Otis Redding Archives

In the Spotlight: Seal

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 11:00 am No Responses »

Sep 272024

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!

Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel’s list of awards and accolades go on nearly as long as his full name. He’s won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance – all for “Kiss From a Rose,” his 1994 smash – and been nominated twelve more times. He’s sold twenty million records. And he’s earned all his success, thanks to a voice of soul, range, and power, both silky and sensual, lustrous and rich.

Hits, Seal’s 2009 best-of compilation, contains six covers: “Fly Like an Eagle,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” “I Am Your Man,” and “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again.” Naturally, we wanted to dig a little deeper. It was beyond certain that we wouldn’t have to dig too far down before we found gold. Here are just five of the worthy nuggets we unearthed.
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Delicate Steve Welcomes You Into “These Arms of Mine”

Posted by Mike Tobyn at 10:00 am No Responses »

Aug 262024

Steve Marion lends his considerable guitar skills to artists who need virtuosity tinged with eccentricity. Over the years, artists such as Paul Simon, The Black Keys and Miley Cyrus have utilized those skills. As Delicate Steve, he leads his own muse, and band, which occasionally ventures into covers, including his amazing “Hallelujah” that we covered a few years ago. His new album Delicate Steve Sings subversively does not contain vocals, while packaged as a classic standards album from the likes of Chet Baker or Willie Nelson. Where Frank Sinatra used his voice as an instrument, Marion uses his instrument as a voice. The album includes a version of Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine.”
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In Memoriam: Otis Redding

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 11:30 am 2 Responses »

Sep 092022

In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.

This year, a lot of musical artists turn 81 years old. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Aaron Neville, Paul Simon, David Crosby–the list goes on. But it’s one shorter than it should be. Otis Redding would be 81 today if he hadn’t died in a plane crash almost 55 years ago. Thinking of how much potential we never got to see fulfilled is a fool’s errand, so let’s focus on what Redding did give us in his 26 years and change.

Redding brought a voice full of emotion, an electric stage presence, and sheer drive to the sweet soul music of the ’60s. His work ethic got him to the top; his talent kept him there, long after he passed away. He’s one of those singers who’s always ripe for discovery; for an encouraging look at our future, search “first time hearing Otis Redding” on YouTube to find the next generation doing just that.

Review: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit’s ‘Georgia Blue’

Posted by Seuras Og at 2:00 pm 1 Response »

Oct 182021

When Joe Biden was bidding for POTUS, Jason Isbell declared his support by tweeting a promise. If the state of Georgia, his home state, went blue (Democrat), a possibility hitherto deemed impossible, he would record a cover album of Georgia-related songs for charity, “and damn is that gonna be fun.” As Isbell would later say, he had been looking for an excuse to record such a record for some time, but this now offered the ideal opportunity.

Well, Georgia went blue, against the odds and expectations, and with the release of Georgia Blue, three organizations are the better off for it, with all the album’s proceeds going toward Black Voters Matter, Georgia Stand-Up and Fair Fight.
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Aretha Franklin’s Best Cover Songs Ever

Posted by Staff at 10:00 am 6 Responses »

Mar 252020

‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

August 16 has long been a day of infamy in the history of American popular music. It started in 1977 when Elvis Presley, the King of Rock n’ Roll, passed away. Forty-one years later, another member of rock royalty also died: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. Though she was older and her death less of a shock to the cultural landscape, I still remember the exact moment when I heard the news. I was with my family driving home from Sesame Place in Pennsylvania listening to the Beatles channel on SiriusXM. The DJ interrupted to tell us the sad news and in Franklin’s honor played her version of “Let It Be.” Continue reading »

Cover Me Q&A: What’s your favorite cover you learned about on Cover Me?

Posted by Staff at 12:00 pm 1 Response »

Jul 172019

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, courtesy of Cover Me staffer Mike Misch: What’s a favorite song you learned about on Cover Me?
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