Five Finger Death Punch - House of the Rising Sun. Best version ever - Frigid Pink.
A song murdered by someone.
Is there a cover version of a song you like by the original artist that has been in your ears truly murdered by a covering artist?
Mine is 'Everybody Knows' by Leonard Cohen, absolutely murdered by Barb Jungr.
Mine is 'Everybody Knows' by Leonard Cohen, absolutely murdered by Barb Jungr.
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Also I have a cover that I do not like at all and in my opinion has lost all, and I say all the poetry and melancholy of the original version, it seems that the band took the music and the words without bothering or wondering what it meant and the 'have adapted to their style and the result is, for me, bad, unacceptable, I realize that the band has many fans and they will disagree and even think that everything has been improved, no, it is not so. I'm talking about "Knocking on hevens door" by Bob Dylan in the cover of guns & roses that have also done very nice things but not in this case. |
Larry, in general I too dislike operatic covers of popular songs, and like you I don't think I've listened to the couple of Dame Kiri's crossover albums I have more than once or twice. There are exceptions, though. One that I'd particularly recommend would be a 1985 album by Julia Migenes (then known as Julia Migenes-Johnson) entitled "In Love," in which she wonderfully performs a dozen or so classic Broadway show tunes. Of course, it's not entirely coincidental that in addition to opera she has a substantial background in the theatre. Speaking of Dame Kiri, one of the most fantastic concerts I've been to was a recital of purely classical material that she gave in New Haven, Connecticut, about three decades ago. When she was in her element she was certainly a very special talent. Best regards, -- Al |
I don't know if great songs can ever be murdered by a cover--they survive and the cover just makes one appreciate the artistry of the original artist even more. I like almost all covers I hear of songs I like, but my least favorite form of covers, categorically speaking, involve opera singers doing operatic covers of popular songs. I bought, and then only listened once, to Kiri Te Kanawa doing hits from "South Pacific;" it was funny, but not that funny that I wanted to hear it again. |
I hate to say a bad word about these two, but: Aretha covered the Beatle's Eleanor Rigby. I have it. Its pretty bad. I also don't like Otis Redding's cover of I Can't Get No Satisfaction. I do like Wilson Pickett's cover of Hey Jude with Dwayne Allman on guitar. Its a different song altogether which sometimes makes a cover okay. |
I for one greatly prefer that version to the better known recording that was done in the 1960s by the Righteous Brothers.Not me. The Righteous Brothers version has way more soul. Bobby Hatfield kills it. It makes Al’s sound like Wonder Bread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiyq2xrSI0 Even live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYj2hex99gY |
My selection features a great voice/skilled singer who fully "180 degrees" missed the point of the song. The song is "Pretty Women", from Stephen Sondheim’s musical "Sweeney Todd". It is about lust and the singer’s desire to kill and eat the girls he’s ogling. The original was sung (very effectively) by Len Cariou, who has no voice at all. Here’s how you butcher a song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=876_HQr4ePE |
Sometimes "murdering" a song can be as much about changing it as it is about doing a really bad rendition. In the case of Cohens Hallelujah, you may have seen the video of the little school girl in Ireland (?) who redid it as a Christian song. It went virile. The backlash was the fear that the latest version might eclipse the original. Other times an artist can breath life into a song that was badly needed. Arlo Guthrie put Steve Goodman on the map with the remake of "City of New Orleans". Steve Goodman was grateful for that. |
Oh man forsooth, great one! Talk about a bludgeoning! Vanilla Fudge was the most grossly untasteful band I’ve ever heard. I lost a lot of respect for Jeff Beck when he hired Carmine Appice and Tim Bogart, one of the worst rhythm sections to make it to the big time. All the drummers in L.A. laugh at Carmine behind his back. The worst of the worst! The Flamin' Groovies picked some great Beatles songs (early ones, as was to their taste), and did them really cooly. If Bowie wanted do a Beatles song, couldn't he at least have chosen a good one? |
I don't think all artists should be shamed for bad remakes, or at least so much. Lots of times it seems that there were pressures on them to do songs that made them seem, well, misguided, e.g.,
And in a different category altogether: Eleanor Rigby by Vanilla Fudge |
Don't forget Shatner's "Mr. Tambourine Man," another amazing cover. This, and a bunch of other aweful covers can be found on a CD called "Golden Throats." That album included Sebastian Cabot doing "It Ain't Me Babe). That cover prompted me to find the original vinyl which is a whole album of him reciting the lyrics to Bob Dylan songs to a musical accompaniment. Another album worth hunting down, is "No More Mr. Nice Guy"--Pat Boone doing covers of heavy metal hits in a sort of big band style. I don't know if "covers" include someone singing standards, but my all time favorite tasteless, crazy, brilliant and wonderful cover is Jackie Wilson singing "Danny Boy." Another cover that has some cheesy parts, but is utterly amazing and wonderful--so it is bad and it is good at the same time--is Lester Bowie (jazz trumpeter) doing "The Great Pretender." |
@acresverde---We have a winner! I have no idea what was suppose to be funny about that. Why mock such a thing? Al---I had forgotten about "Stroll On"! You’re exactly correct about the reason for the change in lyrics. I’m sure they would be sued for plagiarism these days. I have a friend who saw The Yardbirds twice in one week in ’67. The first time their line-up was just as seen in the movie, with rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja having moved to bass (to make room for new member Jimmy Page. Original bassist Paul Samwell-Smith had left the group, later producing the audiophile classic, Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman), the second with Jeff Beck gone, Page now the lone guitarist. That line-up made The Yardbirds final album---their only bad one---Little Games. For another example of a song that is an obvious remake of another with different lyrics, check out The Chocolate Watchband’s "Don’t Need Your Lovin’", performed by them in the Roger Corman-produced teen-exploitation movie Riot On Sunset Strip. It’s a remake of The Kinks 1965 version of the old Blues song "Milkcow Blues" (The Watchband also covered The Kinks "I’m Not Like Everybody Else, but with no changes in lyrics). The Chocolate Watchband were local heroes in my hometown of San Jose, for reason’s no longer clear ;-) ---they were nothing more than a glorified cover band. Singer Dave Aguilar was a shameless Mick Jagger impersonator, right down to the double maracas. Drummer Gary Andrivasevich (who still performs around Santa Cruz, the beach town just over the mountains from San Jose) was a couple years ahead of me at Cupertino High School, and played in both the school’s orchestra and it’s marching band. I’d see him marching on the field at an afternoon football game, then see him on stage that night with The Watchband! |
