CU Video Jukebox: We’ve got you covered

(In the first installment of a series, San Diego musician and impresario Bart Mendoza selects unexpected covers of local bands.)

Elvis H Christ performing "Elvis Is Everywhere"The ultimate compliment for a band? It has to be having your songs covered – it’s a clear sign you’ve made an impact. It is a rare thing indeed, but percentage-wise, San Diego’s bands circa the late 1970s through the mid 1980s actually have fared quite well, with new generations of musicians taking up inspiration in their songs. Here are 10 examples:

1. Brandywine Road – What Do All The People Know? (originally by the Monroes) This song is well on its way to being a standard, and this is a terrific version.

Read moreCU Video Jukebox: We’ve got you covered

Remember the Monroes?
Behind a one-hit wonder

(How the other half lived: Jay Allen Sanford takes us briefly out of the underground to revisit a San Diego band’s dip into mainstream success.)

The Monroes
“Could you be the one I’m thinking of?
Could you be the girl I really love?
All the people tell me so,
but what do all the people know!”

(The Monroes, “What Do All The People Know”)

“To me, my whole life was just destiny,” says Eric Denton, one-time keyboardist for ’80s pop faves The Monroes. “I just felt I was destined to be a rock star, and there was just no doubt about it. And it all kind of came to a crushing end when The Monroes basically fell apart.”

Read moreRemember the Monroes?
Behind a one-hit wonder

The Che Underground