It feels like every hit song must have a slow piano cover at this point. There are so many out there. Not all hit songs are suited to the style yet it feels like every hit song gets one. But, despite the proliferation of this very specific cover style, there is still the odd new version that pokes through, that works so well it’s almost like hearing the slow piano cover for the first time. Sometimes, that’s an easy song for the style – a song whose lyrics befit a change of pace and arrangement. But other times – perhaps more often – the successful slow piano cover is one that shouldn’t work on paper.
The second single from Prince’s fifth album, 1999, “Little Red Corvette” was Prince’s third proper hit, beating out the title track on the Hot 100 even though it ended up selling less. And it remains one of his most popular songs. Though it starts out slow and dramatic that chorus sure doesn’t scream “slow piano cover.” Nor do the lyrics, about a one-night stand.
Philadelphia rock and roll band Low Cut Connie is the vehicle for singer-songwriter, pianist and sole constant member Adam Weiner. Though there is a full band, Weiner decided to play this cover of “Little Red Corvette” himself, as befits the slow piano cover style, which he recorded for Twin Cities radio station The Current. Fitting.
Weiner performs the song as a lament, as if this one-night stand were a disaster. And it honestly sounds like he’s channeling Springsteen as he sings, if Springsteen played piano. In an alternate universe, if Nebraska was a piano album instead of guitar, and Springsteen was obsessed with the things Prince was, maybe this song would be on it.
Occasionally the lyrics are incongruous after all, but Weiner really sells them. There’s no winking, there’s no acknowledgement that maybe this is not the set of lyrics to play this way, he’s fully committed. And he adds a tasteful little fill in the middle.
It’s exactly what you want from a slow piano cover: the song works in the new arrangement even though it makes no sense on paper. Check it out:
