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Covers: The Good, The Bad, The Meh


BizBuzz
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This might be slightly crazy to some people but I think I like Pearl Jam's cover of "Love Reign O'er Me" better than The Who's. Although, I think Bettye LeVette's rendition at the Kennedy Center Honors blows both renditions out of the water and is probably one of the Top 10 Best televised pieces of music ever (no, seriously, go watch it...you won't forget it).

Jessie J - I Knew You Were Trouble. It's almost a little unfair because comparing Jessie J to Taylor Swift vocally is like comparing a 747 to a Cessna, but it's not just technique that makes her rendition better. Taylor's version sounds slightly anonymous even for her. It took me a minute to realize that was her when I first heard it, and even listening to it now, it sounds like she's reading the lines off a sheet of paper. Jessie J sings it as a dirge. The song stands up lyrically, but the stripped down production and slower tempo create a different feel.

Kelly Clarkson - Wide Awake. Another slightly unfair comparison, but Kelly and Katy have an eerie vocal similarity that you don't quite realize until you listen to Kelly cover one of her songs (for fun, go look up "Long Shot"...it was an unreleased Katy Perry song before it wound up on Kelly Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted" album...Kelly again comes out on top), so Kelly is like Katy Perry's dumpy older sister who grew up singing in church and listening to Aretha Franklin instead of Katy Perry who just listened to the radio and became a cheerleader who leads with her chest. Ahem. Anyway, Kelly does "Wide Awake" very well. Again, Kelly's got the better voice, but she manages to connect to the song instead of just reading through it.

Joe - Hello. As crazy as it might sound, R&B singer Joe's rendition of "Hello" (Adele) is...kinda better. I think it's because he plays the role of the recalcitrant former lover a bit more believably than she does. I can't really say one is a better singer than the other, because both of them are fantastic, they just sing different genres. That being said, Joe tends to lean into the vocal a bit more than Adele does, especially on the chorus. It makes his rendition sound more immediate and emotional than she does. I don't think anyone could top Adele's rendition since it's the original, but I can Joe's rendition matches it, and that's a feat in and of itself.

Edited by 27bored
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Chris Cornell did a couple covers, and I thought they were pretty damned excellent! One is Prince's (but best known by Sinead O'Connor) Nothing Compares To U. Love this:

 

And he also covered Billie Jean (Michael Jackson):

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I just want to give a shout out to the entire YouTube channel of Jonathan Young.  He does covers of anime themes and Disney songs, but makes them hard rock or heavy metal.  My favorite of his is his cover of "Hellfire" from Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame":

 

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I much prefer Mary J. Blige's cover of "I'm Goin' Down" over the original by Rose Royce. The lead singer's delivery was too whiny for my taste. Mary's vocals are blindsided and distressed, but she's not on her knees cryin' for nobody and I love that.

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On 7/26/2017 at 3:43 PM, UYI said:

I LOVE this version. Unfortunately, since the album it's on isn't on Spotify, YouTube is about the only place to find it, probably.

 

That's a great cover: it respects what made the original good, yet Morgan still makes it her own. IMO, Bonnie Tyler's is good, but I think she did better with bloated Jim Steinman epic ballads. :)

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Rod Stewart also did a version. But of the three, I still prefer Tyler's. Ironically, though, that hit in '79 made her leave her label at the time because the execs there were trying to pigeon-hole her as a country singer, and she wanted to branch out.

She obviously did, to great success four years later, with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and then a year later in '84 with "Holding Out For A Hero".

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(edited)

Juice Newton does my favorite It's a Heartache, but I like pretty much every version of it I've heard.

I unabashedly love Chapin's Cat's in the Cradle, and I don't dislike the Ugly Kid Joe cover (with the absent apostrophe), but I don't like that the shift from "When you coming home, Dad?" to "When you coming home, Son?" in the final chorus is gone.

