Good Vibrations by Todd Rundgren

Some songs you don’t expect to hear a cover of…this is one of them.

I bought this single in 1976 in a local record store we had in our small town called Sounds and Scenes (long gone but I love the name). I liked the song Good Vibrations and didn’t know at the time who did the original version.

He did an album called Faithful, full of covers and he performed them to the letter. I’ve listened to them and they are close but this one is really on it. He did Rain, Strawberry Fields, If Six Was Nine, and Bob Dylan’s Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine.

Todd Rundgren is very talented and I’m a fan of him and he did a great duplicate version of this song. My question now is why? He got so close…you have to wonder why he did it in the first place. But…who am I to question Todd Rundgren?

I usually don’t like when an artist covers a song and they change it so much you cannot tell what the song is… not a problem with this one…but I do like for an artist to put something of him or herself in it…Todd does exactly what he says in the album name… he was very faithful to these songs.

Author: badfinger20 (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

19 thoughts on “Good Vibrations by Todd Rundgren”

  1. I haven’t heard that in years- forgot about it even. Yes- good question- why Todd, why? Not that I don’t like it- sounds good but what was the purpose?

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    1. I haven’t heard it either in years until I ran across it lately and it brought the memory of me buying it…I didn’t know he did a whole album full of covers and I listened to each of them and he was close but not like this one.

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      4. It’s not really the same though as seeing a concert…the night I saw him Joe Walsh joined Ringo on stage and that is the only time I got to see him…I’ve wanted to see him for a while. He just seems like a lot of fun.

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      6. A friend of mine went to see him- not knowing much about him and said it was a great concert- a couple years back.

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      8. He produced the XTC Skylarking album and lived to tell about it- supposedly Andy Partridge didn’t get along with him– but he was the producer of their best album so…. it worked.

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      9. He worked with The Band some in the early seventies…I just don’t see that match… I’m not sure if he produced or just engineered and mixed.
        I’m going to check that XTC album out.

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      10. Looking at his credits I can’t think of any other performer who has been involved in the production of so many albums by others. He has a long and diverse list- even Shawn Cassidy lol.

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      11. Shawn Cassidy… wow… I know he had his run of Bearsville studios… I’m looking at it now… I forgot about Grand Funk… I didn’t know about The New York Dolls album… he does have a variety and big volume

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      12. My first thought was- does he have a 36 hour day? Maintaining his own career and doing all that other work… crazy.

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      13. Albert Grossman knew how talented he was and I have read where he was always at the Studio…. it’s like Jimi Hendrix. All of the albums that came out since his death… the guy must have recorded every waking minute.

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      14. Yes I have thought the same about Jimi- the albums keep coming out they must have recorded every second of his life for a few years.

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  2. I don’t remember ever hearing that before. It wasn’t bad, but I’ve got the same question: What’s the point?

    Todd seems like a talented, hardworking guy, but I’ve never been much of a fan. Can’t even tell you why.

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    1. That was my reaction when I heard The Beach Boys original… why? He did great but why?

      I liked Hello It’s Me and a few other things but never really followed him. This is probably the only thing I bought from him.

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