Due to a lack of posts on The Spill of late ( hols I'm sure) - I'm now posting from the middle of a glen on an iPhone connection that's slower than dial-up, and I'd like to know which songs you think have been covered to death? I'll start with my top 3:
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart
2. Halleluyah
3. Atomic
now, I love these songs, but I never want to hear them covered again, ever!!
What do you think?
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34 comments:
Not yet. Leave it on the pan for a little while.
My sisterinlaw would like to mention that fiddler on the roof song by that singer-pink or Christina aguilera
And I would like to say, from my iPhone to yours, mcflah, any beatles song ever.
You'll Never Walk Alone.
Highway To Hell. Bon Scott simply cannot be topped by a faithful cover, and JazzKantine have absolutely nailed it as a re-invention cover, so there's no point anyone else trying.
Stairway To Heaven.
My Funny Bloody Valentine it seems, c'mon Jazzers give it up now ....
oops, only the title was showing, so I thought I was being smart.
We have a vote this end for the long black veil.
I didn't mean any disrespect to the beatles, but I would guess even beatles fans would attest to some v bad covers. Muzak, even.
My real answer is covers of Motown songs.
Like this, Ejay?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPS12Vll_tA&feature=PlayList&p=B6A3B79C0653936D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=27
Refer Steen to "Sergeant Pepper Knew My Father" (if you can skip the Wet, Wet, Wet.)
Refer Ejay to "I Can't Get Next To You Babe" cover down below somewhere.
Refer Tanky to F.S.K.
Refer Blimpy to Glenmorangie
Yes Steentina, exactly like this. I can't say thanks, because, you know, I found it horrible.
Laugh or cry?
Does this mean I have to scrap the americanflagstravaganza I planned for your birthday this year?
Holy Fuck! "I can't get next to you" was also covered by Toto!
That must prove someone's point?
Weep.
My thoughts exactly. (Oh, you weren't talking to me?... My bad.)
I'm on it
Love Will Tear Us Apart is a song that should never be covered at all. Ever.
Simon Cowell's crass exploitation of Hallelujah last year wins top honours for me, and I'd be happy not to hear that song tried again unless its something truly truly really weally unique.
I suppose having three versions on the charts probably introduced people to the two classic versions, but it was too high a price to pay.
Shouldn't May Way be on the list? And Blackbird? And anything Mark Ronson is involved with?
Ah I finally understood what SHoey meant by "down below". No I'm not weeping over that one, this one works. Of course there are some good Motown covers (and that's without counting the ones they did themselves), but for the most part, they should just stop it.
David Bowie and Mick Jagger's cover of Dancing In The Street should never have happened.
I'd go so far to say that The Stones should never have done any Motown covers. Their version of Ain't Too Proud To Beg is awful.
It's Jagger's voice that is so wrong. He might as well have blacked up to sing it and worn a Minstrel outfit.
Sorry for all the deletions, I made endless spelling and formatting mistakes I only spotted once I'd posted.
Agree about Ronson. I know I'm not alone in really really hating the Winehouse version of Valerie (having really really liked the original - it doesn't count if you don't like the song in the first place) but it still depresses me how this has become the standard.
Likewise, in another one-cover-but-it-was-one-too-many situation, Cher's It's In His Kiss feels like a lynching of Betty Everett's version. I still can't avoid cringing when that guitar kicks in where the vibes solo should be.
Paul Weller's Thinking Of You was awfully misguided as well, even though I think his intentions were honorable. The Sister Sledge version is an absolutely perfect production and performance - you can't strip disco down to its bare essentials by removing them, because they are the bare essentials. What, are we going to argue that the lyrics of I Feel Love compare with Keats now? Course not - and you don't take on the Nile Rodgers and the Sledge girls and expect to sound anything other than badly-advised and over-indulged.
But for great songs done to death: I'd submit Tracks Of My Tears. Again, Smokey Robinson's version is untouchable, and if anyone was going to try to touch it, doing it with the Motown in-house team or with Aretha's voice would have been the only ways. For everyone else - yes, you, Go West and Mica Paris - there's a thing called karaoke, they have it in the pubs, grab your coats.
There's a Weller cover of Thinking Of You? Brrr, I don't want to hear that, I'm still not over last night's "americanflagstravaganza" (times have changed Steen, with the new guy in office, it'll have to be a soviet/UN/nazi/CND/kenyan flag mash-up, actually who knows if you'll still have a country in the next couple of months, the end is nigh).
Smells like Teen Spirit
Yesterday. There's not many Beatles covers I like (I can think of only about 3 right now) and Yesterday gets slaughtered and maudlinized far too often. Can't stand it.
DsD, I agree about Bon Scott. I really like Acca Dacca (as they're fondly called in Australia) but I feel really bored with the post-Bon vocals, never mind covers by whole other bands. There was mischief in his voice.
Ain't no sunshine. Sting! Lighthouse family! LEAVE IT ALONE!! Bill had the last word. Period.
Well, I like the Swans cover of LWTUA, the Mark Ronson album and would like someone to do a folk or jazz version of Teen Spirit.
Here you go Shoey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txVSX_DOrpI
Cheers Ejay! Can't listen right now. So won't know if I should be more careful what I wish for until tomorrow.
FP, iagree about withers being the best, but I also very much like horace andys and Rashawn Roland kirk's version of ain't no sunshine.
Oh for heavens sake, I spelled his name right and the iPhone auto corrected it. Silly phone.
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