Jul 112025
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

St. James Infirmary

Many folk and blues songs derive from other songs, since so often they were originally transmitted by oral tradition and not sheet music or recordings. Performers would hear a song, and change it for artistic purposes, or because they misremembered what they heard, creating a big version of the game “Telephone.” So, when a song’s origins are unclear, how do you determine what is the “original” version, and what are “covers?” That’s the issue that we get when discussing “St. James Infirmary,” a song whose origin is shrouded in mystery. There’s even a book about its roots, a blog, and a number of essays, but there doesn’t appear to be any universally accepted conclusion.

Some believe that the song derives from a tune called “The Unfortunate Lad” or “The Unfortunate Rake,” about a man dying of a venereal disease. Although that theory appears to be losing favor, and that song may actually be more closely related to “Streets of Laredo,” a cowboy song. Another song, “Those Gambler’s Blues,” (or just “Gambler’s Blues”), may be the source material, because, like the more modern versions of “St. James Infirmary,” it initially focuses not on the narrator, but on his sweetheart, who is dead in the hospital. (And some posit other source material.) The first sheet music for “Gambler’s Blues” was published in 1925 by Carl Moore and Phil Baxter, and the poet Carl Sandburg published a book, The American Songbag, in 1927 with two different versions of “Gambler’s Blues.” The same year, Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra released the first recording of the song. Continue reading »

May 312023
 

Version Girl by… Rhoda who?

Well, think back to the heady days of 2 Tone Records, Coventry, UK. On the cusp of the 1970s into ’80s, this label hosted the Specials, the Selecter, the (English) Beat, and more. Their revisioning of ska arguably led to the proliferation of ska-punk bands in the US, led off by No Doubt. The 2-Tone movement was as much a political beast as a musical one, preaching a message of integration, with many of the (already multi-racial) bands including children of the 1950s wave of immigration, from the West Indies and into the UK. Racism was more savage then, or perhaps just more nuanced, with the movement alerting the youth of the nation into a better understanding and acceptance.

Anyway, Rhoda Dakar was a member of the Bodysnatchers, an all-female band, who had some brief success before evolving into the Belle Stars, who had a number of hits, including their version of old N’Awlins staple “Iko Iko.” Dakar was not a Belle Star herself, but she moved on to being a guest singer with the Specials, for their second album, touring with them, later becoming a member of the Special AKA, the band they evolved into. Primarily a singer, she has since made a number of solo recordings and popped up in collaborations with a number of acts, notably Madness and the Dub Pistols. Now she has released Version Girl, her first solo album since 2015’s Rhoda Dakar Sings the Bodysnatchers.
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May 012023
 
best cover songs
The Flowers of Hell – Atmosphere (Joy Division cover)

Toronto-London ensemble The Flowers of Hell first released this cover on their 2012 orchestral-pop covers album Odes, but, in honor of its first vinyl release on Record Store Day, it got a new music video. If you missed this wonderful Joy Division cover the first time around, it’s a perfect time to catch up. There’s a new “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft” video too. Continue reading »

May 192022
 
sofi tukker what a wonderful world

SOFI TUKKER is a rad music duo based out of Florida. Most of their music hovers around the genres of House and EDM, but these two venture over to more gentle waters for a new version of Louis Armstrong’s oft-covered “What a Wonderful World.” It comes stitched with hauntingly light female vocals, and syncopated guitar riffs and, as seen in an Instagram teaser video, a classical guitar with nylon strings played by singer Sophie Hawley-Weld. The delicateness of this instrument is part of what makes this rendition so unique.

The syncopated riff on the classical guitar repeats throughout the song, but we never seem to grow tired of the melody. Similarly, the hip lofi drums have a catchy groove that pulls us in. As the cover goes on, more and more jazz is infused into their sound. Resonant piano stabs come in the beat, and then transform into improv-inspired, jazzy piano. The icing on the cake is Sophie’s trumpet-like scat singing. 

Jul 282020
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

Mark Lanegan covers

How many Mark Lanegans there are, I guess, depends largely on where you heard him first. For some it will have been the angry grunge of Screaming Trees; for others, the desert stoners of Queens of the Stone Age, or even the badass bromance of the Gutter Twins. Or they may, like me, have arrived from an altogether opposite direction, the low-fi acoustic of his duo work with Isobel Campbell, doe-voiced folkstrel and onetime cellist from Glasgow’s Belle and Sebastian. Other outliers will have been drawn in by the gospelectronica, if you will, of Soulsavers. Plus there will have been all those, suddenly marveling at his soundtrack tones, stamping over any number of films or boxsets.

But, once heard, that voice sticks. Memorably once described as being like a three-day stubble, it imprints, demanding both attention and immersion. And if the directions take you outa your usual safety genres, too bad; you go, you follow, opening new vistas on the way. Oh, and if you haven’t yet discovered Mark Lanegan, what are you waiting for?
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May 292020
 

Check out the best covers of past months here.

best cover songs may 2020
Daniel Romano’s Outfit – Sweetheart Like You (Bob Dylan cover)


This one’s for all the Dylan superfans. In 1984, Bob Dylan played three songs on Letterman with L.A. punk band The Plugz. They were gritty and garagey and raw. It boded well for his new sound. And then he never played with them again. The album he was ostensibly promoting, Infidels, was much smoother, helmed by Mark Knopfler. For those who still wonder what could have been, Daniel Romano covered the entire album as if he’d recorded it with The Plugz. Continue reading »