Bozo Mark's Top Five Fab Four Tribute Albums

1. The Beatles Connection

The King's Singers

EMI

This is the sentimental favorite, the album that started me collecting Beatles' tribute discs. (It also turned me onto The King's Singers.) These guys sing their butts off, and if you have never heard countertenors before, you are in for one mindbending treat. The vocal arrangements are both very musical and quite witty, true to the spirit of the originals with just the right proportion of attitude. The group's a cappella sound is a shimmering, crystalline beauty.

2. Sgt. Pepper's

Big Daddy

Rhino

A killer concept band. The governing conceit is that Big Daddy, a 50's covers band, are shot down while on a USO tour during the Korean War. When they return to the States in the 80's, they can only interpret the songs that have been hits during their absence in 50's styles. To the best of my knowledge, this is their only album to take on an entire record, and it is stunning. Imagine these classic songs from the summer of '67 as interpreted by Johnny Mathis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper, among others. Their take on "Within You Without You" is wickedly hilarious.

3. The Baroque Beatles Book

Joshua Rifkin

Elektra

I first heard this at Berklee College of Music, where a teacher liked to play it and see if any students could hear that it was The Beatles instead of authentic Baroque. (Nobody ever did.) If this is available on CD I don't know about it, but it's worth searching for in used vinyl shops. Rifkin, who arranged for Judy Collins and whose recordings of Scott Joplin for Nonesuch helped spark the rag renaissance, pretends that he is George Frideric Handel and plagarizes Lennon/McCartney for thematic material. Wonderful stuff, especially the harpsichord variations on "Hold Me Tight".

4. Tropical Tribute To The Beatles

Various Artists

RMM

It's all Latin, and all very cool. I wish more of it were completely in Spanish, but that's a minor quibble. Especially when you get such delights as "Yesterday, love was such an eee-see game to play." Great bands, great singers. The horns percolate, and the percussion bubbles over every chance it gets. Salsa was never more sexy. A perfect match of style and material.

5. Beatles Country

The Charles River Valley Boys

Rounder (re-release)

Bostonian traditional bluegrass group takes the Fab Four to Nashville. It was mis-marketed (as a country album) and flopped when released by Elektra in 1966, but today it has unmistakeable charm. As either a tribute album or as a straight-ahead bluegrass romp, its merits cannot be exaggerated. While it represents the greatest stylistic leap on this list, this album has perhaps the biggest payoff.