Sorry, couldn't think of any amusing "covers" puns.
I see (via Fark), that the Guardian has put out a list of the 10 worst covers of all time. Author Graeme Thompson tried to limit his list to those who felt they were paying respect to the original (thereby eliminating Shatner, et. al.). A few of these are distincly Britpop, so I can't comment on them, but a few deserve at least some sort of overreaction, and I'm just the guy to do it.
1. Duran Duran '911 Is A Joke'
Oh,abso-freaking-lutely. I've discussed the peroxided ones sins against music before, even going so far as to name this song specifically. Thompson calls it "shockingly misconceived in both theory and execution." Jolly right.
2. Ronan Keating 'Fairytale Of New York'
Keating is evidently some sort of pop singer across the pond. Either way, I can't imagined anyone topping the Pogues' version, or why they'd try.
3. Frank Sinatra 'Something'
Well, "Somethin' Stupid" was pretty bad too. Haven't heard this, though.
5. David Bowie 'God Only Knows'
As in, the Beach Boys song? Wow. I can only imagine the lyrics: "God only knows what I did to make Iggy Pop stick around for so many years...God only knows what I was thinking with Tin Machine."
7. Johnny Cash 'Danny Boy'
Easy there, Graeme. Cash is one of the only people I would let have a stab at covering just about anything. His renditions of "Hurt" and "Rusty Cage" bear that out.
10. Kevin Rowland 'The Greatest Love Of All'
I can't imagine going out of my way to look for any of the versions mentioned in this article, but the singer from Dexy's Midnight Runners taking on Whitney Houston is something I might just have to check out.
Don't forget to add anything - anything - by William Shatner. Didn't he cover "MacArthur Park"?
why do you read a British newspaper if you don't get the references?
Well, I generally read news articles on the Guardian, but (as I noted in the entry) this was linked on Fark.
- Duck and Cover;
- Cover(t) operations;
- Smothered by covers;
- Thou Shalt Not Cover They Neighbor's Song;
- Cover Ups And Downs;
- Easy, breezy, beautiful cover girls; or
- Cover-craft.
Pete links to this article on the ten worst cover songs. I only own two of the covers they cite:......
| --Posted to Perverse Access Memory on Oct 29, 2004 11:58 AM:. |
Can't believe that Tiffany's hideous 80s rendition of "I Saw Him (Her) Standing There" did not make it. Or, for that matter, her brutal cover of "I Think We're Alone Now."
Kevin Rowland released a whole album of really bad covers called My Beauty. I think it sold about 500 copies and was a complete disaster - my promo copy's here somewhere. He got bottles of piss thrown at him onstage at Reading that year mainly because he did some bizarre cross-dressing karaoke. Amazon have an overpriced import here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002R0SE/104-9694467-3106341?v=glance
Oh My Dear God! Johnny Cash covered Danny Boy? Jeez, if he got away with that, Mercedes McCambridge could have recorded The Minstrel Boy and earned a Grammy for it!
Pete and Ginger hash out this article on bad cover songs. I've never heard any of them, so I just......
| --Posted to Off the Kuff on Oct 30, 2004 8:52 AM:. |
why do you read a British newspaper if you don't get the references? This is not a rhetorical question.