The many paths that can lead to the discovery of good music can be interesting… and they can also be a little embarrassing. Back in the 1980s, when everything was shiny with clean edges and far too much hair product, I was plopped down in front of the television with my parents watching The Tonight Show when a British singer named Matt Bianco performed. Though far too pretty and polished, Bianco was, in a way, a little ahead of his time, mining a retro vibe that wasn’t all that popular in that era. He played a song called “Yeh Yeh†that managed to lodge itself in my head forever.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8NKWHDQzX8?fs=1]
“Yeh Yeh†was originally a Latin-flavored instrumental recorded by Mongo Santamaria (what a name) in 1963. It was a more languid affair back then, with inexplicably jarring vocal interjections, but still a wonderfully infectious groove.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D40_b7kHmIo?fs=1]
The same year, Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan took the song and added some speed, some shimmy and some lyrics.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFKniXXEjg?fs=1]
The more digging that is done on this jazzy tune, the more interpretations pop up. The perhaps ironically-named group Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames did a passable version in 1965. Paul Anka covered the song in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and it was predictably un-groovy. And in 2001, They Might Be Giants put their characteristic twist on it for their Mink Car album.