Long before his portrayal of Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik in the surprisingly good “Sonic The Hedgehog” movie, Jim Carrey took the role of another Eggman in his cover of “I Am the Walrus.”
“Most celebrities would never recover from ‘Dumb and Dumber To’, but I’ll be back by Christmas!”
Carrey recorded his cover of the song as part of “In My Life album”, featuring celebrity covers of Beatles songs by Sir George Martin. Martin, an English producer, arranger, composer, audio engineer and musician, was heavily involved in the original Beatles works. So much so that he competed with manager Brian Epstein for the title of the Fifth Beatle.
Martin composed the album in 1998 and worked with various celebrities on the songs, including Robin Williams and Bobby McFerrin, who collaborated on “Come Together,” George Harrison and John Williams for “Here Comes the Sun,” and Sean Connery with a spoken word performance of the track title. While some are as bad as you’d expect, some of the songs are very good.
Among these is Jim Carrey’s performance of “I Am the Walrus,” which is more than just good. It’s the “Holy crap, why the hell did I never know Lloyd Christmas could sing that like that!?” sort of good.
As expected, Carrey brings an energy to his song unmatched by anyone on the album and shows an incredible range within a single song. He can slip into an English accent without missing a beat, drop low to build dramatic tension, belt out a high note and then add comedic monologues during the closing bars.
The powerful notes from the orchestra add a feeling of triumph and victory to Jim Carrey’s performance, and everyone in the studio radiates confidence. This is the kind of performance that can only be performed by people who know they’ve caught lightning in a bottle.
Be sure to add this bad boy to your playlist if you haven’t already. Goo Goo g’joob.
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