Petty Booka – Singin’ In The Rain
There’s no denying that Japan’s Petty Booka is a novelty act. With their ukuleles, their faux-grass skirts and their innocent but sexy stage manner, the singers (named Petty and Booka) create an atmosphere of some mythical vaudeville stage – even when they’re singing songs by the Ramones or Culture Club.
But what a novelty they are. Beneath the Hawaiian trappings (which they sometimes forsake in favor of cowgirl clothes when they decide to do a country act), Petty and Booka exude enough raw sweetness to disarm the cynical. What’s so wrong about pretty girls singing pretty songs anyway?
This eight-song EP (subtitled Petty Booka Rain Songs Collection Vol. 1) is a concept album — yes, hula-soaked versions of songs about precipitation. Included are Dee Clark’s oldies-radio staple “Raindrops”, Brook Benton’s “Rainy Night In Georgia”, the Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays” (featuring steel drum and steel guitar), and a Hawaiian song, the spirited “Rain Kilikilhune”.
Petty Booka also does two rainy tunes by ’50s rock icons: a reggae-rhythmed “Crying In The Rain” (made famous by the Everly Brothers) and “Raining In My Heart” (recorded by Buddy Holly). The fadeout of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Rain On The Roof” contains a sly nod at a rain song Petty Booka has yet to record: a ukulele version of the signature lick from the Cascades’ early ’60s hit “Rhythm Of The Rain”. Perhaps a hint of what’s coming on Petty Booka Rain Songs Collection Vol. 2…
But the highlight of this EP is the title song, which is so simple, so sweet, so sonically gorgeous, my first reaction was that there must be a part of Brian Wilson’s brain where this song plays all the time.
Eat your heart out, Gene Kelly.