Love that Sophie Ellis-Bextor version of Do You Remember the First Time? - she suits it so well. I have always thought Oasis do Walrus better than the Beatles did; their swagger really elevates it.
I've never seen David Garrett before. Absolutely blown away!
She takes that song to a new place while keeping the essence intact, right? I couldn't agree more on the Walrus version - they went full in and made it even better than the original. I guess in both Sophie's and Oasis' covers you can see there's a love of the source material.
And feel free to explore David Garrett - he has some fantastic covers, including one of Shake it Off for the Muse, as I remember she's a fan of Taylor Swift 😉
It's the sort of thing I'll hyperfocus on, just relentlessly playing the violin guy for days on end. I got into Brass Against last year (about four years after everyone else) and in about two weeks I'd totally skewed my year end playlist. And of course I'll drop the Taylor cover around The Muse.
Oh my, Brass Against sound incredible (I'm listening to them now). Thanks for bringing them up!
Please go ahead and hyperfocus all you must because have you truly lived if you haven't gone through a phase of impersonating a musician you've just discovered and are a bit obssessed with?
LOVE this! And now have an amazing list of songs to work my way through over the weekend! Loved Sophie EB doing Pulp and goodness Seu Jorge was a blast from the past—I was obsessed with that soundtrack! ❤️
Sophie EB voice works so well for that song, doesn't it? I discovered Seu Jorge a few years ago and when I first heard him sing Starman it took me a moment to realise it was a Bowie song because the change of language caght me off guard.
Love this list!! I wasn't expecting to see Mina on it! What a voice ~ I have one song to add to the list: David Bowie covering Bruce Springsteen 'it's hard to be a saint in the city'. He did magic. MAGIC.
Ok, that Bowie cover is fire 🔥🔥🔥 Have listened to the original but I don't know, Springsteen has never been my cup of tea (with a couple of exceptions). David Bowie, on the other hand, can do no wrong. At points his voice sounds like Axl Rose. Wild!
That cover of Oggi Sono Io totally blew my mind the first time I heard it after loving the Alex Britti one. It's incredible how amazing she sounded here at 61!
I'm going to listen to that Bowie version now, I'm too curious about how his voice works in a Springsteen song. Also, this is a good suggestion for a Part II.
If I heard Mina's version without knowing it was an Alex Britti's song I would have never guessed it was a cover. She did such a good job. Great vocals!
I don't like Bruce Springsteen either, and that song has been one of my Bowie top 5 for aaaaaages until someone mentioned it was a cover XD It's amazing how much he changed it. He really made it HIS song.
Great post, Cristina, and this is a fantastic list - I know most of the songs, but unfamiliar with a lot of the artists. Agree it’s one of Pulp’s best songs - I remember renting the His n’ Hers album on CD from our local library. Those were the days!
Look forward to checking some of these out. Thanks!
Thank you, Andy! Omg renting cd’s sounds so cool, I didn’t have that option growing up so I used to pester friends to make a pirate copy for me every time they shared what new albums they got 😂
Great list on a dull Friday morning to bop to. Love George and Mary together. And Sophie is so good on the cover versions. Saw her in concert in Galway this summer and she delivered a great concert.
What a refreshing and lovely read. I shall seek out each of these tracks, some of which are abundantly familiar, others so far unheard. Do people really exist with no interest in music? If they really do, then how can they be living, rather than merely existing, poor empty souls!
Thanks Cristina for your compelling, heartwarming and musically educational work here.
Thanks for reading, Hugh. Pleased to know this has put a few new songs in your radar and I couldn’t agree more with you about how much music matters. It’s always great tool to express so many things in a succinct way, isn't it?
I often wonder how someone can be uninterested in music but apparently not everyone is as moved by it or as enthusiastic about finding out a new artist. Meanwhile, I don't remember a day since I was a pre-teen where I haven't listened to music or where I haven't given a little jump of excitement after listening to a great song for the first time.
I live for music of all types, as do all of my friends and family. My old schoolmate, best man and fellow music lover also read your article. Here’s what he says:
Brilliantly written article and I haven’t even listened to the tracks - remember in the 90’s when we christened Oasis as “The Oatles”
Notice also that one is a cover of a cover …”Valerie” originally by Liverpool band “The Zutons” ( I have their CD)…
Great article though - now to listen to the covers 👍
Tell your friend I love “The Oatles”and will steal it 😂 Also, I didn’t know Valerie was already a cover, so will look up the original. Love how music conversations are always a source of discovery!
This was fascinating, Cristina! I don't know any of these covers and this is a refreshing take on a very popular topic - the covers versus the original. Usually it's the same handful of cover debates that come up but these are all fresh and new (for me, at least). I will listen to them all later, but I won't be able to say for all of them which is 'better' since there are a few originals I don't know at all!
I've just listened to Do You Remember the First Time? and Sophie's version is excellent. I'd love to see her doing some 90s covers - an entire Britpop album would be fun!
When I saw Oasis live back in 1995, they closed their set with 'I Am the Walrus' but without the horns and strings.
