Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Covers: Better than the originals

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Covers: Better than the originals

    I must have done this, haven't I?

    And the top five are all by women?

    #2
    Nah, I know that Kevin Rowland occasionally wore a dress, but ​​​​​​the Dexy's version of Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache wasn't by a woman.

    Comment


      #3
      The Darkness redeem their existence by taking Radiohead's doomy album closer Street Spirit (Fade Out) and giving it the hair metal treatment.
       

      Comment


        #4
        Bette Davis Eyes. Here is the original, proceed at your own risk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQsOJbs-yo

        Comment


          #5
          Huge kudos to Carnes and her team for realising what that could be turned into.

          Pet Shop Boys 'Always On My Mind' is usually the first one I think of. A solid but unremarkable croon becomes an absolute disco epic. Viola Wills' version of Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind' similarly, though I really like the original too.

          Comment


            #6
            (We certainly have done this recently - and probably on more than one occasion - but I cannot find the thread[s] for love nor money.)

            For my money, Emmylou Harris's version of Here, There and Everywhere improves on The Beatles' original.

            And it's common knowledge that Badfinger were among the first to concede that Nilsson's version of Without You was the definitive one.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post
              Huge kudos to Carnes and her team for realising what that could be turned into.

              Pet Shop Boys 'Always On My Mind' is usually the first one I think of. A solid but unremarkable croon becomes an absolute disco epic. Viola Wills' version of Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind' similarly, though I really like the original too.
              Good call. "Always On My Mind" is my favorite PSB song, and I like a lot of their songs. That might have been the first time I learned that, to some extent, a good song is just a good song and a clever musician can even transform it into a different genre.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post
                Huge kudos to Carnes and her team for realising what that could be turned into.

                Pet Shop Boys 'Always On My Mind' is usually the first one I think of. A solid but unremarkable croon becomes an absolute disco epic. Viola Wills' version of Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind' similarly, though I really like the original too.
                A lot of sense here.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Anything by Paul Young. Especially Love Will Tear Us Apart.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Eloise by The Damned > Barry Ryan
                    Wild Horses by The Sundays > Rolling Stones

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Summer Breeze

                      Isley Brothers >>>>> not... >>>>> even... >>>>> close... >>>>> Seals & Crofts

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                        Anything by Paul Young. Especially Love Will Tear Us Apart.
                        Clearly a wind-up.

                        I can’t accept that The Damned’s by-numbers retread of Eloise improves on the original, either.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                          Clearly a wind-up.


                          I can’t accept that The Damned’s by-numbers retread of Eloise improves on the original, either.
                          Yeah, it's kind of the same but a bit more bombastic.

                          When I eventually heard the Isley's Caravan of Love, I have to say I preferred the Housemartin's version.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Earth, WInd & Fire beats Beatles on "Got To Get You Into My Life".

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post

                              Pet Shop Boys 'Always On My Mind' is usually the first one I think of. A solid but unremarkable croon becomes an absolute disco epic. Viola Wills' version of Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind' similarly, though I really like the original too.
                              I like the PSB version, but the emotionless vocals separate the song entirely form its lyrical content. It wins by way of arrangement, but the best interpretation is Willie Nelson's. Maybe that's a distinction that needs to be made.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Stranglers: Walk On By.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Ah, I've not heard Nelson's.

                                  My favourite PSB records are 'Disco' and 'Introspective'. I think they're mostly at their best when they have room to unfurl into their Italo glory.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    How about cover that were as ground breaking as the originals?

                                    Eight Miles High (Byrds & Husker Du) would be a prime example. Prior to the release of Fifth Dimension the Byrds had forged a jingle-jangle sound that mixed folk and the British pop invasion, a hybrid of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, with two albums of folk covers and some achingly beautiful Gene Clark ballads. Eight Miles High adds the free-jazz of John Coltrane and raga from Ravi Shanker and was a major influence on the whole psychedelic music scene. Whilst 5D was the beginning of an amazing three album cycle of music (Younger Than Yesterday & The Notorious Byrds Brothers) they never returned to this style with the exception of "Mind Gardens".

