Rodger and Hart's "The Lady is a Tramp"
performed by They Might Be Giants

"The Lady is a Tramp" is a Rodgers and Hart tune made immortal by the golden throat of Frank Sinatra. The song and Sinatra were made for each other, it would seem. They both have New York brass and elegance to spare.

Trying to cover an institution like "Tramp" would seem to be musical suicide. But when They Might Be Giants presents it as an outtake on the B-sides album, Miscellaneous T, it works.

While Sinatra's original interpretation of this witty little ditty was marked by its smooth and gracefully tossed-off charm, They Might Be Giants bring a radically different sensibility to the table. Their version is a tight, frenetic tumbling assault of snyth-horns layered over a dull rumble and a tight electric bass line. The whole thing is a manic, musical sock to the gut, punctuated by a terrific cymbal-crashing climax. It conjures up New York on a Friday night, it overwhelms the listener with its intensity, and it clocks in at a scant 1:19.

The reason TMBG can pull it off is simple: The duo preserve some of the song's original brassy charm while avoiding any head-to-head competition with Sinatra's legendary rendition. Perhaps most importantly, TMBG dispense with "Tramp"'s lyrics almost entirely.

The original version has plenty of lyrics. Here's a passage:

She gets too hungry, for dinner at eight
She loves the theater, but doesn't come late
She'd never bother, with people she'd hate
That's why the lady is a tramp

Here's the entirety of lyrics in the They Might Be Giants version:

tramp

and

yeah

A good general rule of thumb is to never try and redo the classics. But if you're going to break the rule, understand the backup rule as well as Mr. Linnel and Flansburgh do: Change the damn thing around almost entirely, and make it your own.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)