Category: Music

Cover songs I prefer to the original

Amy wrote about “10 cover songs I prefer to the original”. Max, Amy and I were chatting about it on IRC last night. I was a rather lame player, considering I only found 2 cover songs I think are far greater than the original (what I mean is that I dislike the original songs):

1- “Mad World” by Gary Jules (vs. Tears for Fears)
2- “Sweet Jane” by the Cowboy Junkies (vs. Lou Reed)

Seeing how much work Amy put into her blog entry, I feel I have to “deliver” more than 2 great covers. What follows is a list of covers I really enjoy (while I like the original songs too):

1- “Rosie” by Francis Cabrel (French adaptation of “Rosie” by Jackson Browne)
2- “Piece of my heart” by Janis Joplin (vs. Erma Franklin)
3- “Day-O” by Shaggy (vs. Harry Bellafonte‘s “Banana Boat Song”)
4- “It ain’t me babe” by Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon (vs. Johnny Cash & June Carter)
(I was absolutely amazed by how well Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon sang in the Walk the line movie.)
5- “Song to the Siren” by This Mortal Coil (vs. Tim Buckley)
6- “Surface to Air” by the Chemical Brothers (a variation on “Across the Universe” by the Beatles)

And since I’m on a Chemical Brothers kick right now, here are the 5 pieces I like best. Plug your in-ear buds and play them loud:

1- “Asleep from Day”
2- “Otter Rock“
3- “Loops of Fury“
4- “Galvanize“
5- “Delik” [no “delik” on the fr.youtube.com website, sadly.]

Harry Belafonte & Muppet Show, The Banana Boat Song

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

I knew this song as “Day-Oh”, by the French band Pow Wow who were mostly doing acapella songs. I learnt years later that it was a cover. I was searching for MP3s of the song and found a few: a version by Shaggy, one by Danny Elfman (the one used in the movie Beetlejuice), and one by Harry Belafonte & the Muppet Show. YouTube are great, I can now see what I had imagined after hearing the sound track numerous times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obqAG6Ejj0&w=425&h=350

Rinda Rinda (Linda Linda)

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

The video/song “Yatta!” reminded Amy and I of Japan, and the song “Linda Linda” came up in the conversation. Ah yes, Amy was saying “Yatta!” was in her head and that maybe “Linda Linda” could fix this. I started to play the mp3 but as we were in a YouTube mood, we looked for it. Here it is. “Rinda Rinda” (Linda Linda) live by the Blue Hearts (00:03:55):