Music

William Shatner turns 80 today. Let's celebrate his music career.

by Tyler Munro

William Shatner is 80 (!!) today. This is a big deal so make sure you let it sink in. It sunk? Good.

William Shatner is a Canadian icon. A Stratford legend turned Starfleet Captain, Shatner is and will always be an actor first and foremost. He’s hammy—not just when you’re making a joke about how bloated he was in the 70s and 80s—and that’s why we love him. His talent is hard to recognize, but it is there. He’s like a stutter-speeched onion whose ability and uncanny delivery as a speaker and vocalist become more apparent as you peel away the layers upon layers of self-deprecation and fat. This is all a lead-in to one of the best things about Shatner: his music career.

It started in 1968 with The Transformed Man, an album Shatner claims to this day was an “experiment” instead of a failure. In reality, it was somewhere in between. A collection of spoken word pieces that inexplicably bridged popular music of artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan with the works of William Shakespeare, The Transformed Man was the start of something great. Bill Shatner has spent the 43 years since its release performing and recording with stammering irregularity, but there’s a gem to be had every time he opens his mouth and sings kind of talks along to the music. This, among other reasons, is why today we celebrate William Shatner’s 80^th birthday with a list of his best musical outputs. Best in terms of quality, or best in terms of camp? Does it really matter?

Shatner’s two earliest “hits” are perfect examples of his jarring delivery. In both his diluted cover of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamons” and the flute-frolicking, lounge-infused, bongo bubbling, trip inducing cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” his voice is a harsh contrast to each song’s otherwise melodic female counterpoint. Getting through both songs can border on an exercise in masochism, yet they’re both weirdly listenable. Start with the Dylan classic, as Shatner’s sharp, sometimes-yelled delivery of lyrics like, “Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship/My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip,” make the perfect metaphor for everything you’re about to hear.

“Mr. Tambourine Man”

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”

In 1978, about a decade or so after The Transformed Man, and right between Star Trek ending and TJ Hooker starting, Shatner took his unique vocal stylings and added in a dash of self-awareness with his iconic performance of Elton John’s “Rocketman,” seen here in full at that year’s Science Fiction Awards.

While “Rocketman” was Shatner’s first undeniable foray into musical self-awareness, it’s 2004’s Has Been that truly capitalized on his self-actualization and in turn it’s his first truly musical album as well as his first (and up until this point only) release that can be listened to with a [mostly] straight face.

Has Been was the culmination of time gone by and collaborations done right. Taking time away from Boston Legal and his Priceline commercials, Shatner collaborated with Ben Folds, who combined his own sense of humour with his undeniable talent to form one of the most perplexedly transcendent albums released that year. Has Been is a surprisingly earnest release; on “Real” he and country superstar Brad Paisley sing about the reality of being an actual person with actual flaws rather than a womanising Starfleet officer; “That’s Me Trying” sees the then-73 year old Shatner trying to reconnect with his daughter and “What Have You Done” takes the album to its emotional peak; not a song so much as a haunting, barren reading of Shatner’s experience of finding his wife dead and drowned, it sets itself halfway through Has Been and establishes the album’s emotional fulcrum. The rest of Has Been is wonderfully balanced by the hilarious Henry Rollins accompanied, rant-filled “I Can’t Get Behind That” and a cover of Pulp’s “Common People”, one which against all odds might actually be better than the original. Then there’s the album’s title track, a spaghetti western romp in which Shatner addresses his critics.

“That’s Me Trying” featuring Ben Folds and Aimee Mann, co-written by author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity)

“Common People featuring Joe Jackson”

“Has Been”

Bill’s kept busy since Has Been, mostly with novelty appearances, like when he sang Cee Lo’s “Fuck You” on George Lopez Tonight and hosted WWE Raw, an appearance that featured hilariously spoke-sung versions of the brand’s more popular entrance themes. Make note of his Cee Lo performance: in it, he sings the song as Cee Lo is rarely able to yet curiously replaces the word with “shit” with “stuff”, an odd choice given that he was on the show to promote the disastrously unfunny Shit My Dad Says. It’s a conundrum so frighteningly Shatner-ian it actually hurts to think about.

Shatner does Shawn Michaels’ “Sexy Boy” and other WWE themes

The best is still yet to come for Shatner. A few months ago it was announced that he was working on a new album. The kicker? It’s apparently a metal album of intergalactic covers…and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Seeking Major Tom doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s worth getting excited about. There’s a laundry list of music legends helping him out this time around, with Brian May (who won’t appear on the Queen cover), Zakk Wylde, Bootsy Collins and Peter Frampton being the obvious highlights. Covers set to appear include “Iron Man”, “Learn to Fly” and presumably David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.

“Has been implies failure. Not so. Has been is history. Has been was. Has been might again” – William Shatner