Demented Punk have shared the late Adam West’s cover of The Thing, originally performed by Phil Harris of the Jack Benny Show. The Thing was first released in 1950, where it spent four weeks atop the Billboard Pop charts and eventually became one of the most successful novelty songs of all time. Take a listen to the track via YouTube below.
West is famous for his iconic role as Batman in the 1960s TV series of the same name, the voice of reoccurring character “Mayor West” on the animated series “Family Guy,” and countless other appearances in TV and film. He contributed one of his final performances to this classic novelty track prior to passing earlier this year.
The Thing appears on Demented Punk’s Dr. Demento Covered In Punk which is due for release on January 12, 2018. The song was produced by John Cafiero and backed by Osaka Popstar’s Demented Punk Orchestra, which features drums by Dennis Diken (The Smithereens), bass guitar by Sal Maida (Roxy Music, Milk ‘n’ Cookies) guitar by Dean Rispler (Dictators, Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black), and a full horn section. Cafiero, who produced and curated the entire project, had the following to add about the experience of working with West:
“Adam West was a great guy and a real pleasure to work with-genuinely funny, good-natured and a total professional. It was an honor to have the chance to work with him. When he arrived at the studio, he pulled me aside and said, ‘I’m going to give you the greatest gift I can give you… I’m going to sing this song as Mayor West’, (his character on ‘Family Guy’). I replied and said, in all sincerity…’The greatest gift you can give me is to just be yourself, have fun with it, and perform the song as Adam West.’ He was taken aback, and within a few seconds of processing what I had just said, his face lit up, beaming with pride. I truly meant every word. Adam’s persona was larger than life, really colorful and vibrant. It was obvious during the session he was genuinely having fun with it, and I think you can hear that permeating throughout the track. He gave an incredible performance.
This album has the great pleasure of sharing one of Adam West’s final performances with the world-and it is truly a fantastic one. He was THE real Batman, and it’s a memory I’ll treasure.”
‘Dr. Demento Covered In Punk’ is a special two-hour demented punk extravaganza, structured like one of Demento’s original radio shows. The collection features an eclectic mix of artists from the world of classic and contemporary punk/indie/alt-rock, along with special guest stars from film, TV and more. The Thing is available now as an instant grat track to fans who preorder the physical album here and those who preorder it digitally from iTunes. It can also be previewed here. Original artwork for The Thing was created by pop culture artist and enthusiast Neil Camera, known for Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages and Mars Attacks cards and sticker sets.
‘Dr. Demento Covered In Punk’ features over thirty different, never before released, all-new ‘punk’ cover versions of ‘mad music and crazy comedy’ songs famously heard on the airwaves of the legendary “Dr Demento Show”- intermixed with ‘wild card’ tracks showcasing some incredible, newly ‘demented’ versions of punk-rock classics! Joined by everyone from the Misfits, Joan Jett, Fred Schneider of the B52s, to “Weird Al” Yankovic, and Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner (to name just a few). The Doctor is in…and he’s ‘Covered in Punk’!! A full track listing can be found here.
‘Dr. Demento Covered In Punk’ includes an in-depth booklet with equally entertaining liner notes and personal quotes from the participating artists, a foreword by album producer and Demented Punk founder John Cafiero (Misfits, Ramones, Osaka Popstar), an afterword by Dr. Demento, as well as factoids, photos and an array of dynamic paintings and illustrations created exclusively for the project by a team of visual artists spanning the world of comic books, classic punk rock album covers, Topps trading card series, Mad Magazine and more. The cover artwork for the album was created by iconic illustrator Drew Friedman whose work has appeared in countless publications from Entertainment Weekly and Time Magazine to Rolling Stone and the New Republic and just about everything in between.
Wind up your radio dementites and dementoids-the doctor is in!
