Mar 292024
 

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

best sheryl crow covers

Sheryl Crow is having a real moment. After years of being (unfairly) dismissed as music for moms in minivans, her cool credentials have been ratcheted up in recent years through praise by younger singers who grew up hearing her songs. Just last week, Olivia Rodrigo invited Crow onstage to sing “If It Makes You Happy.” Covers have flown in from Phoebe Bridgers, HAIM, Soccer Mommy, and any number of other hip young female singers. And—oh yeah—she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last fall.

For the Rock Hall induction, we did a feature on Crow, but devoted our big Best Covers Ever: Rock Hall Edition list to Kate Bush. But Crow’s got a new album out today, so we wanted to dedicate one to her now. A few of the covering artists we feature below are her contemporaries (and one is several generations older), but a large portion of the list comes from Millennials and Gen Z singers. That’s where the Sheryl energy is coming from these days, and they’ve given us a ton more great Crow-vers (sorry) than existed even a few years ago.

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Jun 132023
 
noel gallagher love will tear us apart

Manchester is on a roll. Manchester City is the best football team in Europe, and probably the planet. In addition to sport, music plays a central role in Manchester’s vibrant recovery. On a recent weekend, fans sang along at separate stadium gigs from Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys.  Sir Elton John had an arena farewell on. Cover Me fans might have been at Scary Pockets‘ triumphant first visit to the city. Next year, a concert venue with input from Bruce Springsteen and Harry Styles aims to be the best venue in the UK for acoustics and attendee experience. Manchester icon, and City Fan, Noel Gallagher’s visit to The Radio 2 Piano Room to pay homage to one of the city’s most treasured songs had potential, at least. Continue reading »

Apr 112023
 
scary pockets clocks cover

Though not their biggest hit in terms of sales or charts, “Clocks” is certainly one of Coldplay‘s most iconic songs. This is in part due to to the insistent piano riff, which made the song stand out among the other big hits of 2003. But also: it has been sampled bunch of times since, including by many hip hop and R&B artists. Continue reading »

Jan 172023
 
scary pockets purple haze cover

Though “Hey Joe” was his first single, it was “Purple Haze” that really introduced the world to Jimi Hendrix and his revolutionary guitar playing. It’s iconic, but because it’s so iconic, it can be a hard song to reimagine.

Reinterpreting iconic tracks is Scary Pockets‘ thing, of course. The funk band have a long history of reinterpreting famous songs by major artists, fronted by a guest vocalist. So it’s no surprise their take on one of Hendrix’s most famous songs is an interesting one. (It’s fun, too!) Continue reading »

Jun 242022
 

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

George Michael

The title track from George Michael’s Faith album saw the former Wham! member further shedding his bubblegum image. After the shock of the lyrics to the first single from that album, “I Want Your Sex,” the second single was more about the music, combining blue-eyed soul with rock ‘n’ roll, mashing up Bo Diddley and Duane Eddy into a very hot and tasty stew. “Faith” wound up being Billboard’s number one single for all of 1988. Accept it before it destroys you, it said. Oh, wait – sorry, that was Dana Carvey as George Michael.

As “Faith” covers go, Limp Bizkit made the biggest impression with theirs, racking up over 25 million YouTube views and over 55 million Spotify plays. But not everyone liked it, including Michael himself: “What we’ve heard from George Michael’s people is that he hates it and hates us for doing it,” said guitarist Wes Borland. So we decided to seek out five other covers that may be less famous, but which have something that hits us just right.

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Jun 232022
 
pomplamoose such great heights

Pomplamoose is a duo consisting of multi-instrumentalists Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. They are a husband and wife duo pair are veterans at putting pop songs into indie, funk, and jazz genres. Their latest, a funk cover of The Postal Service’s top hit “Such Great Heights,” comes recorded with Conte’s other group Scary Pockets. While Nataly takes over the soft vocals, Jack nabs the keys. The couple has invited other musical guests, including Panic! At the Disco’s bassist Nicole Row, to join them, along with Ryan James Carr (drums), Jude Smith (guitar), and Ryan Lerman (guitar). Continue reading »