Wednesday 23 March 2022

Unnecessary covers

This won't become a series, though it could easily. But it's prompted by hearing No Doubt's cover of It's My Life on the radio one day last week. I mean ... just, why? I've got nothing against Gwen and co but unless you're going to radically reimagine the song somehow, why bother trying to cover such a peerless, timeless classic? It's like playing chess against Garry Kasparov - you're not going to win.

You can go and search for the cover if you like, but I prefer to give Talk Talk's source material another airing:

How about you? What cover version makes you holler at the radio, "Just play the original!"? Or is it just me that does that?

8 comments:

  1. Frank Turner's "Thunder Road" Linda Ronstad's "Alison " so many sad attempts ...
    the only cover that has worked is Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt " and he not only covered it, he made it his own , same can be said for Talking Heads cover of "Take Me To The River" another rare exception to the rule

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    1. Making it their own is key, I think, rather than slavishly reproducing the original.

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  2. Bow Wow Wow covering The Smiths, "Stop Me.." is a good change up.

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  3. FYC -Ever Fallen in Love With
    Truly awful.You should never mess with perfection.

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    1. Exactly, it's the Kasparov chess analogy again - FYC just can't win.

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  4. Agree with you about No Doubt's cover - I checked it out and was also struck by the totally different approach in the video as I love Talk Talk's imagery of nature in theirs which seems to give the lyrics a more profound meaning (?) Also with CC on Ever Fallen In Love. I'm sure there are plenty of other pointless covers I know which I can't bring to mind right now but also the ones I hate are when the song is changed beyond recognition in a bad way, i.e. if the approach is completely at odds with the original mood. Cue those terrible weedily plaintive piano/female voice versions of more robust songs often used in TV ads.... ugh ugh ughhh!

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    1. IT does make you wonder whether some acts think, "Oh, we'll take their famous and well-loved song, and do a sappy, ballady, piano-led rehash of it, perhaps John Lewis will come knocking for their Christmas ad..."

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