30. Danny Michel — Young Americans
This acoustic guitar version gives us a soothing, out in the wilderness, under the stars ambiance. But Michel isn’t a lone cowboy. There are background vocals that chime in, supporting his careful enunciation with light echoes, and they become more and more prominent until the cover becomes a full-on, communal campfire song. There’s a little more edge as Michel gets to the more political part of the song, but he never goes sardonic. Chipper joy is the constant here. – Sara Stoudt
29. Mick Karn — Ashes to Ashes
Mick Karn was the bass player for the group Japan, pretty boys very much indebted to the style and substance of David Bowie, all cheekbones and shoulder pads. So his cover of “Ashes to Ashes” starts off well-informed, and just gets stronger from there. Beginning with some ambient soundscaping, the opening skittering riff is near disguised beneath extraneous clutter. When it comes, Karn’s vocal is even more deadpan than Bowie’s had been. As a bassist, the bass pattern warrants concentrating on, being a sinuous burble. Other instrumentation keeping the countermelody going, with clangs of percussion applying an off-kilter metronome. Taken as read it shouldn’t work, but taken as listened, it becomes weirdly visceral, with an eerie postapocalyptic feel to it. – Seuras Og
28. Tally Brown — Lady Grinning Soul
“Lady Grinning Soul,” the closing track from Aladdin Sane, already skated pretty close to cabaret, thanks to the piano stylings of Mike Garson. Tally Brown, a major figure in the New York underground scene during the Warhol years, took it the rest of the way. Now it’s a torch song, as lost in its world as ’70s NYC is lost to us today. Brown’s singing is reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich (or Lili Von Shtupp on a really bad day), and by switching the song to first person, she also brings a vampiric whiff of Catherine Deneuve, Bowie’s screen partner in The Hunger.
Bowie was a favorite of Brown’s; she also covered “Heroes” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.” For more about her, click here. – Patrick Robbins
27. Seu Jorge — Life on Mars?
I realize this is a music blog, not a film blog, but here goes: though I regularly quote the 2004 Wes Anderson comedy The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, I find it difficult to watch all the way through. Even when I saw it in the movie theater, I found it to be uneven, and a bit grating by the end.
That said, even in my first viewing, my favorite moments featured Seu Jorge, who throughout the film could be seen and heard strumming Portuguese-language covers of David Bowie songs. It was a running gag that became the foundation of Jorge’s truly exceptional 2005 album The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions Featuring Seu Jorge. The covers are so striking, you’d think Bowie emerged from some alternate-reality Brazilian folk scene (Bowie himself wrote in the liner notes, “Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs in Portuguese, I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with”).
While every track on this album is notable in some way, “Life on Mars?” stands out for its expert fingerpicking and Jorge’s haunting vocals. His delivery hints at a deep sadness on this planet, or any other in the solar system. More than two decades after the film’s release, Jorge’s music is arguably its greatest legacy. – Curtis Zimmermann
26. Anna Calvi — Lazarus
Look up here, I’m in heaven. It is impossible to listen to the Blackstar album without thinking about the timing of its release, on Bowie’s 69th birthday, two days before his passing. Of all its tracks, “Lazarus” (the first single and the last released in his lifetime), with its gorgeously mournful saxophone heart, sounds the most like a goodbye.
Three-time Mercury prize nominee Anna Calvi’s cover of “Lazarus” was performed as part of a 2018 tribute show that took place at the Basilique Saint-Denis cathedral in Paris. Renowned composer Jherek Bischoff leads the s.t.a.r.g.a.z.e orchestral collective, and Calvi brings the drama with her melancholy, epic vibrato. Majestic, sad, outlandishly beautiful and oh, those horns. – Hope Silverman
25. Rogue Wave — Modern Love
Rogue Wave’s outings in the world of covers often reveal their comfort covering songs that see the original artist taking a more commercial turn. In their 2017 Cover Me collection they cover Genesis, but in their pop phase. They make the most of the opportunity to cover The Cult, but in the form of “She Sells Sanctuary.” The album’s most-played track on Spotify is Pete Townshend’s pop diversion “Let My Love Open The Door.” So one can only imagine that when the opportunity to join the tribute album A Salute to the Thin White Duke project arose, the band dashed for Bowie’s most commercially successful songs and album.
None of this means that Rogue Wave cannot complement and augment their chosen tracks. Despite what some people think, it is difficult to craft a timeless pop hit, requiring complexity as well as hooks. They turn “Modern Love” into an eight-minute epic, reminding us that Love is never an easy concept, and never has been! At times mellifluous mellotron tones dominate, at others Shoegaze chaos. An epic reading. – Mike Tobyn
24. Tegan & Sara — Rebel Rebel
Tegan and Sara put the duo into the double rebel of this song. Their version is a little bit punchier, making that kick drum and electric guitar riff really stand out and raising the tempo just enough to notice the difference. They pair the guitar riffs with much more overt and spunky “doo doo”s, and their punctuating “don’t-cha”s continue with that devil-may-care flair. This cover was originally on the Spiders From Venus cover album, where “women artists and female-fronted bands” covered Bowie. Now the cover is getting another life on the My Lady Jane show (about Lady Jane Grey, a rebel rebel in her own way). – Sara Stoudt
23. Dar Williams — Starman
In 1998, singer-songwriter (and excellent cover artist) Dar Williams ran a contest on her website to allow her fans to vote on a cover for her to record. “Starman,” from David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, won 41% of the vote (which some these days would call a landslide). Williams’ recording is a folky rocker, with an undercurrent of strings, which calls back to the original’s strings and mellotron created wall of sound. Williams released her cover as a download, and then again on a promo CD in 2002, and it stands with the best of her work. – Jordan Becker
22. Durand Jones and the Indications – Young Americans
Bowie’s ventures into the world of Philly Soul were a welcome and fulfilling diversion, unlike what came before and what was to come, but fully accomplished. Nevertheless, those that have spent a lifetime in that arena can add more: more understanding, more musicality, more feeling. We don’t need to be reminded that the youth of the US are a diverse bunch, capable of great things, when opportunity allows. R&B is entirely safe in their hands, it would appear. Taking a great song and augmenting its message and sensibility is no easy task, but Jones and his muckers are so accomplished, and so smooth, that it seems natural. – Mike Tobyn
21. David Fonseca and Ana Moura – The Man Who Sold the World
This Bowie song is more famous for its cover by Nirvana than his original. Nirvana’s cover plays it relatively straight. Despite recording it for Unplugged, Kurt Cobain’s guitar is still plugged in so he can play Mick Ronson’s iconic guitar riff. David Fonseca plays it on piano instead, going the Midge Ure route but acoustic instead of using a synthesizer. But he doesn’t lead with it; instead, Moura opens the track a cappella. The pace is slower, leaning into the groove of the original and allowing Moura to really dig into the vocal line. An elaborate chamber arrangement slowly builds throughout the song. It’s a distinct version that owes little to the most famous Bowie cover ever. – Riley Haas
Emel’s cover of The Man Who Sold the World is a thing of beauty
“Rebel Rebel” by Rickie Lee Jones
“Andy Warhol” by Dana Gillespie
Big huge congrats to all concerned – best top 40 ever!
Let me mention
Zaho de Sagazan – Modern love