‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
Let’s start by defining our terms: This list concerns the best covers of the Talking Heads. Because the best covers by the Talking Heads is a very short list.
Here is that list, in its entirety: Continue reading »
Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.
Weird Al Yankovic got a lot of attention this summer (and deservedly so) for releasing a new album that made it to number one on the charts, but he’s not the only novelty master from the ’80s to be doing well for himself lately. Big Daddy, the band that sprayed american graffiti all over the hits of the day back in the day, have a new album coming out next week – Smashin’ Songs of Stage & Screen, which Big-Daddifies songs from hit musicals ranging from Wizard of Oz to Saturday Night Fever. Earlier this year, they also put out a collection of their greatest hits of the ’80s and early ’90s, Cruisin’ Through the Rhino Years, that cherry-picks highlights from the four albums they released for the Rhino Records label. If you’ve already got The Best of Big Daddy, their 2000 compilation, you’ll have sixteen of these songs already – but you’ll want to spring for this to get five more.
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Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.
In 1992, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was celebrating its silver anniversary. Some claimed the silver had tarnished, that Pepper wasn’t even in the top-five of Beatles albums (but don’t tell Rolling Stone that); however, this was overlooked for the sake of celebration, as musician after musician paid tribute to Messers L, M, H & S. But the greatest tribute may have come from a California novelty act that airbrushed a few thousand more gray hairs into the picture and came up with an album that’s just as fun, just as memorable, and – at the very end – just as emotionally overwhelming. Continue reading »
Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!
The soundtrack to Purple Rain came out ten thousand days ago today. It feels like forever and that’s a mighty long time, but we’re here to tell you there’s something else…the full album, covered.
Purple Rain won an Oscar and two Grammy Awards, sold more than 20 million copies, and held the number one selling album slot in the US for twenty-four consecutive weeks (despite being released just three weeks after Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A.). The only debate that remains worth having: great Prince album, or greatest Prince album? Dirty Mind and Sign o’ the Times both have their backers, but neither of those albums tapped into the zeitgeist the way Purple Rain did. Continue reading »
They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!
“I usually come in second [to Bob Dylan],” Paul Simon told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “I don’t like coming in second.”
Well, bad news Paul. Bob beat you to something else: turning 70. When Dylan turned 70 in May, it was accompanied with all manner of fanfare, tributes, and think pieces. We ourselves held a five-day celebration. Paul’s 70th birthday today comes with noticeably less pomp and circumstance. No lavish tributes, no critic navel-gazing, not much notice of any kind. It’s an occasion worth celebrating though, whether he was first or not. Continue reading »
This March, we pit 64 Beatles covers against each other in what we call Moptop Madness.
Yesterday’s winners: John Tams, “Girl” & Ben Folds, “Golden Slumbers”
Today’s first match pits D.B. against B.D., as David Bowie faces off with oddball cover band Big Daddy. In the second half the double-header, a couple veterans go head-to-head when Booker T. and the M.G.s’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” battles Richie Havens’ “Here Comes the Sun.”
Listen to each pairing below, then vote for your favorite. For added sway, try to convince others to vote your way in the comments. Voting closes in 24 hours. Continue reading »