Today, we look at the Brady Bunch kids doing a cover of “American Pie,” which sounds a lot weirder in practice than it might sound in theory (it sounds weird in theory, too, of course).
This is Put Back the Cover, a feature where I spotlight really bizarre (but earnest) covers of famous songs.
Reader Dave E. suggested this one.
In the first season of The Brady Bunch, the sitcom about a woman with three daughters marrying a man with three sons, there is an episode where the matriarch of the Bradys, Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) comes down with laryngitis in the leadup to Christmas, where she was set to do a solo at the Christmas service. The youngest daughter, Cindy Brady (Susan Olsen), asks a department store Santa Claus to cure her mother’s voice. In the end, a Christmas miracle allows Carol to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” at the service.
This led to MCA Records doing a Christmas album with the six children of the Brady Bunch, Christmas With the Brady Bunch. It did well enough that in Season 3, the Brady kids formed a singing group in an episode, and then Paramount Records decided to do a more traditional pop album featuring the Brady kids (Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb and the aforementioned Olsen).
Meet The Brady Bunch did not do well…
However, in its failure, it also gave us the Brady kids singing Don McClean’s hit song, “American Pie”…
Including these lyrics…
And there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friendOh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan’s spellAnd as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
Hearing the Brady kids singing those lyrics is pretty freakin’ awesome.
Thanks for the suggestion, Dave!
Okay, folks, go suggest other bizarre (but earnest! I’m not talking about intentionally funny covers here, the attempts have to be earnest) covers for me to spotlight by e-mailing me at brian@popculturereferences.com
