Ever since I went back to working with Wonderbrass and rediscovered their love of unlikely pop covers, I’ve had this perfect, beautiful song stuck in my head. The chords are amazing, but the original Spice Girls version just goes too fast to properly experience them. (Craig Armstrong’s string arrangement still rules, however)

However, on slowing the progression down I was struck by how close it was to a certain classic ballad by none other than Jimi Hendrix.

So for the last couple of months, on and off, I’ve been arranging, recording and tweaking a version of 2 become 1 with a more “little wing” approach. I’ve had help from some very talented people so hats off to:

@cosmocat – UNU’s very own gospel soul diva, who generously consented to record the delicious vocal.

Graham Reynolds – drummer with The Jellied Reels, who kindly recorded both of the drum parts.

Jo Jones – Wonderbrass keyboardist, and teacher at Forte School of Music, who lent me a glockenspiel

And thank you to the many, many people who have encouraged me to do this, and berated me for not doing so faster.

So here it is, for your listening and sharing pleasure. The song remains the copyright of the composers  (Spice Girls/Rowe/Stannard), but this recording and arrangement are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

I’ll hopefully be doing a “Behind The Music” featurette on this recording sometime later tonight on #ds106radio, wherein I’ll try to cover how and, indeed, why.