On December 7th, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band convened on the frigid Asbury Park boardwalk for a very special concert, their first in over a year. The occasion: playing songs from The Promise – the new Darkness on the Edge of Town outtakes album that inspired the 31st best cover of 2010 – for a future webcast. At the time, only a select group of a few dozen fans witnessed the excitement. Now we all can. The webcast just went up, and it includes a Christmas bonus! Continue reading »
Every Christmas season brings us a litany of competing versions of the same tunes. This year, though, comedic actors seem to battling it out as much as would-be Tony Bennetts. Last week we LOLed at Jack Black and Jason Segel’s bombastic arena rock version of the Bing Crosby and David Bowie duet “Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth.” This week, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly threw their hat into the ring with their own version of the holiday classic. Continue reading »
An unlikely pair has chosen to enter the holiday music fray. Jason Segel – who starred in I Love You, Man – and Jack Black – who needs no introduction – reenact the Bing Crosby and David Bowie duet “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.” Bing and Bowie recorded the medley in 1977 for Bing’s last Christmas special; he suffered a fatal heart attack a few weeks later after a round of golf that was apparently more invigorating than most. Black and Segel may not be the first names that come to mind when you think about the holidays, but then Bowie is hardly jolly old St. Nick. Continue reading »
If you regularly read Cover Me, then you know all about the A.V. Club’s Undercover series, where they commissioned artists to cover songs off of a list of 25 tracks with no repeats allowed. In the latest incarnation, Holiday Undercover, the guests perform a holiday song of their own choosing. Maybe the no-repeat rule should return, because only three songs in we already have one! And no, it’s not “Silent Night” or any other cliché. Instead, both Brendan Benson and Kate Nash took on the Slade rocker – a classic in its own right – “Merry Xmas Everybody”! Continue reading »
Last month Neil Diamond released a pretty lame covers album. What made it all the worse was that last year, however briefly, his interpretive abilities shone. Sure, the horribly-titled A Cherry Cherry Christmas album featured “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” and twelve other treacley clichés. No surprises there. All was forgiven upon hearing the last track, though – a hilariously sincere cover of Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song.” Continue reading »
‘Tis the season for covers (more on that later today) and who better to ring in the first day of December than our old friends Pomplamoose? Their “VideoSongs” have collectively racked up millions of views on YouTube and earned them fans like Ben Folds. They’ve been promoting original material lately, but they return to covers with “Deck the Halls.” Continue reading »