Battle of the Sexes BOTB RESULTS: Do You Know What I Mean?

It’s December 1st, typically a day when new battles are featured but since the last two weeks have been insane in my life, I’m just now getting to present my Battle of the Sexes Results from the November mid-month battle.

The championship round in the Battle of the Sexes for the cover of Lee Michaels’ 1971 hit “Do You Know What I Mean” had Kevin Naquin & the Ossun Playboys in the male corner up against Genya Ravan in the female corner.

Both came out swinging but you know how it goes, there’s only one winner in this battle. And although Genya Ravan gave it her all (she earned my vote too), the majority of folks preferred the male vocals for this song, giving the win to Kevin Naquin and those Ossun Playboys. 

The final tally was 4 votes for Genya and 7 votes for Kevin.

But one thing was apparent: most everyone agrees with me that no matter how good the cover, no one does it better than the original, Lee Michaels.

I found this fabulous video on YouTube of Lee playing live on a short-lived TV show called the “Faberge Album of the Month”. Does anyone remember that show? I never heard of it but when I did a search, I discovered the announcement of the show development in a February 1971 issue of Billboard, an industry trade magazine. The blurb as published read:

Hughes TV Series to Feature Acts

A series of television specials, which will feature top contemporary recording artists and their hit LPs, will kick off on the Hughes Sports Network late in March. Jackie Barnett, president of Dawn Productions, Inc, a newly formed television production company, will put together the series in association with Faberge. The TV series will be titled the “Faberge Album of the Month.”

Plans call for the development of ten “Faberge Album of the Month” specials to be simulcast in 140 top markets via the Hughes Sports Network.“Each half-hour special,” Barnett said, “will delve into the performance of the artist’s music as well as probe into the personal motivation and musical attitudes of various artists.

The first major artists signed for their own half-hour special are Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Dave Mason and Mama Cass.

(Source: Billboard, Feb 6, 1971 issue, page 24)

Lee Michaels appeared on the show in August of 1971 and the video includes performances as well as interview clips and other cool tidbits about him, like his love of big cats, complete with footage of him with several of his beautiful Siberian Mountain Tigers! The battle song can be found at the 8:50 mark on the video.

In case this video doesn’t embed, here is the direct link to it on YouTube.

As always, thanks for participating in my battle. As previously mentioned, I’m going to go on a temporary blog hiatus for a few months…and a temporary life hiatus, if all goes as planned…

But I will make the rounds and vote in all of your December 1st battles. So see you soon!

Rock on, my friends…

Peace and love always…

 

 

Battle of the Bands with the DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN BATTLE OF THE SEXES

It’s mid-month already! How did that happen? It seems it’s been happening more and more lately, this flyin’ time thing. I find myself saying “Stop the bus! I wanna get off!” … I just want to take minute and breathe. Do you know what I mean?

So I’m going to grab that minute while I can. After dealing with one crisis after another over here I need to take a break. I’m going to pull back from blogging for a few months, at least until after the New Year. Today’s battle, the culmination of my Do You Know What I Mean Battle of the Sexes, will be my last for 2018.

So let’s talk about this battle: One of those crises mentioned above caused me to miss posting the Results for the Female round earlier in the month. Let me fill you in on how that ended. If you were following the comments, you might already know how it ended: Between Gwen McRae and Genya Raven, poor Gwen took a thumpin’. The battle was nearly a shutout but for the vote cast for Gwen by John. Genya Raven handily captured the win in the Female round with a 9 to 1 final tally (including my vote).

And now we have our final duel in declaring the best cover of Lee Michaels’ hit song “Do You Know What I Mean.” Will it be the version with male vocals or female vocals? While I think most will agree that no one does it better than the original recording artist. After all, Lee Michaels, who wrote, performed and produced the song, took it to #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Cash Box Top 100 in the summer of 1971. The song also closed the year with an impressive finish garnering a rank of #19 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1971.

You’ll get to decide which sex does it better as we kick off this Do You Know What I Mean Battle of the Sexes as our two finalists take the stage. First up is the male contender:

 Contender #1:  Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys

As a quick reminder: Kevin Naquin is a Cajun accordion player in south Louisiana from Ossun, Louisiana. Naquin is the lead singer and accordion player in the Cajun band Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys. In 2000, he won the CFMA – 2000 Album of the Year with his album “Pour La Premiere Fois” and CFMA – 2000 Song of the Year. He has recorded with Swallow Records and Bayou Groove Productions. He released a version of this song on his 2014 album, No Guarantee.

 

And here is this battle’s female contender:

Contender #2:  Genya Ravan

Genya Ravan, a.k.a. Goldie (born Genyusha Zelkovicz; April 19, 1945) is an American rock singer and producer. She was lead singer of The Escorts, Goldie & the Gingerbreads, and Ten Wheel Drive. In 2013, Genya released an album entitled Cheesecake Girl and this cover of the Lee Michaels hit is from that album:

 

Now it’s up to you to declare the winner in the Battle of the Sexes for Best Cover of Lee Michaels’ “Do You Know What I Mean”.

TIME TO VOTE! Which version gets your vote, the Female contender or the Male contender? 

When you’re done voting, please visit these other BOTB participants and check out their cool battles:

• Stephen T. McCarthy’s Battle of the Bands Blog
• Tossing it Out
• Mike’s Ramblings
• Curious as a Cathy 
• The Sound of One Hand Typing
• THE DOGLADY’S DEN 
• Jingle Jangle Jungle 
• Cherdo on the Flipside

Thanks for your participation and your votes! Voting will be open until midnight on November 22nd and I’ll post results shortly thereafter. Until then, Rock On my friends…

 

Battle of the Bands RESULTS – “Do You Know What I Mean” – the Male round

Wow, was this ever a close race! The two contenders for the Male round of the battle of Lee Michaels’ “Do You Know What I Mean“, Kevin Naquin and Myles Goodwyn, were neck and neck until the very end.

I liked both of these covers, which is why I chose them for this battle. Not everyone agrees of course, but I truly had a hard time deciding where to place my vote. In the end I went with Myles Goodwyn. I preferred the music and also the added vocals of Lee Aaron.

However, Kevin Naquin earned ONE more vote than did Myles. Final Tally:

Kevin Naquin & the Ossun Playboys:   7 votes

Myles Goodwyn w/Lee Aaron:    6 votes

So Naquin will be in the wings awaiting the outcome of the battle of the Female artists who covered this song. On November 1st, be sure to come listen to the two Female covers and vote for the one you like best. The winners of that battle will face off with Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys in the mid-month November battle, the upcoming “Do You Know What I Mean” Battle of the Sexes.

Although it was Kevin Naquin who won, I’m going to leave you with some early songs by Myles Goodwyn, back when he was fronting the Canadian rock band April Wine. A founding member of the band, Myles was the lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter. I remember loving the name of the band and I had their 1979 album Harder…Faster. Here is a playlist of all the tracks on that album. The first song is their signature song.

Thanks for participating in the premier battle in the Do You Know What I Mean Battle of the Sexes. Come back on November 1st for the Female covers of the song.

Until then, rock on…