You Give Me Fever!

Nancy Dean made a comment in the followup to her record collection piece that got me thinking about the legendary singers of our lives, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. One who came to mind was Peggy Lee and her rendition of the Little Willy John number, Fever. I got on YouTube and found a performance of Lee doing the number accompanied by only an upright bass and tom-tom drums. Listening to it my wife ask if someone else had done the number. In the margin I noticed a video of the blues legend, Buddy Guy, performing the song. It’s interesting to compare the two interpretations; the one so minimalist and the other more filled out but just as soulful. The Buddy Guy version has one of the best sax solos to be experienced as well as a great call and response between the sax player and Guy on guitar.

2 thoughts on “You Give Me Fever!”

  1. Don’t feel ambitious enough to look it up this morning, but there’s an absolutely KILLER version on the Austin City Limits show with Marc Cohn (“Walking in Memphis”, “Silver Thunderbird”) accompanied only by snapping fingers and guitarist Jeff Pevar on electric bass. If that’s not on YouTube, a true crime has been committed.

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