This week saw the release of Rod Stewart’s version of Shotgun Wedding. Originally recorded by Roy C Hammond in 1966, Stewart’s version was one of the new recordings which featured on a somewhat haphazard compilation album which Warner Bros had released to commemorate Stewart winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1993 Brit Awards.
The 12 track Lead Vocalist album opened with seven tracks taken variously from Stewart’s solo career, as well as performances with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces. However, the last five tracks were brand new recordings of cover songs. Over the previous 6 months, Stewart’s versions of Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda) [Tom Waits] and Ruby Tuesday [Jagger/Richards] had reached Number 6 & 11 on the UK Singles Chart. Now, Shotgun Wedding was being released as the third track taken from the album.
John Peel had a good relationship with Stewart, though they had long drifted apart musically. To prove the point, Peel steered clear of playing Stewart’s version of Shotgun Wedding during his week on the Jakki Brambles show. However, he played Cornel Campbell’s 1973 reggae version on this programme because he thought it was better than Stewart’s version. I’ve included it here as I think the 17 year old me would have responded well to this. But, I think now that I prefer the Stewart recording. Campbell has a more honeyed voice than Stewart, but, helped by the work of his brass section, Rod’s version does a better job of conveying the oppressive jollity of a forced marriage ceremony.
It could be argued that no one’s managed to pull off a truly definitive version of Shotgun Wedding.
Even Roy C’s original sounds half-arsed. But Stewart’s version did well enough to reach Number 21 in the UK charts.
As for Campbell, while I may be ambivalent towards his version of this, I’m all over his recording of The Duke of Earl.
Video courtesy of Reggae2Reggae.
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