Halloween Wonder Cabinet @ NYU

a cappella stella was a diver

Steeleye Span were good for more than just rocking out the last chorus to ancient Anglo Saxon tunes. They knew well enough to let Peter Sellers Goon it up with them on "New York Girls". Ol' Pete plays the uke and slips in more than a few familiar voices and seems to spend his studio time far more productively here than he did with the Beatles.

But that puts me onto a cappella songs, like Maddy Prior's solo single "Acappella Stella". Suffice it to say: I'm a fan.

It can be the King's Singers doing Randy Newman's "Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father", or Laurie Anderson plugging in her vocoder and giving us "Oh Superman".

But let's take something truly cheesy: Free Design's "Love You". You have to take a step back from the facade to realize that there is some wonderful singing going on here. It's worth the step. You can look at this while you listen: