I keep neglecting this post on The Puppini Sisters, and the universe keeps reminding me to write it up.
Back in March, during an episode of NBC’s Chuck, I heard a rendition of The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” in the close-harmony swing style of The Andrews Sisters piped into the background and was smitten. I’d just been introduced to The Puppini Sisters — a trio formed in the UK in 2004 that actually consists of one Puppini and two friends, I learn from their Wikipedia entry and a short interview with Marcella Puppini [bad link] that’s cited therein. Marcella’s catalyst was the great French animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville; further inspiration came from those Andrews gals, their antecedents The Boswell Sisters, and Marlene Dietrich.
Marcella, Stephanie O’Brien, & Kate Mullins’ two full-length CDs together, 2006’s Betcha Bottom Dollar and 2007’s The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo, mix renditions of such vintage material as The Chordettes’ staple “Mr. Sandman” and the Andrews Sisters classic “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy” with covers of more contemporary pop like “Egyptian”; Woo also includes a few choice originals. Only a handful of songs are currently streamable at the Sisters’ MySpace page, but clipped versions of many run continuously at their eponymous website. Sadly, I can’t find a complete album version of “Walk Like an Egyptian” to share at this writing, and I don’t link to illegally uploaded material as a general rule, but you’ll get snippets at Amazon or the iTunes store. If you really want to hear the whole track before buying it you won’t have to search very hard.
