It’s always good to hear ‘new’ covers of Bee Gees‘ songs (there are so many).
This morning’s Sounds of the 60s gave us two – Samantha Sang‘s full-on The Love of a Woman and – the one which caught my attention – Paul Nicolas‘s take on Robin Gibb’s Holiday.
Paul recorded ‘Holiday’ in 1967 as Oscar, a name he maintained across five singles made under the charge of Bee Gees’ manager Robert Stigwood between 1966 and 1968.
Robin’s own ‘Holiday’ highlights the song’s miniaturist strangeness. Paul’s is a thoroughly decent orchestrated version. You can hear a career in musical theatre beckoning (Hair was a year away). Paul’s voice seems to want to break free of the song, his voice inhabiting it perhaps a little too fully. This is especially so during the ‘dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee’ section which Robin sings with a quiet, musing quality.
It would be interesting to hear Paul’s other Oscar material. It seems Castle may have put something out.
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