(Roughly) Daily

18 years ago last summer, a rap artist named Sir Mix-a-Lot hit the top of the pop charts with “Baby Got Back.”  The single finished the year at #2 on the annual chart, won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, and has been ranked by VH-1 as the sixth-greatest song of the 1990s and one of the 20 best hip hop songs of all time…

It should come as no surprise that a tune so impactful has spawned any number of covers.  Now, thanks to the good folks at 10 Zen Monkeys, readers can take a quick tour of the mash-ups, re-mixes, and “alternative treatments” that have kept the dream alive.  Your correspondent’s personal favorite: this rendition by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine…

See the others at 10 Zen Monkeys…  Baby Got Legs.

As we gently tap our tuning forks, we might recall that it was on this date in 1972 that the Temptations scored their fourth and final #1 hit when “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.  In the course of their storied career, the Temptations had 38 Top 40 hits (not just more than any other Motown Records artist/act, but more than any American pop group ever), won three Grammys, and sold tens of millions of records.

The Temptations during their psychedelic period of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Left to right: Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Dennis Edwards

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