Nov 172010
 

Single Servings digs out a cover worth revisiting.

One of the downsides to a song that is legitimately great, particularly when part of its greatness is thematically tied to the singer and/or songwriter, is that you can all but guarantee a gazillion lesser artists are going to cover it without worrying for a moment about how appropriate the song is to their style. This is how we get “Lust for Life” played over cruise ship commercials and Britney Spears using words like “prerogative.” While this occasionally turns out amusing, it’s usually a problem. See, it’s one thing for every Tom, Dick and Harry to rush off to cover a great, if generic, song like “Umbrella,” and quite another for a supposed high school glee club to tackle something like Amy Winehouse‘s great ironic ode to contentious stubbornness and substance abuse rationalization, “Rehab.” Continue reading »