Good, Better, Best: “Need You Tonight” (INXS)

Some covers are more equal than others. Good, Better, Best looks at three covers and decides who takes home the gold, the silver, and the bronze.

As booty call songs go, INXS’s “Need You Tonight” is as hot, sweaty, and ’80s as it gets. Never rhyming once, Michael Hutchence seduces with words, breaths, and dance moves that I guarantee young men practiced in front of their MTV screens. Meanwhile, the rest of the band matches him with a groove that shows no mercy and no signs of stopping, even as it stops (twice!) before song’s end.

Can a song that’s fast approaching its 40th birthday still sound fresh? Absolutely yes – and it doesn’t need people covering it to sound that way. But as it so happens, people do cover it, and not infrequently. Most of the cover artists keep That Riff, so as to keep relentlessness as one of the song’s eternal perks. But some went further with it. Here are a few of them.

So who earns the bluest of blue ribbons? Well…

The Liv Tyler version is good.

The Record Club version is better.

And the Bonnie Raitt version is best.

Liv Tyler – Need You Tonight (INXS cover)

Liv Tyler isn’t famous for her vocal prowess. That’s not to say she’s incapable behind the microphone – just that we know her better as an actress/model. She’s also had a long-standing association with Givenchy, and in 2012 she recorded a cover of “Need You Tonight” to promote their Very Irresistible perfume. And yes, her performance is unexpectedly strong.

Record Club – Need You Tonight (INXS cover)

I miss Beck’s Record Club. Back in 2009 he got a bunch of friends to record a cover of an album in one day. Then he did it again, and again – five days, five albums, five different bunches on friends. One of the five albums was Kick, INXS’s 1987 album that featured “Need You Tonight.” Here, St. Vincent took the lead vocal and made it so vulnerable, yet so sultry. The band barely touch the jangle hook that most of the other covers depend on.

Bonnie Raitt – Need You Tonight (INXS cover)

That sound you just heard was Lucinda Williams kicking herself from here to West Memphis for not coming up with this arrangement before Bonnie Raitt did. But no, Bonnie got here first. She’s staked one hell of a claim, too. This “Need You Tonight” cover feels like rock, soul, country, blues, and more, all at the same time. When she’s not laying down those delectable licks, Raitt is making it clear that she’s the one in control; she may need you, but she doesn’t need you to need her. But you do, don’t you? Well, you do if you listened to this.

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