Martha & The Vandellas‘ 1964 hit “Dancing In The Street” has staying power, and was covered by many, including The Mamas & The Papas (1966):
Gah! See how long you can stand it. (At least Mama Cass did the Mash Potato.) Sixteen years later, it was covered by Van Halen (1982):
Holy crap. That was actually worse than the Mamas & Papas’ version. It wasn’t until David Bowie and Mick Jagger got together to do a halfway decent video cover (1985):
You don’t need to watch that full video either – it’s only posted for those who have never seen it and to restore faded memories for the rest of us. All that preening and prancing takes away from the original, but finally there’s an excellent stripped-down studio cut version, vocals only (2016):
Martha Reeves is laughing her JaggerBowie off about now.
Tip ‘o the Tam to Octopus for the heads-up on the strip-down. Have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow for more suffrage.
Tacky Raccoons 