fever... and musical drift.

NOTE: (all of the mp3s on this post are in this archive)

so in 1956, this guy, eddie cooley,


and this guy, otis blackwell write a beautiful tune called "fever"


a young r&b star named little willie john records it, making a hit.

(mp3)little willie john - "fever"


the reason most people know about this is the peggy lee cover which added some words.

(mp3)peggy lee - "you give me fever"


and it never stopped drifting... at least 75 versions have been recorded. here's a few i found...

this one is by an afrobeat group
(mp3)jingo - "fever"

the jingo version was sampled for this newer version with a rap
(mp3)yerba buena - "fever" (feat. m1 of dead prez)

i think this is one of the original authors doing it, funny backup vocals
(mp3)eddie cooley - "fever"

i love this partially spanish version...
(mp3)la lupe - "fever"

here's a roots reggae version produced by lee "scratch" perry
(mp3)junior byles - "fever"

here's an electronic version by superpitcher
(mp3)superpitcher - "fever"

a bunch more are collected in this archive (including all the versions above) others in the archive are: elvis presley, madonna, the cramps, nina hagen, suzi quatro, bow wow wow, boney m, roy ayers, sam butera and beyonce. some are loungey, some are rockin', some are disco style, some are live.

please send me versions i'm missing an i'll add them... i know there is a rhymefest version, a doors version, a grateful dead version, a nina simone version, a sarah vaughn and more... email me j at gyre works dot com