Edited by Bastet
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Not a big fan of glam-rock band Van Halen but I must admit to quite liking this Kinks' cover "You Really Got Me!"

Edited by Only Zola
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7 hours ago, Only Zola said:

 

Not a big fan of glam-rock band Van Halen but I must admit to quite liking this Kinks' cover.

Ray Davies himself conceded that VH outdid them on that song. 

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Here's something I never thought I would see/hear in my lifetime: Guns 'N Roses recently paid tribute to the late Glen Campbell by performing "Wichita Lineman" in Canada during their "Not In This Lifetime" tour. And, to me...it didn't suck. Who knew?

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49 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

Here's something I never thought I would see/hear in my lifetime: Guns 'N Roses recently paid tribute to the late Glen Campbell by performing "Wichita Lineman" in Canada during their "Not In This Lifetime" tour. And, to me...it didn't suck. Who knew?

That wasn't very good, but I like that they did it.  And just told the audience, "It may not be your thing [which it clearly wasn't, as there was no discernible recognition when the song started or hit the chorus], but we're trying to pay tribute."

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Seven Bridges Road, first recorded by Steve Young, then by Ian Matthews.  Matthews laid it down with a five part harmony, singing all the parts himself. (The Ian Matthew's recorded version is my favorite - just gorgeous - I own that album in vinyl and I will never ever let it go.)  It's Matthews arrangement that most people know, except they know it as an Eagles song:

Eagles:

 

Mathews: 

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In honor of Halloween, I present Jonathan Young's cover for Disney's "This is Halloween".  The metal cover.  If you like this, his channel is full of great stuff like this.  He covers Disney and anime themes and other songs.  His cover of "Hellfire" is probably my favorite.

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On 10/16/2017 at 9:14 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

I realize this may be a little sacrilegious, but, I prefer Shinedown's version of Simple Man over the original and iconic by Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

Not sacrilegious, because this is a great version. The original is also a great song, so I just chalk this one up as a loving tribute that stands on its own as great.

So on that note, Spotify threw Halo by SOiL into one of my playlist radio mixes, and I immediately added it to a couple of my own playlists. Because awesome. With the band now in my mix, it exposed me to a couple more things they've done including a couple cover songs. They covered Black Betty, which is fun, but not my favorite because to be fair, the original Ram Jam version is kind of perfect.  But then I found this one! This is way fun:

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On 11/10/2017 at 0:16 AM, Silver Raven said:

a band I never heard of called I Am Upset.

Do those guys have day jobs or something, because their hair is inappropriate for the way they sound. (See SOiL above for proper hair.)

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I liked the original "Come Together" by the Beatles, in spite of the ridiculous lyrics, and enjoyed the Aerosmith's remake, but my favorite by far is the rendition of it in the Justice League movie.  I love the hard edge of the guitar. 

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1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

I liked the original "Come Together" by the Beatles, in spite of the ridiculous lyrics, and enjoyed the Aerosmith's remake, but my favorite by far is the rendition of it in the Justice League movie.  I love the hard edge of the guitar. 

Gary Clark, Jr., for anyone interested.

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"Come Together" as sung by Joe Cocker from the movie Across The Universe, a musical about a young Liverpudlian named Jude who comes to America during the Vietnam era.  All Beatles covers.

One of the hookers is future Broadway star Orfeh.  Another is Tracy Nicole Chapman, also a future Broadway star.

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22 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

"Come Together" as sung by Joe Cocker from the movie Across The Universe, a musical about a young Liverpudlian named Jude who comes to America during the Vietnam era.  All Beatles covers.

One of the hookers is future Broadway star Orfeh.  Another is Tracy Nicole Chapman, also a future Broadway star.

 

Another one of the hookers is Deidre Goodwin who was in the film Chicago as one of the mistresses of murderers' row (My husband ran into my knife, he ran into my knife ten times).

Speaking of covers of Beatles' songs, Earth, Wind, and Fire's version of "Got to Get You Into My Life" is way better than the original.

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