Sights + Sounds
Tom Petty's version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" (listen here) is part of Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, due out Tuesday. John Lennon, Elton John, Dr. John, Neil Young, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, and others perform Domino's bumptious R&B on a double-CD set benefiting the Tipitina's Foundation, which purchases instruments for New Orleans school children and funds other community programs.
Joni Mitchell reworks "Big Yellow Taxi" for Shine, her first release since 2002's Travelogue. Mitchell's 1970 hit fits her politically engaged new album perfectly, and you can hear it here.
Michael Jackson's famous "Thriller" video, directed by John Landis, was great creepy fun when it hit MTV in 1983, and many still consider it the best video ever. But you're in for a shock if you still haven't seen the version performed by inmates of the Cebu Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines, which has been racking up millions of views on YouTube. The inmates have also performed "Sister Act" and "Jailhouse Rock," but "Thriller" is their masterpiece. Watch and read more about it here.
Grateful Dead fans will swoon over this intimate onstage seven-minute version of "Dark Star" from 1970.
Listening to Easy Living this morning while running reminded me how much I love the quintessential cool playing of saxophonist Paul Desmond. Watch him perform his beautiful ballad "Emily" at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1975.