Vanilla Fudge - "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
2002
I only got clued into the fact that the great Vanilla Fudge has been again lurking around for the past decade-and-a-half because Little Steven's (always excellent) Underground Garage station on SiriusXM recently started playing their brilliant cover of "I'm A Believer" from 2012. So I started snooping around on this Fudge stuff and yes, they've been putting out albums (one is all Led Zep covers!) and have even maintained a pretty good ratio of band members being founders vs. ringers. The "I'm A Believer" cover is from Spirit of '67, which harkens back to the sound of the original Fudge album from (yes) 1967 - weird, heavy covers of pop songs.
This reformed Fudge's first release was The Return from 2002, which weirdly had them covering songs from their past (which makes them covers of their covers.) But it also had their takes on songs by 'N Sync and The Backstreet Boys, and if I knew any music by 'N Sync and The Backstreet Boys, I'd be a hell of a lot more excited about this. The album's ending track is a heady Fudge move: They run through "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", which drummer Carmine Appice co-wrote with Rod Stewart back in 1978. Considering the horridness of the original*, the Fudge must be applauded by turning it into a seven-plus minute disco-metal gem. It's just as dumb as the original, but for all the right reasons.
*"And after thinking about what's in there that does appeal to so many people and why, is when you wanna make plans to leave the human race." - Lester Bangs