Feb 282022
 
best cover songs
Blacktop Mojo – My Girl (The Temptations cover)

You may listen to the gentle plucking when this begins and thing, boy that’s not what I expected from that band photo. Is this an acoustic flying V? Blacktop Mojo’s “My Girl” stays pretty and meditative for over half the run time, turning the oldies classic into a pretty folk-rock ballad. Eventually, though, true to that long-hair-and-leather image, the heads start banging and axes start shredding. Continue reading »

Feb 032022
 
felicia get lucky cover

French-Canadian singer Felicia Caux, who goes by the mononym Felicia, has been performing professionally since age 12. She’s been a member of a theatrical singing troupe, Cool Kids, who have recently been rebranded as NCK (Nos Cool Kids). Felicia’s cover of “Get Lucky,” Daft Punk’s song of the summer for 2013, feels like a stab at making more adult music, given her career singing kids movie soundtracks. It’s slow, brooding and intense. At first, I thought it might be trying to reinterpret the track sinisterly in light of singer and co-writer Pharrell’s involvement in “Blurred Lines.” Continue reading »

Apr 122021
 
scary pockets harder better faster stronger cover

Daft Punk’s 2001 single “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” is most famous these days for providing the hook for Kanye West’s massive 2007 hit “Stronger.” The original was a fairly big hit in the UK, but nothing compared to the worldwide platinum-many-times-over Kanye hit. So it’s kind of surprising that the original that has been covered more. Continue reading »

Apr 062020
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with covers of his or her songs. Let someone else do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

Pharrell

Yesterday, as he was serenaded with a “Happy Birthday” song, Pharrell Williams turned 47 and clapped along, feeling like a room without a roof (or so I imagine).

Williams wears many hats (both literally and figuratively); he’s a songwriter, a record producer, a singer, a rapper, and even a fashion designer. His longest-running collaboration is with Chad Hugo, whom he met in middle school. The two were even childhood friends with Timbaland. (That will become relevant in other posts coming to Cover Me later this week.) Hugo and Williams formed the production team The Neptunes in 1994 and are still working together today. The duo were signed after a high-school talent show: the American dream! Continue reading »

Feb 042020
 

Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.

natalie imbruglia male

“Nothing’s fine, I’m torn!” Oops, wrong Natalie Imbruglia cover song (and yes, that is a cover). Today we celebrate Imbruglia’s 45th birthday by revisiting her cover album, Male, where she covered, you guessed it, songs by a variety of male artists.

You may know Imbruglia from her debut album, Left of the Middle, which has the highest sales for a debut album by an Australian female artist. After her debut, Imbruglia recorded three other albums before taking a break from music and leaning into acting.

This cover album followed the five-year musical drought and got Imbruglia back into touring, where she traveled around Europe and the UK in 2017 and 2018. We’re currently in another quiet period, but Imbruglia has plans to release a new album this year. Can’t wait!

Imbruglia’s Male holds many enjoyable gender-reversals with song choices from a variety of genres, from electronic to country and from pop to rock, and eras spanning 1970 to 2013. Below are a few stand-outs.

Continue reading »

Pick Five: VÉRITÉ

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Apr 022018
 

In Pick Five, great artists pick five cover songs that matter to them.

verite cover songs

I first discovered VÉRITÉ via her insanely catchy pop 2014 song “Weekend.” It was only her second single, and yet I was already late to the party. The first single – “Strange Enough” – reached number one on Hype Machine and landed her as Twitter’s “#1 Most Viral Twitter Artist” of that week. And this was all before anyone knew her real name! Continue reading »