Yet MORE Songs You may Not Have Known Were Covers: Sloop John B. (#6)

Tweet

Happy Monday! Ha, is that an oxymoron!! Oh, well, it's inevitable, and the weekly griping about it still hasn't stopped it from coming. Plus, I worked yesterday, so this feels more like Tuesday than Monday to me. Any day of the week is a good time for good music, and here's one of my all-time favorites. And, surprise, it's a cover! #6: Sloop John B. Back in '66 I wasn't listening to rock and roll, so the Beach Boys' classic Pet Sounds album didn't register with me. I do remember their harmonies, though, and I liked them. As I got older, "Sloop John B.," from Pet Sounds, quickly became a favorite....so much so that it's on my 100 favorites list. But, even now, Pet Sounds doesn't register with me. (Interestingly enough, Picky Wedia says that it wasn't very well-received when it came out, either. At least I'm not the only one.) "Sloop John B." was the first single from the album (which also featured two other great singles, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and the classic "God Only Knows"). And waddaya know, it's a cover. The song originally set sail (ha, see what I did there?) in the Bahamas, under the name "The Wreck of the John B." (No relation to "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.") According to Wikipedia, the earliest "sheet music" or transcription of the song dates to 1916. Carl Sandburg included it in a folk song book in the 1920s. And legendary folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a group singing it in the 1930s. It's been recorded under a number of different names, including "Wreck of the John B.," "John B. Sails," "Send for De Captain," and "I Want to Go Home" (the name Johnny Cash used when he covered it). Thanks to the Beach Boys' rendition, with a heavy emphasis on the Kingston Trio's arrangement for their 1958 version, it's forever the Sloop John B. Sloop John B. Original Title: "Wreck of the John B. Sails" Traditional Originally (commercially) recorded by the Weavers, 1950 Famously covered by the Beach Boys, 1966 Here's the Weavers' version: