Rhino’s Got You Covered: John O’Banion, Jesse Davis, Eagles, and Tiny Tim

It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to take another dip into the Rhino catalog and trot out a new quartet of cover songs that you may or may not have heard before. Let’s get started, shall we?

• John O’Banion, “Walk Away Renee” (1981): In the early part of his career, O’Banion was best known as the lead singer of Today’s Children, a group led by Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen, a situation which led him to several appearances during Johnny Carson’s reign on the show. Over the years, he also found his way onto both American Bandstand and Solid Gold, but here’s a fun piece of trivia for you: he was the winning singer on the pilot episode of Star Search. O’Banion’s self-titled album emerged in ’81 and provided him with a top-30 hit with the single “Love You Like I Never Loved Before,” but it also contained this Left Banke cover.

• Jesse Davis, “Crazy Love” (1971): Otherwise known as Jesse Ed Davis (although that’s not how he’s credited on this album), Davis – who died in 1988 – was arguably recognized more often for his work as a session guitarist than a solo artist. Nonetheless, he did find a fanbase on his own, earning enough acclaim from his efforts with Taj Mahal and Roger Tillison that he scored a deal with Atco Records, and this Van Morrison cover can be found on his self-titled Atco debut.

• Eagles, “Ol’ 55” (1974): Way back toward the beginning of this column, we did an all-Waits edition, which is why we haven’t really featured any other songs by our man Tom, but this is one of those tunes that’s well known without necessarily being known as a Tom Waits composition, and we decided we’d waited long enough to spotlight it.

• Tiny Tim, “What the World Needs Now is Love” (1969): In these trying times – you know, the ones that started in 2016, then got worse earlier this year, and seemed like they were on the way out until someone refused to accept the results of a democratic election? – it’s true that what we need now is love...and who better to sing about it than Tiny Tim? And what an epic closer, eh? You’re welcome, Rhino readership!