Oh Daniel, so glad to hear this has led you to discover a few new songs! When it comes to music, I love finding out new songs and artists (at least new to me anyway) and one of the most fascinating ways I've come up with most of the songs here has been by going down music rabbit holes.
Do You Remember the First Time? had me hooked since I first heard it and I have a feeling you'll love Pulp's original just as much as Sophie's cover.
Whether I initially liked them more or less the original of any of the above, what they have in common is that they are well written and therefore allow for other people to have fun with them when creating their own versions. It's fascinating how the same lyrics can be interpreted in so many ways and arrangements, each giving a different twist and creating a different mood.
Hope you enjoy them all when you get around to listen to them.
PD: Also, how lucky to have listened to I Am the Walrus played by Oasis!!!
I’m a huge Pulp fan and have heard just about all of their songs but I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard one covered before now?
What I also find interesting is when you know and love the original and then hear the cover versus discovering the original and the cover at the same time. So for Pulp, I know the song and I obviously have my opinion of it and that influences the way I interpret the cover. Make sense?
If I don’t know the original, maybe I’m more likely to prefer the cover?
Sometimes the cover is just as good or is equally great and there’s no need to choose one over the other (‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash is one of those that provokes so much fierce debate).
I’ve been in situations though, like at a concert, where there’s a bit of an underwhelming reaction or displeasure about a cover. I saw Suede in Camden in 1996 and for the encore, Neil Tennant came out to sing ‘Saturday Night’ and the crowd weren’t exactly thrilled. Similarly, at the V97 festival in Chelmsford, Ash brought out Neil Hannon to sing ‘Oh Yeah’ and the crowd were fairly upset, I’d say. On the other hand, I was happy on both occasions.
Totally makes sense and I feel the same way about songs I know well and then I stumble upon a cover. I tend to show a bit of resistance at the beginning but more often than not I yield to curiosity which leads to multiple versions of a song coexisting peacefully in my playlists.
Doing a cover live in the middle of a concert is always such a risk because you really rely on the crowd's mood and instant reaction for it to work, and it depends on whether they'll know the band/artist being covered, which is different from the one they've come to see... Lots of variables there!
I've seen videos of Dua Lipa covering a different song in each of her shows, and usually picking one in the language of the country she is in. I'll probably have to explore that more because I saw her with Neil Rodgers doing "Le Freak" and her voice suits that one very well. Maybe more material for a round 2 of covers.
Love that Sophie Ellis-Bextor version of Do You Remember the First Time? - she suits it so well. I have always thought Oasis do Walrus better than the Beatles did; their swagger really elevates it.
I've never seen David Garrett before. Absolutely blown away!
She takes that song to a new place while keeping the essence intact, right? I couldn't agree more on the Walrus version - they went full in and made it even better than the original. I guess in both Sophie's and Oasis' covers you can see there's a love of the source material.
And feel free to explore David Garrett - he has some fantastic covers, including one of Shake it Off for the Muse, as I remember she's a fan of Taylor Swift 😉
It's the sort of thing I'll hyperfocus on, just relentlessly playing the violin guy for days on end. I got into Brass Against last year (about four years after everyone else) and in about two weeks I'd totally skewed my year end playlist. And of course I'll drop the Taylor cover around The Muse.
Oh my, Brass Against sound incredible (I'm listening to them now). Thanks for bringing them up!
Please go ahead and hyperfocus all you must because have you truly lived if you haven't gone through a phase of impersonating a musician you've just discovered and are a bit obssessed with?
I don't think so.
They're good, right? Sophia Urista has a phenomenal voice!
She does indeed!
LOVE this! And now have an amazing list of songs to work my way through over the weekend! Loved Sophie EB doing Pulp and goodness Seu Jorge was a blast from the past—I was obsessed with that soundtrack! ❤️
Sophie EB voice works so well for that song, doesn't it? I discovered Seu Jorge a few years ago and when I first heard him sing Starman it took me a moment to realise it was a Bowie song because the change of language caght me off guard.
Enjoy the rest of the songs!
Love this list!! I wasn't expecting to see Mina on it! What a voice ~ I have one song to add to the list: David Bowie covering Bruce Springsteen 'it's hard to be a saint in the city'. He did magic. MAGIC.
Ok, that Bowie cover is fire 🔥🔥🔥 Have listened to the original but I don't know, Springsteen has never been my cup of tea (with a couple of exceptions). David Bowie, on the other hand, can do no wrong. At points his voice sounds like Axl Rose. Wild!
That cover of Oggi Sono Io totally blew my mind the first time I heard it after loving the Alex Britti one. It's incredible how amazing she sounded here at 61!
I'm going to listen to that Bowie version now, I'm too curious about how his voice works in a Springsteen song. Also, this is a good suggestion for a Part II.
If I heard Mina's version without knowing it was an Alex Britti's song I would have never guessed it was a cover. She did such a good job. Great vocals!
I don't like Bruce Springsteen either, and that song has been one of my Bowie top 5 for aaaaaages until someone mentioned it was a cover XD It's amazing how much he changed it. He really made it HIS song.
Completely agree with both things. This Bowie cover will now be added to his playlist on my Spotify 😂
Great post, Cristina, and this is a fantastic list - I know most of the songs, but unfamiliar with a lot of the artists. Agree it’s one of Pulp’s best songs - I remember renting the His n’ Hers album on CD from our local library. Those were the days!
