The Feelies Archives

Full Albums: ‘The Modern Lovers’

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 8:00 am No Responses »

May 162026

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

A happy birthday to Jonathan Richman, who turns 75 years young today. We’re celebrating with a Full Album post of The Modern Lovers, his magnum opus, which is itself celebrating its golden anniversary this year. Of course, it’s actually older than that; most of the songs were four- or five-year-old demos. But as Rolling Stone said when they named it one of the top 100 albums between ’67 and ’87, the band was so far ahead of their time that when the album was finally released, it was still ahead of its time.

With two future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers backing him (a pre-Talking Heads Jerry Harrison on keys and a pre-Cars David Robinson on drums), along with bassist Ernie Brooks, Richman explored proto-punk sounds and attitudes mixed with a generous helping of naïveté. It was like a textbook on how a teen sees the world, wanting to be tough but unable to hide the joy and exuberance of youth. Capped by “Roadrunner,” a highway anthem that’s lost none of its power, The Modern Lovers was one of the greatest and most influential albums of its time.

A follow-up with this lineup was not in the cards, as Richman was becoming what Robert Christgau called “an almost powerless case of arrested development,” writing gentle children’s fare like “Here Come the Martian Martians” and “Hey There Little Insect” while his bandmates would have preferred to keep their amps cranked up. Still, whether they served as an inspiration for future bands (including their own) or a cautionary tale, the Modern Lovers continue to make and keep fans, thanks to their work getting cobbled together into one brief shining moment.
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(Back) In the Spotlight: The Feelies

Posted by Jordan Becker at 11:00 am No Responses »

Oct 082024

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!

I volunteered to write this piece a few years ago, but never got around to it. When I offered to actually finish it, our features editor reminded me that he had written a Spotlight piece on The Feelies back in February. But he was game to let me write this, if there was no overlap. Remarkably, no overlap was actually planned. So, here we go, with a second Spotlight piece in a year about a band of, at best, limited popularity. Or, if you prefer, a cult favorite.
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The 75 Best Beatles Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 9:00 am 24 Responses »

Feb 232024

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

Sixty years ago this month, The Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show. You don’t need us to tell you what a momentous occasion this was; entire books have been written on the subject. Suffice to say we’re using the anniversary as our excuse to finally devote a Best Covers Ever to perhaps the biggest band of them all. We’ve done Dylan. We’ve done the Stones. We’ve done Dolly and Springsteen and Prince. But there was one last giant remaining.

Though it’s difficult to measure this precisely, The Beatles are the most-covered artist of all time according to the two biggest covers databases on the internet (SecondHandSongs, WhoSampled). And that certainly feels right. “Yesterday” is often cited as the most-covered song of all time, though that needs qualifiers (a ton of Christmas standards would beat it). But, again, it feels right. The Beatles were ubiquitous in their day, and they’ve been ubiquitous ever since. They just had a chart-topping single last month, the A.I.-assisted “Now and Then,” which was duly covered widely. If “Carnival of Light” ever surfaces, no doubt a carnival of covers will soon follow. Continue reading »

In the Spotlight: The Feelies

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 1:00 pm No Responses »

Feb 092024

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!

In 2023, the Feelies released Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground, a live album recorded one night in 2018. Listeners heard a band that had clearly absorbed the VU into their DNA long ago, making their recreations sound almost effortless. They even play the brief instrumental burbling at the start of “Sweet Jane.” The audience cheers heard between songs are loud and enthusiastic, and no matter which band’s music they’re there to hear, you can tell they love the other band too.

For this night, the Feelies were more about being Velvet Underground fans than Feelies. Because because? Well, their version of “What Goes On” sounds more like the VU and less like the Feelies’ own studio-released version, from 1988’s Only Life. Now there was a band who set out to make a song their own. Not to knock the modern day Feelies, not at all, but that VU night really was designed to be more commemoration than innovation. It’s those earlier covers we’re focusing on today, the ones that saw the band out to, as Lou Reed called his own live album in 1978, take no prisoners.

The 35 Best Velvet Underground Covers Ever

Posted by Staff at 10:30 am 8 Responses »

Oct 272023

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

On October 27, 2013, ten years ago today, Lou Reed died. I happened to be in New York City at the time, and his passing was a lead story on the 11 o’clock news. It was as though a part of the city itself had died. Which, inescapably, it had. Reed embodied NYC, from its seedy back rooms to its secret heart, in a way few other people, let alone musicians, ever did.

While Reed’s solo career is highly and deservingly accoladed, it still got overshadowed by the Velvet Underground. Reed’s first band featured Welsh musician John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker, with Nico singing on the first album and Doug Yule replacing Cale in 1968. The band’s four studio albums started ripples that turned into tsunamis; they went from secret-handshake status to Hall of Fame giants, their influence right up there with the Beatles.

We’re honoring Lou and Company with this collection of covers. Some covers couldn’t hold a candle to the original (you’ll find no “Heroin” here), but many of the originals were receptive to another artist’s distinctive stamp. Whether you prefer the first or what followed, you’ll hear the sound of immortality as it opens yet another path of discovery.

–Patrick Robbins, Features Editor

The Best Cover Songs of February 2023

Posted by Ray Padgett at 10:03 am No Responses »

Feb 282023

Adam Lambert – Getting Older (Billie Eilish cover)

On his new covers album High Drama, Adam Lambert didn’t pick one of the obvious Billie Eilish songs to cover (“Bad Guy,” “Everything I Wanted,” etc). He goes for relative deep cut “Getting Older,” off her 2021 album Happier Than Ever. Eilish’s original was fairly minimalist. Lambert doesn’t do “minimalist.” His “glam” version, as he describes it, makes the song sound like a much bigger hit than it was. Continue reading »