Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
OK, so Cover Me has found five good covers of “Get Lucky” before, a decade-plus ago, but given it was then appended “So Far,” I felt it allowable to repeat and reprise, with all new songs.
I absolutely love “Get Lucky,” popping up forever on radio and on shop playlists. I loved it in 2013, the year Daft Punk released it, and I’ve loved it ever since. But the difficulty, for me, was always in the tracking it down. Even with good old Shazam I was suspicious. I couldn’t believe it was actually by some weird helmeted French electronic duo. Shazam must be wrong, I thought, convinced it was more akin to the sound of Nile Rogers and the extended Chic diaspora he created, courtesy the inescapable scrub of guitar that he has made his own. It took me actually buying Random Access Memory to get to grips with the truth, and to confirm that, yes, it was Rogers on guitar, along with Pharrell Williams on vocals, half of the pre-eminent music production team, the Neptunes.
A number one single across most of the world, surprisingly “Get Lucky” only ever made #2 in the US, albeit for 5 consecutive weeks (damn you, “Blurred Lines”!). Multiple awards came as a deserved matter of course, including Best Song and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, at the Grammys. Lyrical scrutiny was less a concern in those days, with the chorus so damn catchy that all were happy to sing along, whether or not there was much realization about what the “Get Lucky” may be addressed toward. Mind you, with the singer suggesting the content innocent and relating more to the good fortune of meeting with and immediately connecting to someone, who was going to argue. With the slightly changing repetitions, many may have never actually latched on to the full lyrical, if you will, thrust, only learning the truth via so many karaoke machines.
I always feel disappointed that the title of this thread always obviates the outliers, the clunkers and the all-out craziest versions, and this song is blessed with many. But my favorite worst version has to be that by the redoubtable Richard Cheese and his Lounge Against the Machine. Even if his shtick is deliberate, jeez, this really does scour the bargain basement. But let’s stick to the brief.
Thomas Dutronc – Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover)
This is just wonderful, so much so that it wouldn’t be difficult imagine this the obscure original, later chanced upon by the French duo. It oozes the sort of slick jazz that seeps out of French Riviera nightspots, populated by the super rich. Dutronc is the sort of jazzman who might play such places and possibly does, but is a far more interesting person than just that. A son of ’60s chanteuse Francoise Hardy, he is also an accomplished guitarist, employing the manouche style of Django Reinhardt. Despite all efforts, including enlisting the likes of Iggy Pop and Billy Gibbons for the album it appears on, Frenchy, he remains a household name only in his homeland.
The Macarons Project – Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover)
Another doozy of a transformation, this is a dreamy blend of trip-hop, yé-yé and the sort of modern lounge that Nouvelle Vague provide so well. So, another French project? No, the Macarons Project are Indonesian, and based in Canada. (Probably francophone Quebec, knowing my luck!) This is about as much information as I can accrue from their website. It seems the duo, Ree Paramagita and Dito Pradipto, began by uplifting their bedroom acoustica to YouTube, finding an audience and using that as their main platform. Then they made streaming work for them, with more hits on Spotify than many a household name. Tending toward covers, they also write their own material, with one album of their own material, Reverie, issued last year.
Daughter – Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover)
Sort of similar territory if trippier still, the mood here seems close to paranoia, as emotions tip toward losing control. It reeks of a jittery angst completely absent from the happy go lucky template of the original. The repeat of “We’ve come too far”, drenched in echo, is frankly terrifying. Daughter, singular, are nothing to do with Daughters, the US rock quartet, but are rather a London based trio. Often described as indie-folk, that only confirms to me the inadequacy of such gentrifying, as they inhabit an eerie world that combines the electronica of London Grammar with the spiky unorthodoxy of the Cure. Singer, Elena Tonra, specializes in conveying tones from the edge of a nervous breakdown. This cover appeared on UK Radio 1’s Live Lounge program, so often a source for our postings here.
Niū Mariachi Rock Pop – Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover)
I know, I know–even the screen capture smacks of cheesy desperation. But don’t go–there is always a certain something about mariachi, an ability to transcend kitsch. (Or is it just me?) Done well, left-field bonkers iterations have just as much right here as the more po-faced artistic statements that so often feature. So, who the expletive deleted are Niü Mariachi? The answer, it seems, is a well-kept secret, with AI providing the only answer to that question, citing only that “they” are “known for their Rock-Pop style, which involves covering popular rock and pop songs with a mariachi flair.” They have a number of albums to that name, covering all the usual suspects in such style. I think a whole album would be a bit much, and my belief in this single track saps a little with each repeat, but hey–in for a penny…
The Infamous Stringdusters – Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover)
The ‘Dusters (as nobody calls them) can always be guaranteed to find some fun with their covers. There is even a whiff of “niū” mariachi about this not-very-bluegrass version. The guitar of Andy Falco and banjo of Chris Pandolfi are the main ingredients, but in the prolonged instrumental breakdown, the rest of the band get the opportunity to really display their chops, through the dobro of Andy Hall and Jeremy Garrett’s fiddle. I particularly like how the similarity between Nile Rogers’ trademark guitar pattern and that of the Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston is drawn to attention, at least to those who think Rogers may have heard it there first (guilty!). This rendition comes from Undercover 2, the second of, so far, a trilogy of EPs. All devoted to covers, and all of which are well worth a punt.
