WACKY WEDNESDAY: Let's Get Residential

On this Wacky Wednesday let us now praise The Residents and the joy they bring.

This anonymous music and art collective has been together for more than 40  years in various evolving forms.

Today we salute one particular aspect of The Residents -- their cover songs. They've been reinterpreting, deconstructing and mutating popular songs by better-known artists  in their own peculiar way  since the very beginning.

In fact, the very first track on their very first album Meet The Residents (1974) was a version of Nancy Sinatra's "Boots."  Check this out.



Since that time, The Residents have released entire albums of covers of specific artists including Elvis Presley (The King & Eye), Hank Williams and John Phillip Sousa (Stars & Hank Forever) and George Gershwin and James Brown (George & James). Here's a tune from that one.



The eyeball boys took a stab at Ray Charles ...



Here's a classic performance of an Elvis classic on Night Music, a syndicated show in the late '80s and early '90s that remains my favorite TV music show since Shindig. On that same episode, The Residents backed Conway Twitty on a song.



Here's a Rolling Stones favorite as re-imagined by The Residents



The Residents go country ... but I don't think Hank done it that a way.



And finally, a little Sousa for yousa