Happy First Friday of Summer! Or, if you’re in the souther hemisphere, Happy Winter and Cozy Season!
It’s either blankets or bug spray, your choice.
I hope you have lovely plans ahead of you, and lots of pleasant weather to enjoy, regardless of season.
I have no sense of time whatsoever. The passage of time is meaningless (5 minutes? 5 hours? Couldn’t tell you) and the existence of time as a concept is an eternal mystery. So to make sure I’m somewhat on time for whatever is on my calendar, I play music while I’m in the shower to roughly gauge how much time has passed.
Lately I’ve been diving back into music I liked and have forgotten about, and I remembered this cover of “32 Flavors” by Ani DiFranco by Alana Davis:
And if you’d like to hear the original, which isn’t too different but a little longer:
What are your favorite covers? What’s on your summer playlist?
I am enjoying Keith Urban’s new album, “Flow State,” which is all covers, except for one song. “I Just Wanna Stop” has been in my head all week.
@Twomorechapters: omg, that Keith Urban album is all the (what later became known as) “Yacht Rock” anthems from my teens & early twenties. I especially liked the cover of “On and On”—one of the most melancholy songs of the 1970s…and I’m totally there for it!
As for me, one of my favorite things to do is to pick some (relatively) obscure songs and search for unexpected covers. Some recent favorites include: a great (and very melancholy—again!) cover of Tom Perry’s “You Got Lucky” by country singer Michael Haney; Betteye LaVette’s epic cover of Bob Dylan’s “Things Have Changed”; and Eddie Vedder’s gravelly cover of English Beat’s “Save It for Later”. Great stuff!
Tom Petty, of course.
Oh, no, you’ve stumbled across a Jill special interest ;-)I got really into watching live covers on YouTube during covid. Partially b/c I wanted to get better at clapping w/the beat. I still can’t do that, but I found a lot of neat music.
Highly recommend following BBC Live Lounge and Triple J’s Like A Version if you like interesting covers.
I could pick a million different ones to link to, but two of my all time favorites.
Teddy Swims covering ‘Cruel Summer’ on Live Lounge. I swear he was born to sing this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6XwKBMsZk0
DMA covering Cher’s ‘Believe.’ Just for the sheer disconnect of these very ordinary looking guys performing a gorgeous sincere version of an older pop song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmwFnoMoDDg
There’s also some very hilarious, very Australian comments from watchers to go along w/this one. I don’t get all their references, but I get the gist.
Oh! You asked, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites.
Sara Bareilles covers of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.
Jacob Lusk of Gabriels sings Bennie and the Jets.
Pink’s cover of Me and Bobby McGee.
Rhiannon Giddens’ cover of American Tune (oops, thats actually a duet with Paul Simon).
Jessie and Abby Mueller duet Always/Goodnight written by Scott Alan.
Orchester Version of Unchained Melody arranged by Roland Smeets. Surpasses lovely.
The Medoza Line’s cover of Springsteen’s Tougher Than The Rest – I love Springsteen, but here I prefer the cover!
Alexandra Burke’s cover of Hallelujah.
And the Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt cover of To Know Him I To Love Him is phenomenal. Incidentally, this was also covered by the Beatles in one of their live performances for BBC radio – it’s on the Live at the BBC album, and it’s really good as well.
Which leads me to the Beatles cover of the Shirelle’s Baby It’s You, which they covered on their first album. Love that one too. They covered quite a few girl band songs like this one on their early days.
@Midge, yes! The trio version of To Know Him is to Love Him is phenomenal.
I also listen to music in the shower to keep some sense of time.
I’ve been listening to Electric Callboy’s version of Cascada’s Everytime We Touch on repeat.
Another one I love: OMD’s Enola Gay rockabilly cover by The Hillbilly Moon Explosion: https://youtu.be/WDb8Z67HtB4?is=ARV_LKF1ghTHcpzi
The Sound of Silence by Disturbed
And I don’t know if it counts as a cover, but Lana Del Rey’s version of Once Upon a Dream from Maleficent – gives me shivers!
I’m very fond of Mari Wilson’s version of “Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps” because it was used as the opening for the TV show “Coupling”.
@DiscoDollyDeb, I love yaught rock, too! It reminds me of my childhood and teens. I was happy when I saw the songs on Keith Urban as album, because they ate some of my favorites from that time.
Dolly Parton’s 2023 album “Rockstar” that she recorded after getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is full of her covers of classic rock songs, most of them in duets with the original singers and some current pop stars. Just fabulous. I came across it thanks to her cover of “What’s Up?” (What’s Going On?) with Linda Perry. Must mention the bonus track “Jolene” (featuring Måneskin) and here’s the Wikipedia page listing the other 30+ songs – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_(Dolly_Parton_album)
So many good songs in these comments!
I didn’t know about Keith Urban’s album, must listen! love his voice ever since his first two country albums in the early 2000’s.
Triple J covers are awesome, shout out to King Stingray covering Coldplay’s Yellow with a yadaki (didgeridoo) and breathing new life into that tired radio hit. Pro tip: go to Triple J YouTube channel, sort the videos by most popular, click when you recognize a song, enjoy!
Also, yesterday my summer island vibes playlist randomly suggested a cover of Purple Rain in reggae style by UB40, who I also adore. Highly recommended if you want to feel like chilling on a Caribbean island.