Entertainment One MusicEstranged Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos‘ debut solo album, a covers collection titled Greetings from Bunezuela!, will be released this Friday, June 24. To make the album, Carlos enlisted various guest singers and musicians to help him record some of his favorite tunes.
Among the singers featured on Greetings from Bunezuela! are original Cheap Trick frontman Randy “Xeno” Hogan, Soul Asylum‘s Dave Pirner and the pop group Hanson. Carlos tells ABC Radio that he couldn’t have been more pleased with the quality of the performances.
“The guys that played and sang on [the album] really brought their A games, and stuff turned out much better than I expected it to,” he gushes. “I’m a happy camper here.”
Carlos’ plan to make a covers album dates back to the 1970s, but he says he finally was spurred to tackle the project when it was announced last December that Cheap Trick would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Among the 13 tracks on Greetings from Bunezuela! are gems by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Them, The Bee Gees and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Bun E. says Xeno was “a logical choice” to sing on his album, since the two remained in touch after Xeno left Cheap Trick in 1974, and Carlos had played drums on a couple of the singer’s records.
Hanson appears on a version of Revere and the Raiders’ “Him or Me.” Carlos reveals that he initially asked frontman Taylor Hanson to sing on the track, but Taylor’s brothers Isaac and Zac also ended up on the song, which Bun E. says “sounds great.”
As for Pirner, Carlos he appropriately had the Minnesota native sing a song by fellow Minnesotan Dylan, “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” adding that Dave “nailed that thing.”
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