                                    Forward two decades too the Husker Du version which was a single only release. Recorded at the same time as the ground-breaking Zen Arcade album, this add the fury and aggression of hardcore punk to the original. Husker Du always had a major 60's influence and had already covered Donavan's "Sunshine Superman" but 8MH threatened to create a new genre of music. Like the Byrds they never returned to it, and with the possible exception of Squirrel Bait no one else has run with the idea.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post

                                      I can’t accept that The Damned’s by-numbers retread of Eloise improves on the original, either.
                                      But the original was an underpowered weak sauce arrangement of a potentially great song. Like listening to someone on mogadon singing it through a wall at three quarter speed. The Damned added the bombast and melodrama and energy it needed to be a proper classic.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        The Soft Pink Truth's "Why do the Heathen Rage?" LP. Member of Matmos does a whole album of techno covers of black metal songs and it's absolutely amazing.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          The ultimate showstopper on this thread must be Otis Redding's transformation of the crooners' standard "Try A Little Tenderness" into a soul anthem, to the point that the crooning version is the novelty.

                                          Soon after, Aretha Franklin's version of "Respect" totally reworked Redding's original.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by hobbes View Post
                                            But the original was an underpowered weak sauce arrangement of a potentially great song. Like listening to someone on mogadon singing it through a wall at three quarter speed. The Damned added the bombast and melodrama and energy it needed to be a proper classic.
                                            Guess our ears work differently. The Ryans’ version had just enough drama - it knew when to drop out and ruminate before building up the dramatic tension. The Damned’s cover just sounded to me like a band desperate for a hit. Which they sort of were.

                                            An example upon which some of us might agree: This Mortal Coil’s revision of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Prince wrote two songs which were much improved when covered by women - I Feel For You by Chaka Khan, and Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'Connor.

                                              I Feel For You was originally offered (along with I Wanna Be Your Lover) to Patrice "Forget Me Nots" Rushen, who he apparently had a crush on, but she turned them both (and him) down, probably thinking "who does this kid think he is?".

                                              Nothing Compares 2 U was a song he didn't care for - you can tell because he gave it to The Family, the latest of his hugely inferior side projects/spin off groups. But after It became a huge hit he did start playing it live.

                                              The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones came close to eclipsing the original, IMO, but the original still shades it.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by jwdd27 View Post
                                                Nothing Compares 2 U was a song he didn't care for - you can tell because he gave it to The Family, the latest of his hugely inferior side projects/spin off groups. But after It became a huge hit he did start playing it live.
                                                I love his live versions of it.

                                                Talking of the Pet Shop Boys, I'm struggling to decide whether to choose their version of Go West or the Village People original. They are both good. Just depends what mood I'm in.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by anton pulisov View Post
                                                  Bette Davis Eyes. Here is the original, proceed at your own risk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQsOJbs-yo
                                                  I did proceed, anton. And yes, it's fair to say the Kim Carnes song wipes the floor with it. However, I did come across this edifying comment explaining exactly why the Kim Carnes version is so much better than the original:

                                                  "As with most big hits, the Carnes version was the combination of the right recording of the right song by the right artist at the right time. Many songs I've followed took years before that combination came to pass (Broken Roads by Rascal Flatts comes to mind but there are many many others). From a Composers perspective, the IV-VI-V chord progression of the Carnes version (Key of F: Bb-dm-C) was what made it a hit. This original 'version' lacks that, but instead, goes to the typical, routine, standard country chord progression IV-V-I with the V7/V in there (i.e. in the key of D: G-A-D w/E7). Whoever put the Carnes IV-VI-V progression into her arrangement (in F major: Bb-dm-C), is the one responsible for the song really, becoming almost an entirely different and distinct 'new' song. That chord progression changed everything. The Carnes version opens with that progression. (Bb-dm-C) and constantly returns to it. It's the hook of the whole song. Then, with the other ingredients listed above of the right recording, right artist, and right timing, you have a monster hit. Daniel L?o Simpson Composer San Francisco"



                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X