Pike Cavalero – Love Missile F1-11
Sleazy Records SR226 [2021]
Love Missile F1-11 / Little Lonely Summer Girl
Pike Cavalero’s latest single features a cover of Love Missile F1-11, initially done by Sigue Sigue Sputnik back in 1986. I’m always reserved with this kind of cover. After all, there are plenty of good songs to cover, so why choose this one? I mean, Sputnik’s Love Missile F1-11 was not a good song. What made it enjoyable was actually that Sigue Sigue Sputnik played it. It sure was cheezy, but it was fun, especially when you were 13 at the time. Cavalero is not an alchemist and can’t turn led into gold, and in the end, you have an average tune with a powerful double bass, a good guitar. Still, it lacks the originality of Sputnik’s version.
Another cover is on the B-side, but with David Box’s Little Lonely Summer Girl, we stay more in the tradition. It’s no surprise to find echoes of Buddy Holly and Bobby Fuller on this one, with drum rolls and strings.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
