10 Bands That Have Musical Alter Egos

Throughout Paul McCartney’s career, there has been a bit of a love hate relationship when it comes to his album RAM. Whereas his first solo effort with his wife Linda had more than a few harsh critics (including some former Beatles), fans have seen this as McCartney’s first post Beatles masterpiece, taking the production of Brian Wilson and giving it a homespun twist. Paul always had this one close to the chest too, so he couldn’t help but revisit it in his later years.

During the time when Wings were still a functioning outfit, Macca decided to take a second glance at his greatest work by making Thrillington, under the name Percy “Thrills” Thrillington. Despite the absolutely ridiculous name, this is basically a recreation of everything that made RAM great to begin with, only this time it’s with big band arrangements. Every so often you have people doing lounge parodies of popular artists, but Paul means this entirely sincerely, going through each of these songs as if they were designed for the more lighthearted side of Frank Sinatra’s catalog.

And if you’re in the right mindset, these might be an improvement on the original, especially something like Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, where the horns take over for the vocal melody and sound absolutely delightful. RAM may have its initial fans, but this is the kind of reinterpretation that would work just as well as a video game soundtrack than as proper pop songs.