Cover Me could probably have a new category added to the site just to handle all the Lady Gaga covers. For better or worse, the pop goddess’ songs have come to define mainstream music over the last couple years, and if you’re a young artist looking for a catchy (or ironic) cover, her stuff is a good place to start. Or maybe you’re a living legend of rock guitar and you’ve been making hits since the ’60s. Well, you too can cover Gaga. Continue reading »
Lord knows we’re no strangers to “Bad Romance” covers. We’ve seen it done, with varying degrees of competence, by Courtney Love, Joseph Gordan-Levitt, Lissie, Corey TuT, and Garden on a Trampoline. Well, London buzz band Klaxons give us another take and it just might be the best one yet. The trio recorded it for cover-happy Australian radio program Like a Version (whose cover compilations are must-buys). They strip it back, which is pretty much the only way to cover Lady Gaga. That choral intro is truly a thing of beauty. The whispered bridge ain’t bad either.
“I feel like she’s the ultimate pop star,” lead singer Jamie Reynolds said on air. “She’s raised the bar and made it difficult…to come along and be a pop star in this day and age. She’s really gone and done it.” Continue reading »
Celebrities have finally caught the “Bad Romance” covers train, and only about six months after everyone else! No matter. There’s plenty of room on the Gaga Express!
First up is Joseph Gordan-Levitt aka. Arthur (Inception) aka. Tom Hansen ((500) Days of Summer) aka. Tommy Solomon (3rd Rock from the Sun). His performance comes from a summer benefit show he threw with his production company hitRECord. It’s solo. It’s electric. It’s fun.
Courtney Love’s live performance is more funny than fun. She didn’t bother to learn the lyrics, but that doesn’t stop her from making some up! The rest of Hole tries to guide her, but as the world well knows, there is no controlling the Love-machine. Continue reading »
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
There was a time in this blog’s lifespan where a shocking percentage of the covers landing in our inbox and RSS feeds were of Lady Gaga songs. It only lasted a couple years, but for a minute there Gaga was doing Beatles numbers. Hell, even relatively minor singles like “Marry the Night” would dominate the covers world for weeks after people heard them.
As Gaga’s entered the Vegas-residency stage of her career, her new songs don’t get covered as often. But even still, there seems to be a respect from other musicians not afforded all her pop-star peers. A Katy Perry chart flop will get ignored. A Gaga chart flop will still likely land a few interesting covers.
Though the songs were never as weird as the outfits were, there was always some unexpected twist for other musicians to play with, from the rolled r’s of “Bad Romance” to the goofy theatricality of “Alejandro” to the best stuttering since “My Generation” (“pa-pa-pa-pokerface,” “stop telephoning me-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh”). Plus, even after a few years in the wilderness, everyone knew any minute she could return with a “Shallow.”
In our list of 30 covers below, all those big hits show up plenty. But even the more recent songs and album cuts make appearances. Lady Gaga’s songs are sturdy enough to remain infectious whether they’re performed as gothic metal or throwback rockabilly. See for yourself below.
The list begins on Page 2.
Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.
Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).
Today’s question comes from Cover Me writer Jordan Becker: What cover song made you reevaluate your feelings about the original?
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I have no hard data to back this up, but I suspect that EPs play a larger role in the world of cover songs than they do elsewhere. In the wider world, EPs tend to be an afterthought, a set of rejects or remixes that may or may not be worthwhile. People pay little attention to EPs, and artists act accordingly, saving their real statements for the full-lengths. In our world, though, we see as many EPs as we do proper albums, and they’re every bit as good. An artist may hesitate to put out a “cover album” – still a loaded term in some circles – but in the age of Garageband and Bandcamp, it’s only too easy to record a half dozen covers and toss ‘em out between albums. Therefore, in honor of the EP’s prominence in our world, we present our favorite EPs of 2011 (with an MP3 from each). Continue reading »