Musical mashups are a tricky prospect. They can be an inventive melding of a pair of beloved songs, or they can end up as a misguided collision of tunes that don’t quite fit together, which doesn’t do justice to either song. The Weeklings, New Jersey’s prime practitioners of British Invasion style rock and roll, have come up with a brilliant mashup of two tracks from the 1960s rock and roll era. “Mr. Soul Satisfaction,” the latest single from their terrific album, Raspberry Park, is an ingenious mashup of Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” with The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.”
The idea for “Mr. Soul Satisfaction” was conceived by Weeklings bass player and vocalist Glen Burtnik, who heard “Mr. Soul” on the Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio show. He noted the common musical ground between the Buffalo Springfield tune and the Rolling Stones classic “Satisfaction.” The concept for the mashup was that the lyrics for “Mr. Soul” could be sung over the music to “Satisfaction.” The band worked on the track at Shorefire Studios in New Jersey, crafting a cool amalgamation of the two classic tracks. The group then decided that it would be fun to have a guest vocalist perform the lead vocal on the song.
Enter Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits fame, who had previously worked with the band on a fabulous cover of “Friday On My Mind” by The Easybeats. Along with the superb Weeklings lineup of Zeek, aka Bob Burger, on vocals, and rhythm guitar; Lefty, aka Glen Burtnik, on bass and vocals; Rocky, aka John Merjave, on lead guitar and vocals, and Smokestack, aka Joe Bellia, on drums and percussion, Noone provides a truly spirited performance on “Mr. Soul Satisfaction.” The combination of these two much-loved songs works splendidly. It’s a marvelous mashup that will definitely get stuck in your head.
There’s also a musical easter egg included on “Mr. Soul Satisfaction,” with a bit of a third song included as a little bonus for music aficionados. When thinking about the mashup of “Mr. Soul” and “Satisfaction,” Burtnik also noted that The Monkees hit “Valleri” shares some musical energy with the other two tunes. Weeklings manager Tony Pallagrosi guided the addition of horns to the track at the recording session for the song, giving it not only a Monkees vibe toward the end of the song, but a touch of that classic Rolling Stones horn sound as well. So “Mr. Soul Satisfaction” is actually a three-tiered mashup!
“Mr. Soul Satisfaction” is just one of the fantastic tracks on Raspberry Park, which is something of a concept album dedicated to the band’s home base in Asbury Park. The album is filled with phenomenal songs such as “Like We Used To Do,” which sounds like an early Beatles number infused with the harder-edged sound of The Kinks, as well as the straight-ahead rock and roll energy of “April’s Fool” and the 1980s-esque gem “Angeline.” Also included on the disc are a terrific rockabilly re-imagining of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” and a soulful rendition of The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home.”
Join the party at Raspberry Park for the inventive and energetic “Mr. Soul Satisfaction,” but make sure to stay for the rest of this remarkable album, out now on JEM Records.
-John Visconti
Fair use image of Raspberry Park
You missed the quoting of the horns from Otis Redding’s version of Satisfaction at the end.
Actually it’s not what Otis does at the end his studio version of Satisfaction. To be more accurate it definitely mimics the Stax sound however it’s filtered through Southside Johnny & Asbury Jukes. No wonder, since I was a trumpet player in that band…LOL!