April Fool's Battle of the Bands

April Fools!

This battle is no joke! I have thought about this battle all month long (maybe even longer). I’ve had some ideas come to mind. Researched them for viability as a decent battle.  I kept coming back to today’s song choice.   Then, early last week, I woke up with a completely different idea.  It was a pretty good one, too - except that by day two of letting the idea marinate, I didn’t care for it as much.


When I think of April Fools, I think of Jokers and Jesters. Pranks. Magic.

And that is how I came up with today’s battle.

I know at least one of you were expecting to see Tiny Tim make an appearance on the blog today.  Here is that appearance.

But Tiny Tim is not in today’s battle (sorry, not sorry)

The song for today’s battle is

"Black Magic Woman”

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

"Black Magic Woman" is a song written by Peter Green that first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1968, subsequently appearing on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose (US) and The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK), as well as Vintage Years. In 1970, it became a hit by Santana, as sung by Gregg Rolie, reaching No. 4 in the US and Canadian charts, after appearing on their Abraxas album. In 2005 the song was covered by ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Snowy White on his album The Way It Is.

I had considered using Fleetwood Mac against Santana, but after listening to FM’s version, I knew it would be a shutout. There is no contest there. In my humble opinion,  Santana blows FM out of the water.  And because Santana is so good, I can’t in good conscience use him in the battle - again there is no contest about who would win.

So I did some digging. I’ve come up with three viable contenders. Please LISTEN TO ALL THREE prior to casting your vote. I implore you to not let the videos persuade your vote.


Contender #1 - Janice Hagen



Contender #2 - James Hodgkin



Contender #3 - Gary Hoey





Now that you’ve listened to all three, please cast your vote for either Janice Hagen, James Hodgkin, or Gary Hoey in the comments below.  I’ll keep the voting open until 3pm EST Sunday, April 8 with results posted on Monday, April 9. 

There are no right or wrong votes, only those who do not cast a vote are the wrong votes.  You do not need to be familiar with the artist or the song to have an opinion on which version you prefer. 

I’d like to encourage you to visit the other bloggers participating in the battle of the bands as well. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into putting together these battles and they are a lot of fun. Each blogger has a different battle taking place. You can find a current list on Stephen’s blog (you can also request to join the battle of the bands blog hop on his blog).