I Like the Cover Better - Rock Around the Clock

The deal with this series is that it's a song that I like in the original - or the most popular version you'd know of, in some cases . . . but I like a cover, better.

The original? Bill Haley and His Comets, Rock Around the Clock.


Rockabilly classic.

The version I like better? Both of these versions by Tenpole Tudor / Edward Tenpole - one from when he was getting flogged as a possible replacement for John Lydon in Sex Pistols, the other a different version off of a Stiff Records compliation. The first is also the first place I heard Tenpole Tudor.

Pistols version:


Listen to that fantastic Steve Jones guitar over classic Paul Cook drumming.

Stiff version:




And fuck, I should just do a post on Tenpole Tudor. Underrated band.

Sham Pistols - Natural Born Killer

At one point, the Sex Pistols had broken up and then Sham 69 broke up.

So Steve Jones & Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) joined up with Dave Tregunna & Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69) teamed up and made music.

Here is Natural Born Killer.



It's not clear what they were called, if anything, but they've been retroactively named the Sham Pistols. Which is as accurate as it is ironic, really. They really rock in a way that's very much a blend of the two bands. You can hear so much of the Jones/Cook blend you got in the post-Rotton pistols music with that later Sham 69 vocals.