Once self-style “generation terrorists,” Manic Street Preachers are not the first band I’d think of if I was asked to come up with groups likely to cover early Madonna songs. But age mellows us all. Recorded live for the BBC 6 Music Festival in their home nation of Wales, their new cover of “Borderline” is remarkably faithful for a band that started a punk band (sort of). Continue reading »
Wet Leg are a duo from the Isle of Wight who debuted with a viral hit last summer. “Chaise Longue” sounds like a parody of post punk, almost like Flight of the Conchords doing a 21st century, professional version of The Slits or something.
Their cover of “Material Girl” has that same satirical edge, but it’s a lot more muted. It opens with a thudding chord that feels like the distorted echo of a memory of a ’60s pop song, and nothing like Madonna. A buzzing second guitar soon joins in before lead vocalist Rhian Teasdale’s lilting voice joins. She alternates between that lilt, speaking and a slighty more passionate delivery. The music behind her, the thudding rhythm guitar, the plodding drums and the buzzing, shimmery lead guitar, thump out a mechanical that sounds both 21st century and primitive. Continue reading »
Canadian indie rockers Blinker the Star last appeared here at Cover Me with a version of Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill” in 2012. They’ve put out a few albums in the interim and they’re returning this summer with a album full of covers, inclyding their version of Madonna‘s “Holiday,” the most enduring song (and biggest hit) from her debut album. Continue reading »
Some covers are more equal than others. Good, Better, Best looks at three covers and decides who takes home the gold, the silver, and the bronze.
Madonna’s eighth album Music (the one with the cowboy hat) turns 20 today. She worked on it while pregnant with her son Rocco (and yes, she was pregnant when the music video was recorded). Before its official release date, preliminary recordings of the album were leaked on Napster (remember those days?). Despite this, the album sold plenty of copies, reaching triple platinum status.
The title track, and first single, “Music” was inspired by Madonna’s experience at a Sting concert, watching the audience engage with Police classics. At this writing, it’s also Madonna’s last number one single, which I’m actually surprised by–what, not enough “Hung Up” or “4 Minutes” fans out there? Nevertheless, today we celebrate the song that encouraged us to “put a record on” (before Corinne Bailey Rae did) with three covers.
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Even all these years later, “Like a Virgin” remains one of Madonna’s most iconic songs. The lead-off single from the album of the same name, her second, it was her biggest hit to date and sold more copies than any of her songs until “Like a Prayer.” Everyone is familiar with the instantly recognizable synthesized bass line and the chorus that producer Nile Rodgers didn’t think was catchy enough.
Scary Pockets are a funk band who perform covers on YouTube with guest vocalists. For this version they enlisted Kenton Chen, of the a cappella TV competition The Sing Off and Postmodern Jukebox fame.
The band dispenses entirely with the famous bassline, replacing it with a funky bassline that skips a beat. Chen mostly sticks to the original melody in the verses. But the chorus is even less conventional, with both the band and Chen deviating from the original song.
About two minutes in there’s a breakdown and the song turns into an extended funk jam, with the van vamping on the groove and Chen improvising through the song’s famous hook as the song slowly fades out.
This version of “Virgin” is remarkably different. It may take a bit to get into, because of how distinct it is, but the song shortly reveals itself as a pretty great cover.
That’s A Cover? explores cover songs that you may have thought were originals.
Madonna’s seventh album, Ray of Light, marked a turning point in her life and style of music. Ahead of writing this album, Madonna was preparing for her role in Evita, a film adaption of the musical about the life of first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, and had her first child. She was learning about the Kabbalah school of thought and Hinduism as well as experimenting with different musical styles.
The Ray of Light album includes electronic and dance elements and shows off a wider vocal range (thanks in part to Madonna’s vocal training for Evita). Critics showed it love, calling it “adventurous,” “mature,” and crediting it with bringing electronica to the mainstream. The album cleaned up at the Grammy Awards winning Best Pop Album and Best Recording Package as a whole and Best Dance Recording and Best Short Form Music Video for the title track.
But let’s talk about that title track. It was the second single off of the album and brought Madonna her highest debuting single at that point in her career. But did you know it was a cover?