BOTB – “She Drives Me Crazy”

I recently got on (another) Fine Young Cannibals kick after hearing one of their songs in the movie soundtrack from It’s Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. I loved that movie! It is so funny, especially when the characters played by Meryl Streep and Steve Martin decide to smoke some dope and go to a party. I laughed my ass off! Anyway, the Fine Young Cannibals song “Good Thing” was featured in the movie. I saw the movie back in April during the A-Z and I realized I hadn’t included the group in my Musical Tour of My Life A-Z Challenge. Oh crap! By that time we were already passed the letter F but I went back in to my post and added some great FYC songs, if you’re interested.

Today’s battle is going to feature covers of the Fine Young Cannibals original song She Drives Me Crazy. Here’s a bit about the FYC and a video of their song, but they are not part of the battle. Instead I’m pitting a gothic metal band against an a-cappella group. Should be interesting!

Background on the song: “She Drives Me Crazy” is a wildly popular song recorded by English group Fine Young Cannibals, included on their 1988 album The Raw & the Cooked. The song peaked at Number 5 on the British singles chart in the band’s native U.K. in January 1989 before hitting Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US on 15 April 1989. “She Drives Me Crazy” also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Spain and on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. It also was a top 3 hit on the German and Dutch Top 40.

Here is the Fine Young Cannibals version of the song (DON’T VOTE FOR THIS VERSION) –

THE BATTLE is between these two groups:

Bliss – a gothic metal band from Germany, this song was covered on their 1999 album Re-Thought from Massacre Records. I really couldn’t find anything about the band online except links to buy their albums. There are a few other bands called Bliss but not much info available about this particular band. Weird. If you find anything on them, feel free to post it in the Comments section. I went crazy searching and got really frustrated. The Wikipedia pages for the band Bliss are about a different band, not this one. Oh well. Here’s their cover of She Drives Me Crazy:

The Flying Pickets – The Flying Pickets is a British a cappella vocal group. They recorded this a cappella version for their 1994 The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1 album.

The band has a neat history: Taken from Wikipedia: The name ‘Flying Pickets’ refers to mobile strikers who travel in order to join a picket. The band of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 1982 from a group of actors who had been active with him in John McGrath’s ‘7:84 Theatre Group’, a fringe theatre organization who had sung a cappella in their production of the 1981 play One Big Blow. The group chose the name The Flying Pickets as band members had played a part in the UK miners’ strikes of 1972 and 1974. The Flying Pickets came up with the then novel concept of transferring the art of a cappella to the pop music scene. Joining Hibbard in the Group were Rick Lloyd (who also wrote the music to One Big Blow), Gareth Williams, David Brett, Ken Gregson (real name Kenneth Gregory) and Red Stripe (real name David Gittins).

The height of the group’s fame coincided with the Miners Strike of 1984, when the National Union of Mineworkers called strike action following the National Coal Board’s decision to close 20 pits – a move which would claim some 20,000 jobs. The Flying Pickets were very vocal regarding their support of the miners during the dispute and came to blows with the record label Virgin after they picketed Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. They also performed benefit gigs for the miners. Hibbard himself claimed that their political beliefs probably had a detrimental effect regarding the group’s mainstream image but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make, one well known record store refused to sell the groups albums due to their support of strike action.

The Flying Pickets’ line-up has been changing constantly throughout the years, but the band never died; since the Pickets began, there have been about 27 different band members. The last member of the original line-up, David Brett, left the band in 1990. However in 1994, the original line-up (minus Lloyd) reformed to record one more album.

And that’s when they recorded the cover of She Drives Me Crazy:

TIME TO VOTE! Which version do you prefer and let us know why.

And when you’re done voting, be sure to visit the other BOTB participants and check out their battles:

• Far Away Series
• Stephen T. McCarthy’s Battle of the Bands Blog
• Tossing it Out
• This Belle Rocks
• Mike’s Ramblings
• Curious as a Cathy 
• Book Lover
• The Sound of One Hand Typing
• dcrelief ~ Battle of the Bands 
• Shady Dell Music & Memories
• Cherdo on the Flipside 
• THE DOGLADY’S DEN 
• Jingle Jangle Jungle 
• WOMEN: We Shall Overcome
• Alex J. Cavanaugh(when the Battle falls on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday)
• J.A. Scott
• Novel Brews