Look forward to checking some of these out. Thanks!
Thank you, Andy! Omg renting cd’s sounds so cool, I didn’t have that option growing up so I used to pester friends to make a pirate copy for me every time they shared what new albums they got 😂
Haha. There was a lad at my school who used to burn CDs and sell them on for £1. He made killing! (Much of it from me.) He was quite the entrepreneur!
He definitely was, I bet he works at Spotify now 😂
Great production. Loved it.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the selection.
That Fratellis cover? Mind blown!
So good! They're such an underrated band, seriously.
Great list on a dull Friday morning to bop to. Love George and Mary together. And Sophie is so good on the cover versions. Saw her in concert in Galway this summer and she delivered a great concert.
What a refreshing and lovely read. I shall seek out each of these tracks, some of which are abundantly familiar, others so far unheard. Do people really exist with no interest in music? If they really do, then how can they be living, rather than merely existing, poor empty souls!
Thanks Cristina for your compelling, heartwarming and musically educational work here.
Music matters 😁
Thanks for reading, Hugh. Pleased to know this has put a few new songs in your radar and I couldn’t agree more with you about how much music matters. It’s always great tool to express so many things in a succinct way, isn't it?
I often wonder how someone can be uninterested in music but apparently not everyone is as moved by it or as enthusiastic about finding out a new artist. Meanwhile, I don't remember a day since I was a pre-teen where I haven't listened to music or where I haven't given a little jump of excitement after listening to a great song for the first time.
I live for music of all types, as do all of my friends and family. My old schoolmate, best man and fellow music lover also read your article. Here’s what he says:
Brilliantly written article and I haven’t even listened to the tracks - remember in the 90’s when we christened Oasis as “The Oatles”
Notice also that one is a cover of a cover …”Valerie” originally by Liverpool band “The Zutons” ( I have their CD)…
Great article though - now to listen to the covers 👍
Tell your friend I love “The Oatles”and will steal it 😂 Also, I didn’t know Valerie was already a cover, so will look up the original. Love how music conversations are always a source of discovery!
This was fascinating, Cristina! I don't know any of these covers and this is a refreshing take on a very popular topic - the covers versus the original. Usually it's the same handful of cover debates that come up but these are all fresh and new (for me, at least). I will listen to them all later, but I won't be able to say for all of them which is 'better' since there are a few originals I don't know at all!
I've just listened to Do You Remember the First Time? and Sophie's version is excellent. I'd love to see her doing some 90s covers - an entire Britpop album would be fun!
When I saw Oasis live back in 1995, they closed their set with 'I Am the Walrus' but without the horns and strings.
Oh Daniel, so glad to hear this has led you to discover a few new songs! When it comes to music, I love finding out new songs and artists (at least new to me anyway) and one of the most fascinating ways I've come up with most of the songs here has been by going down music rabbit holes.
Do You Remember the First Time? had me hooked since I first heard it and I have a feeling you'll love Pulp's original just as much as Sophie's cover.
Whether I initially liked them more or less the original of any of the above, what they have in common is that they are well written and therefore allow for other people to have fun with them when creating their own versions. It's fascinating how the same lyrics can be interpreted in so many ways and arrangements, each giving a different twist and creating a different mood.
Hope you enjoy them all when you get around to listen to them.
PD: Also, how lucky to have listened to I Am the Walrus played by Oasis!!!
I’m a huge Pulp fan and have heard just about all of their songs but I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard one covered before now?
What I also find interesting is when you know and love the original and then hear the cover versus discovering the original and the cover at the same time. So for Pulp, I know the song and I obviously have my opinion of it and that influences the way I interpret the cover. Make sense?
If I don’t know the original, maybe I’m more likely to prefer the cover?
Sometimes the cover is just as good or is equally great and there’s no need to choose one over the other (‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash is one of those that provokes so much fierce debate).
I’ve been in situations though, like at a concert, where there’s a bit of an underwhelming reaction or displeasure about a cover. I saw Suede in Camden in 1996 and for the encore, Neil Tennant came out to sing ‘Saturday Night’ and the crowd weren’t exactly thrilled. Similarly, at the V97 festival in Chelmsford, Ash brought out Neil Hannon to sing ‘Oh Yeah’ and the crowd were fairly upset, I’d say. On the other hand, I was happy on both occasions.
Totally makes sense and I feel the same way about songs I know well and then I stumble upon a cover. I tend to show a bit of resistance at the beginning but more often than not I yield to curiosity which leads to multiple versions of a song coexisting peacefully in my playlists.
Doing a cover live in the middle of a concert is always such a risk because you really rely on the crowd's mood and instant reaction for it to work, and it depends on whether they'll know the band/artist being covered, which is different from the one they've come to see... Lots of variables there!
I've seen videos of Dua Lipa covering a different song in each of her shows, and usually picking one in the language of the country she is in. I'll probably have to explore that more because I saw her with Neil Rodgers doing "Le Freak" and her voice suits that one very well. Maybe more material for a round 2 of covers.