Engelbert Humperdinck has announced the release of his latest album, Faithfully, with its first single being cover of one of Kiss’s biggest hits. The album features covers of rock classics, including songs by Aerosmith, Journey and Ozzy Osbourne among others. But the first single is a cover of Kiss’ 1976 surprise hit, “Beth.” Humperdinck’s version includes keyboardist Rick Wakeman on piano for a pretty faithful version of the song, right down to the orchestration. Continue reading »
Sombr was the musician chosen to provide the music for Taylor Swift‘s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Swift is herself a fan of his music and made no effort to hide it as part of her acceptance speech. “A lot of my late night debates with my friends about the state of the music industry involve me saying very loudly, ‘Sombr is the future and he does it all on his own and he doesn’t need AI,” Swift said, “The kids are fine.’… Shane is a very well-adjusted person and artist, and doesn’t need any of my advice at all.”
For his part, Sombr offered up versions of Swift’s “Dear John” and “cardigan.” The performances were tight, with him just standing on stage, backed by a band, and without any of the arena-sized performance Swift did for her Eras tour. The songs were the highlight and the performance skillfully showed the quality of the writing.
Also inducted this year were Tricky Stewart, who was honored with a performance of “Single Ladies” by Tamar Braxton and Kylie Cantrell covering Rihanna‘s “Umbrella.” Other honorees included Alanis Morissette and songwriting duos Britten and Lyle as well as Kiss‘ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
Sombr sings “Dear John” to honor #TaylorSwift at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame pic.twitter.com/ngW3Y4gId4
— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2026
The Troops of Doom have celebrated their sixth anniversary with a new cover of Kiss‘ “God of Thunder.” “We’ve used ‘God of Thunder’ as a pre-intro in our shows. Whenever the audience hears this song playing through the PA, they already know the band is about to hit the stage. It’s almost a ritual for us,” said guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz. “We all grew up listening to Kiss, so this track has always held a special meaning.” Continue reading »
For their recent Like a Version performance, Confidence Man, a duo of Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, covered Bryan Adam’s “Heaven.” Well, sort of. They really took their cues from the hit club cover of “Heaven” by DJ Sammy. “We didn’t actually know [it was a cover],” said Planet. “Stu, our manager – who’s old – told us that. We listened to [the original], and it’s not that good.” Ouch! But their cover is a blast to watch, all charisma, choreography, and energy from the two of them in front of an ominously veiled band. As NME points out, Confidence Man are the third act a a cover of a cover on the show. In 2017, Alex Lahey covered Natalie Imbruglia’s hit cover of Ednaswap’s non-hit “Torn” (we wrote a feature explaining the backstory there). And in 2018, garage-rock septet West Thebarton covered Florence + The Machine‘s cover of The Source and Candi Staton’s “You’ve Got the Love.” Continue reading »
If you missed the whole brouhaha when Steely Dan dropped Aimee Mann as their opening act, it’s too long to recap here. To skip to the end, Mann tweeted, “All is forgiven if Donald [Fagan] just tells me what Brooklyn is about.” And he did! So, at a recent show at City Winery, she covered it. All does indeed appear to be forgiven. Continue reading »
“Love Gun,” the title track to KISS’ 6th album, is not one of their bigger hits but is regarded by lead singer Paul Stanley as one of their signature songs. Like most of KISS’ repertoire, it’s fairly straightforward arena rock with lyrics that don’t leave much to the imagination. But it features a fun, scale-climbing solo by Ace Frehley, some bolero-esque breaks and the bass part practically dances. Continue reading »