They Say It’s Your Birthday: Aaron Neville

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!

Aaron Neville is 84 years old today and definitively retired. In a 2023 interview he explained that “my asthma doesn’t let me hold the notes like I used to. Like Linda [Ronstadt, also retired against her will by illness] says, I don’t want to cheat the fans. For them to be looking for this and not getting it. I tell them I’ve got a lot of records already recorded so they can still listen to my voice.”

Well, thank heaven for that. That voice – that creamy, silky, fluttery, angelic, blessed instrument – spent more than half a century bringing listeners peace, soul, and inspiration. Neville called it the God in him touching the God in the listener, and he has touched so many in so many different ways. He knew his way around funk music – as one of the Neville Brothers, how could he not? – but it was on the ballads that he truly soared.

If you go to Second Hand Songs and look up their Aaron Neville entry, you’ll find he’s recorded over a hundred cover songs. That’s no so out of the ordinary, but in going through the list, I was struck by how by just reading the titles, I could already imagine how they’d sound. Not only that, but that didn’t keep me from really wanting to hear the songs. This is just one ladleful of New Orleans liquid heaven; feel free to explore more here.

Aaron Neville – One Fine Day (The Chiffons cover)

Neville slows down and softens the Goffin/King classic “One Fine Day” considerably. Where the Chiffons gave it their best peppy shooby-doo-wah, injecting energy into their dreams of the future, Neville basks in the dream, contemplating the fine day to come like it’s a hot bath at the end of the day.

Daniel Lanois – Amazing Grace (Traditional cover)

Daniel Lanois worked with Neville when he produced the Neville Brothers album Yellow Moon in 1989. They considered cutting a version of “Amazing Grace” for the album, but didn’t get past Aaron laying down a vocal. Lanois later took that vocal, gave it instrumental backing with the help of Brian Eno, and released it on his own solo debut, 1989’s Acadie. The result has an atmosphere you can feel drifting around, over, and through you.

Aaron Neville – Use Me (Bill Withers cover)

1995’s The Tattooed Heart saw Neville didn’t stick solely to the celestial side of the street. Now in his mid-fifties, he could still get his funk on as well as ever, as he proved with his version of “Use Me.” Bill Withers’ tale of having no regrets for the down side of a relationship because of how high up the up side went gets a nice workout here, with a sweet sax line and Neville’s voice revealing only emotional bruises, and fast-fading ones at that.

Aaron Neville – Save the Last Dance for Me (The Drifters cover)

1995’s Till the Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus is one of the better tribute albums out there, as we discussed back in the day. It closed with Neville’s take on “Save the Last Dance for Me,” a beautiful cover that, while taking nothing away from the Drifters, is able to spotlight the joys and the sorrows in an equally beautiful way.

Aaron Neville – A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke cover)

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Neville’s response was to record Bring It on Home… The Soul Classics, a collection of classic soul covers. All of them have cause to be connected to the tragic storm and its lengthy aftermath, but not in a negative way. The closing song, for example is “A Change Is Gonna Come,” which sounds less like Sam Cooke’s clarion call for action, or even a warning for the storm, than a soothing reminder that the damage left behind will one day soon be gone.

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.