab article:

“Roy Wood has always made superior pop/rock records, right back to the 1960s with The Move, probably because Wood was drawing on his appreciation of musical history going back to the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll and marrying it with the hippie spirit of the ‘60s and the pop charts.” Our Roy Wood primer, for your pleasure:

Roy Wood, The Wizzard of Odds, 76: The Rock Hall-of-Famer You've Never Heard Of

Wood and his Christmas chestnut with longtime fans, Cheap Trick, live, 2018:

The Roy Wood/Wizzard Covers Playlist

Never one to side-step an era-evocative rocker, Flash Cadillac, with “See My Baby Jive,” a 1973 Wizzard wonder:

Another Wood fan from the day, former Sparks bassist, Martin Gordon (he was on 1974’s Kimono My House…shown above, far left), and his 2003 “Tonight” turn:

With Mickey Dolenz singing lead, here are late Monkees Peter (2019), Davy (2012), and Mike (2021) with “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday,” on an album of Holiday songs recorded throughout the years, produced by Fountain of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and released in 2018:

The furry and the fuzzy: The mash-up that could only be made in heaven Wimbledon Common: Roy and the “British Banana Splits,” The Wombles (about whom more will be appearing on these pages soon):

Not a cover of a Wood song, but here, Roy is joined by a who’s-who of Brit rockers in 1983 doing a cover medley of half-a-dozen classic rock’n’roll songs (featuring Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, ELO’s Bev Bevan, Chas & Dave’s the late Chas Hodges), on a Wood-penned “We Are the Boys” song around which the covers are surrounded:

Sportin’ Wood: A Tribute to Roy Wood, a 2012 album by underheard ‘70s skinny tie/power pop stalwarts, Syracuse’s The Flashcubes (who entered the scene in 1978).

Again, songs recorded by fellow musicians who are also longtime Wood fans: