Two things I've learned in the last week:

1. Slade did in fact have more than one hit.

2. Texas Country bands doing Prince remakes are damn funny.

I just listened to the Derailers (think Buck Henry, etc) do a cover of Prince's "Raspberry Beret" and it made me laugh for 5 minutes. It's a good song, I guess, whoever does it. My topic for the day is, what are some really great/unique/fun remakes of songs that you know of? What's your favorite?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

Answers

The Revolting Cocks (also known as The Revcos) 's cover of Do You Think I'm Sexy?, by Rod Stewart, comes immediately to mind. Rawk On, man! *grin*

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

Who was the chick who redid Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"? Was it Juliana Hatfield? No, right? Well, even though that one upset me at first, I ended up singing along to it every time it came on.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

"Stand By Your Man" by Lyle Lovett. All through watching "The Crying Game" on video, I kept listening, trying to guess which one of his songs was going to be used, since I'd seen his name on the soundtrack promos. I laughed myself sick when I realized how obvious it was.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

Oh, no, almost forgot a good one, though. "Kumbayah" by Guadalcanal Diary. I really miss G.D., used to see them live whenever I could. This song would have everyone in the bar just pounding away, singing "Kumbayah" in a manner that would make parents rethink summer camp entirely.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

Revco's Do You Think I'm Sexy is indeed rad. I recently heard another cool one, but I don't know who it was by. It was some white guys with acoustic guitars singing N.W.A.'s Boys in the Hood. They sang it very tunefully (instead of rapping) and it was so funny. Does anybody know who did that?

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

There was a Saint Etienne cover of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," but I forget who the singer was. It was a session singer used before they got Sarah Cracknell.

I love foreign language versions of pop songs that are in english and vice versa.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

It's not really a remake but in the movie 'Four Wedding and a Funeral', that couple that entertains at the reception absolutely crack me up when they sing 'Stand By Your Man'.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000

Jill, that was a local group called Dynamite Hack. The local station 101.5 here in Austin played that song about every 35 minutes. Sadly, it loses its humor on about the 20th time you hear it in one week.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

oh oh oh!! I can't believe I didn't think of this one immediately, but Duran Duran's cover of 911 is a Joke is pretty freaking hilarious. My non-Duranie friends were playing the Public Enemy version at their house one day, which I had never heard, and when I started to recognise lyrics, I was all excited, Hey, Duran did a cover of this! HORRIFIED, my friends wouldn't believe me, so I went out to my car and got my DD Thank You tape, and played it for them. They were Very Upset, and I laughed my bum off. :-) Hee hee.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

Rosemary, I'm sure it's the one you're talking about. I don't know why I think of Juliana Hatfield at the most inappropriate times...

I can't even imagine Duran Duran doing that 911 song. I have to hear it.

I'm heard the Boyz in Da Hood one. It's kind of funny.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

I just think it's cool that someone here's heard of Saint Etienne (my husband is equally impressed). The singer was Moira Lambert. (Sarah Cracknell is my hero, by the way.)

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

Faith Hill doing the cheeriest rendition ever of Janis Joplin's "Take Another Piece of My Heart" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Faith makes it sound like the most *fun* thing that's ever happened to her. I love the Beautiful South's cover of "Everybody's Talkin'" and I read that Britney Spears covers a Stones song on her new album which is too scary to even contemplate.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Ah, yes, 911 is a Joke. Yet another example of SimonLeBon taking a flying leap onto a bandwagon that pulled out of the station about three years previously.... You can't even convince most hardcore Duranies that that cover was a good idea....

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Britney does "Satisfaction". It is pretty sad.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Joanne, word on the Beautiful South's cover of Everybody's Talkin'. I love me some Beautiful South.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Also, Ben Folds Five's live cover of Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is pretty sweet, as is All Saints's live cover of Always Something There to Remind Me. In fact, if you can get a copy of the Burt Bacharach tribute concert that was held at the Royal Albert Hall last year, you should definitely buy it. Full of goodness, it is.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I like Luka Bloom's cover of the rap song, "I Need Love."

Travis, my favorite band of the moment, covers Britney's "Baby One More Time," but it's only on an import EP that I can't find anywhere!

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

The (imho) truly gruesome song Wonderwall, by Oasis, was covered in a retro-lounge style the same year the original was on the charts, and I can't remember who did the cover (no luck finding it online, either, I just tried), but it was FAB! I loved it. :-) It was cheese-a-riffic and brilliant.
[Oasis, of course, being the buttheads that they are, promptly threatened to sue the lounge band (whose version was being played on a handful of radio stations, which is how I heard it), because lord knows Oasis certainly hadn't made enough money that year off their despicably successful album What's The Story Morning Glory, which, incidentally, gets my vote for most pretentious album title ever. ;-P ]

But that's not what I came on here to talk about. ;-) VH1's Behind The Music: The Go-Go's alleged that the Go-Go's song Our Lips Are Sealed was a cover song-- not a Go-Go's original. I found that difficult to believe, since it's pretty much the Go-Go's signature tune, and when I checked the credits in my Go-Go's cd, it said the song was written by Jane Wiedlin and T. Hall. What gives? To further confuse things, the 80s band Aztec Camera did a cover of Our Lips Are Sealed a few years after the Go-Go's had a hit with it. So if the cover thing is true, that would mean Aztec Camera did a cover of a cover...right?
If anyone has insight/info to share, about this, I would greatly appreciate it.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I think Jane's in the GoGo's but I don't know who T Hall is. Was it Behind the Music that talked about them fighting, tripping and boinking boys constantly? It was "shocking"...not. They still rocked in my college days. I do think that show is pretty funny sometimes.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Klee, it was the Mike Flowers Pops who did that cover of Wonderwall. Natalie Merchant and Radiohead also did passable live covers of the same song.

And Sarah, the Travis live cover of Baby One More Time is on one of the Turn CD singles (not an EP), I think. I believe we have a CD somewhere with a studio version of it, but I'll have to look. I have the MP3 of the live cover, though, if you want me to throw it up on the web for you.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

T. Hall is Terry Hall of the Specials, Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, etc. It was Fun Boy Three who did a version of "Our Lips Our Sealed."

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Jackie, TA!!! Now I can go hunting for Mike Flowers Pops. You're a goddess!!

My brilliant, super-SMRT friend Kimberly got the definitive answer on the whole Go-Go's/Fun Boy Three thingy:

Where the Specials were a ska-revival band, the Fun Boy Three was a new wave pop group with distinctly weird, skeletal and experimental overtones. The Fun Boy Three finally released their eponymous debut in the spring of 1982. That summer, they had a hit with a cover of George Gershwin's "Summertime." The group recorded a second album with Talking Heads leader David Byrne late in 1982. The resulting album, Waiting, appeared in the spring of 1983, concurrently with the Top Ten singles "The Tunnel of Love" and "Our Lips Are Sealed," a song Terry Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who already made it into a hit the previous year with her group, the Go-Go's.
---

So it was written by Jane and Terry, and recorded by both FBT and the Go-Go's and it was a hit for both. :)

Gotta love the All Music Guide.
-k

I feel like we all learned something today. *snicker* :-)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

And Kel, thanks to you guyses, I freakin' DREAMED that song last night! Silly bunny. :)

Sarah, I heard Travis do "(Baby) One More Time" live on KROQ in LA last week, and... DAMN! I'm ready go go out and buy everything they ever made! I'd never heard Travis before....

I suppose after bashing My Boyfriend and his band Duran Duran for their hiddy 911 is a Joke, it's worth mentioning that their versions of (yes, really!) "Lay Lady Lay" and "Crystal Ship" were AMAZING! Seriously amazing!

Oingo Boingo's version of "I Am the Walrus" is about the only Beatles "cover" I'll accept. Generally speaking, no one should ever cover Beatles songs.

Songs that I wish someone would cover (or cover decently): *Bus Stop (The Guess Who) *The Chauffeur (Duran) *Things We Said Today (Beatles... despite what I just said) *You Showed Me (The Turtles.... Lightning Seeds did cover this for the Austin Powers soundtrack, and it's pretty good musically, but lacks The Turtles fab vocals) *Dust in the Wind (Kansas. No, I'm not kidding. It's a groovy song!) *Cecelia (Simon & Garfunkle. Again, like with the Beatles, I'm not sure covering S&G songs should be done, but if it was a Great Cover, then....)

And finally, Cass Eliot singing Sophie Tucker songs is one of the Greatest Things Ever.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

you reminded me, Dawn-- Suggs (from Madness) did a cover of the Beatles' I'm Only Sleeping, which I love. And which I gave Dawn my spare copy of. And that there is some fiiine grammar. ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Did Cass ever do "I Wanna Say Hello"? (I wanna say HELL-O!! I wanna SEE ya SMILE!! I wanna HOLD you in my ARMS again...!!)

The Beatles once said that Sophie Tucker was their favorite American musical group. *hee*

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Tori Amos' cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is really something. And I have to love Marilyn Manson's version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You". The creepiest love song of all time!

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

More on Sophie:

"You can't do this, you can't do that. I couldn't even say 'hell' or 'damn,' and nothing, honey is more expressive than the way I say 'hell' or 'damn.'" (on radio interviews)
[She promised] in song,
"There isn't going to be a fourth Mr. Ex
and I'll be darned if I'm paying anymore alimony checks
I'm living alone and I like it!
...
I'm a one-ticket gal, free as the breeze
I go where I like, I do as I please
When I lock up my apartment, I've got all the keys
I'm living alone and I like it.
If I wanna play gin, I stay up and I play gin
I come home when I want to and when I walk in
There's nobody growling at me, "Where the hell have you been?"
I'm living alone and I like it.
...
No man buys my dresses or pays for my minks
If I get a new hat trimmed with posies and trinks
There's no darling husband yelling "take it off, it stinks!"
I buy it, I wear it and I like it!"
-- "I'm Living Alone"

One more quote from Sophie:
"I want to take this opportunity to tell you folks
That me and myself are real pals.
I wake up every morning, fresh as a lark,
No one around swearing about a collar button;
Take my little exercise,
Skip over the the mirror and say,
Greetings, Sophie.
The mirror smiles back and the day is started right.
Then at breakfast, when there's only one piece of toast left,
I don't have to grab for it. Myself sez to me:
Soph, old girl, finish the toast. You must be hungry.
And I say to myself: I don't mind if I do.
No arguments at all."
-- "Me and Myself"

You GO, girl.

She was a Big Bountiful Woman, wore pants BEFORE Marlene Dietrich did, and she was a Ziegfield Girl. Died the year I was born.
After a stint with the Ziegfield Follies, Sophie began headlining her own shows. Before long, she was The Red Hot Mama. Like Mae West, her humor was aggressively sexual. But unlike Mae, Sophie was considered unattractive. Audiences laughed at Sophie rather than with her and she capitalized on it. Not surprisingly, then, she's been dismissed as playing up a stereotype - the fat old woman who foolishly fancies herself sexy.

It's true Sophie's sexuality didn't appear much of a threat; and when a doctor told her to lose weight, she refused for image's sake. But it was this unthreatening image that allowed her to take pride in, (hell, advocate!) being independent, sexually active, and over-weight (NOT ugly. Sophie went to great lengths to look and dress her very best). Her approach differed from that of most female performers, who made themselves palatable via infantalization (Fanny Brice, Juliana Hatfield), self- effacement (Marie Dressler, Juliana Hatfield) and acting stupid (Gracie Allen, Juliana Hatfield). She stood the "I'm a loser" complex on its head and, while allowing the audience to feel superior, proclaimed her fat/old/gawky self the hottest.


-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Forgot to put the link in there: http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s-Arts-theater-dance-2.html

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Aztec Camera also did an 80s cover of Van Halen's "Jump." God, I had forgotten how much I used to love Aztec Camera.

I also used to love The Colourfield. Some other covered "Can't Get Enough of You, Baby) in the 90s and every time I heard it I wanted to go home and listen to The Colourfield version of it to get the awful cover out of my mind.

Rod Stewart should not be allowed to cover songs by Van Morrison and Tom Waits. I want to slit my throat when I hear that old loser ruining some very good songs.

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2000

Travid did the cover of "Baby One More Time" when I saw them last year. I'd been telling my brother that they did a cover of "Baby One More Time".I was hoping they would do that song when we saw them and they did.

Fran introduced it as "their party piece",LOL.It was one of many highlights of that night for both my brother and I(the concert,and the fact I got to meet Fran before the show!)

--CaitR

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

They've been playing it at Britpop Night recently. I don't much care for it (so maybe it IS the song, not the singer *references another thread in a single bound*).

I do get the joke, though, and am amused. I was MUCH less amused when Travis covered "Take a Load off, Fanny" and yeah, I know it has another name ("The Weight"?) but I dislike that song so much I don't want to fact-check and find out what that might be.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001