They Rock the Bangles: Hakim & Cleopatra with "Walk Like an Egyptian"

I wrote an earlier post of how I enjoy it when, on a cover song, the person or group doing the cover just takes it over and owns it. That happens in today's random tune by Hakim and Cleopatra: their version of Walk Like an Egyptian. Now don't get me wrong. When it came to the 80s, I had a soft spot for The Bangles, and even though this song is not really about anything that I can think of I liked its beat and its energy. It didn't hurt that The Bangles were all good looking and for the most part, good musicians. The lyrics of Walk Like an Egyptian start out as a description of paintings on a tomb wall but then turn into some kind of tune that is trying to sell a new dance - strike a pose like an Egyptian!

But here comes, almost 20 years later, Hakim and Cleopatra. I can't find much on them, other than that Hakim may be an Egyptian folk singer. This is the guy that I think Hakim is. Here's something else on Hakim. If this is the Hakim that did this song, he apparently mixes Arab traditional songs with Western beats in an update of Egyptian popular music known as Sha'bi. However, there is nothing on Cleopatra anywhere, unless the original Cleopatra came back from the dead to sing this song. Be that as it may, this cover of Walk Like An Egyptian is great because an Egyptian musician actually turns this American pop song into something different, something that is actually Egyptian...and what helps is that Cleopatra sings it like she owns it, like she really owns it. Adding the Egyptian motifs such as Arabic, slowing the song down with the Egyptian style drumming on goblet drums, and the Middle Eastern orchestration makes it even better than the electric guitar riffs with a faintly Middle Eastern sound that The Bangles put into it. Good stuff! This was the only decent version of the song I could find online, though there is a guy who talks briefly in the middle of it. You can find an unsullied version of Walk Like An Egyptian on the CD Desert Roses, Vol. 3 (2004).

But I'll let you give it a listen!