Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
The number of cover versions committed to disc of this song far outnumber those of other and comparable “Wrecking Ball”s. SecondHandSongs lists 124 covers of the Miley Cyrus hit, against a paltry six for the Neil Young-written song of the same name, and four for that by Gillian Welch. Both are fine songs, of course. However, hand on heart, neither can hold a candle to the might of Miley’s tsunami of sangfroid regret, a song that clinically examines a deteriorating relationship with velvet-gloved precision, the lyrical accuracy as apt as it is transparent.
Miley Cyrus was 20 when Bangerz was released, and it was already the fourth full length release by the one-time Disney child star. It also represented a shift away from her previous image, at least on record, as a wholesome teen, the songs largely referencing the trials and tribulations of love and romance. “Wrecking Ball” was the second single to support the album and was her first US #1, becoming also amongst the fastest videos to reach 100 million views, and winning the award for best video at the 2014 MTV awards. Outside the US, it topped the charts of Canada, Hungary, Israel, Lebanon, Spain, and the United Kingdom, becoming, in time, 9 times platinum in the US, 8 times platinum in Australia, 5 times platinum in Norway, 4 times platinum in Canada, triple platinum in Sweden, and double platinum in Italy, Spain, and the UK. That’s a lot of platinum!
Here in Coverland, it had rapt attention from the start. However, it is fair to say that the majority of the versions do little with the arrangement. Indeed, such is the song that less is indubitably more, the whole hinging on the meet between the sorrow in the vocal against the bleak backdrop of a spare and sparse arrangement. Acoustic versions and a capella versions feature strongly. I looked hard for a reggae cover, with little joy. I would have loved to find a cajun or zydeco version, to no avail, and the best bluegrass version, by the Gregory Brothers, had me feel that the banjolele player wished to be anywhere but there. There are also very few versions by non-white artists, which is slightly surprising, with one co-writer, Sacha Skarbek, on record saying it was originally projected for Beyoncé.
Metal covers, like Cry to the Blind ultimately fail, as it is just too melodic a song to fit their bravado. Likewise the post-punk posturing of Death in Rome. So, enough of the perusing, let’s check out the runners and riders.
Sondre Lerché — Wrecking Ball
An odd and somewhat discordant selection to start with, from edgy Norwegian, Sondre Lerché. Lerché began his career in his hometown of Bergen, signing to Virgin Records in 2000 when he was 18. This cover comes from his 2023 release Understudy, which drew from his annual tradition of covering one of the past year’s biggest pop songs every late December. “Wrecking Ball” is the even the oldest featured song, in a set that also includes songs made famous by Ariana Grande, Drake and Taylor Swift.
William Patrick Corgan — Wrecking Ball
Billy Corgan, to you and I, charismatic singer and guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins. The sole constant in this, or more correctly, his band, he has steered the variable roster of musicians a long and winding route, embracing fame, addiction, bitterness and rancour. Constantly busy, he has laid down a formidable list of collaborations and sessions. Increasingly using his full name for solo work, his last solo release, Cotillions (2019), came out under that name, it also wheeled out for this 2017 episode of The Cover Room, a relatively short-lived project within The Tonight Show. It is a simple and straightforward showing, just voice and guitar, yet the respect Corgan has for the song is obvious, it sounding every bit as real as the original, with the bonus that Corgan may have other more life experience for the inhabiting of the lyric.
Thea Gilmore — Wrecking Ball
This is the most recent cover and, full disclaimer, the one that actually first drew my attention to the song. My bad, I know etc etc, but thank goodness for Thea Gilmore in choosing to cover it for her second set of covers. Or, third, really, if you consider also her full John Wesley Harding. We reviewed this latest set here, and my comments around the “raw and rueful” nature of her version stand, her vocal as achingly distraught as, more so really, than any of those ploughed through in research for this piece. A consummate performer live, adept with loops and tapes to expand her one-woman shows, this is one she can perform naked, so to speak, needing just her guitar, a microphone seeming even too intrusive. (As an aside, it is the one version that leavens, to me, the one snark I have about the song, the broken sustain as “wreck me” is sung in the chorus, as copied by the majority of interpreters.)
London Grammar — Wrecking Ball
Another chilly and caustic vocal, proving again the worth of an English accent and porcelain delivery to fully cement the nuclear angst inherent in the song. Hannah Reid, the singer in this indie electro-pop band, uses every inch of her vocal range and every iota of her vocal coaching to give a masterclass in barely contained existential grief. Her band members are left with little other than to give a sparse skeleton of piano and guitar for her to moan and wail over. With, now, four albums of original material, they have always been keen to latch on to a cover and make it their own, usually for radio show performances, such as Radio 1 Live Lounge, for the BBC. This is one example, from 2014, with Prince’s ‘Purple Rain‘ and Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game‘ two others they have tackled in this way.
Scary Pockets feat. Julia Nunes — Wrecking Ball
Scary Pockets are the yin to the yang of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, my preference always lying with them, rather than the more knowing and mannered clever-clogs approach of Bradlee’s stable of musicians and singers. Scary Pockets seem to be having a whole lot more fun, and seem to be allowed to display the looseness often required in the journey from fun to funky. Scary Pockets is Ryan Lerman, bass guitar, and Jack Conte,guitar and keyboards, enlisting, as needed, the help and support from a rotating roster of the best session musicians and singers around L.A. We have frequently paid them attention.
As said in the preamble above, the nature of “Wrecking Ball” is that is has tended to ever allow much warmth into interpretation, ice being the greater part of most deliveries. The Pockets, with Julia Nunes on sassy vocals, show that a little bit of righteous anger can also go a long way with the lyrical slant. Nunes is a singer who owes her livelihood to YouTube, that being where she made her start, continuing to take advantage of the global audience that platform has given her. But is is the arrangement here that is the killer, as the band imbue a slight lilt of reggae into the never more Steely Dan like polish of the final article. Wondrous.
Also, Lissie does a great cover of this song, also.