The Cats - Swan Lake

The Cats were a short-lived reggae group from London who put out five-or-so releases in the late sixties. One of those releases - the first of their short run - was an instrumental reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet Swan Lane. On paper, or, 'on screen', it doesn't seem like it should work. It does. And very well. It begins with a solitary piano playing the ballet's eminent motif before offbeat guitar and other reggae tropes join to provide a timelessly familiar but slightly confusing three minutes.

Label: BAF Records
Year: 1968
Genre: Reggae, Ska, Ballet