Lady Is A Tramp: TMBG Covers Rodgers & Hart
What happens when They Might Be Giants covers a Rodgers and Hart classic? Explore the fast-paced jazz track “Lady Is a Tramp” and its surprising origins.
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After many weeks of scouring They Might Be Giants’ discography, I’ve come across another instrumental track to discuss. Today, we’re talking about the second track on Miscellaneous T: “Lady Is A Tramp.” This under-two-minute song is packed with jazz bass lines, snazzy drums, synth keys, and growling trumpets. Not surprisingly, considering what the duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell were doing at the time, most of this was probably accomplished with keyboard sampling—and maybe some 80’s computer magic.
Don’t let that dissuade you from its epic-ness, though. This song is totally rocking.
Wasn't This a Sinatra Song?
I initially recognized the song title, “Lady Is a Tramp,” from what I knew as a Frank Sinatra tune. But when I listened to the TMBG version, it was immediately clear this was different—way faster, and without the lyrics you’d expect, except for a couple of samples: someone yelling, “Yeah!” and another shouting, “Tramp!”
This left me and my best friend scratching our heads. Was this a cover of the Sinatra version? It didn’t seem like it could be. Maybe, we figured, it was just an homage to the title. I mean, I wasn’t exactly an expert in Sinatra—I only knew about three songs by him at the time.
As the years turned into decades, TMBG’s version of “Lady Is a Tramp” became the only version of the song I really knew, and I eventually forgot about the Sinatra connection entirely.
Rediscovering the Original
Flash forward to today, October 15, 2024. I’m reading the This Might Be A Wiki entry for “Lady Is a Tramp,” and I’m reminded of the Frank Sinatra version once again. But there’s more to it than that. I learned that this TMBG track is actually a cover of the original Rodgers and Hart song from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms. That version has a more recognizable tempo, though still not at the TMBG speed, and I’ve got to say—listening to it again now, I hear what I might have missed decades ago.
The Samples and Surprises
So what’s really going on in the TMBG version? Well, aside from the jazz vibes, there’s a lot of clever sampling. The “Tramp!” vocal sample comes from Carla Thomas and Otis Redding’s version of Tramp (1967). The growling trumpet, on the other hand, is a sample lifted from LL Cool J’s “Going Back to Cali.” The band actually had Frank London, the guy who played the trumpet on “Cali,” re-record the solo for them. They ended up using parts of that re-recorded solo on songs like “Birdhouse In Your Soul” and “Road Movie To Berlin.” It’s wild how deep this rabbit hole goes, but it all adds to the quirky charm of the track.
A Live Show Throwback
Here’s something else I didn’t know before today: TMBG once had a segment in their live shows called the "Pal Joey Revival," where they covered Rodgers and Hart songs from the 1940 musical Pal Joey. If it was included, this track would have right into that strange but beautiful overlap of '80s sampling and show tunes that only They Might Be Giants could pull off.
Closing Thoughts (and a Bonus Treat!)
And there you have it—another fun, instrumental gem from TMBG. “Lady Is a Tramp” may be short, but it’s packed with energy, surprises, and the kind of oddball creativity we’ve come to expect from Flansburgh and Linnell. As a bonus, I’m sharing a delightful 8-bit remix I found on YouTube that I couldn’t resist sharing. The original song was a full blown live musical number later to be converted into a robust but stripped down and sped up version. This is then later reduced to 8-bit digital tones and that delights me to no end.
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Enjoy!