What the Fran

Cover songs

When I mentioned Hey Ya! in my music memories post the other day, I ended up listening to a whole bunch of covers of it. This is always a fun time. Think of a song, listen to covers. Good covers are such an art form and I really appreciate them. My wife and I have a playlist of our favourites.

Some of my favourites!

The song with the most covers on my playlist is I Wanna Dance With Somebody. There are several multiple entries. Creep, also many times. Creep is so coverable but my favourite is the Postmodern Jukebox version.

And speaking of. I do love a Postmodern Jukebox cover. And a bardcore - we have a whole bardcore playlist. I genuinely love the instrumental On Melancholy Hill by Joseph C Phaze. My wife listens to the Hildegard von Blingin Pink Pony Club cover so much I don't know the words of the original anymore. So much so that I originally wrote Pink Pony Inn here. My wife also really likes serious covers of Disney songs: Be Like You by Evergreen or Not In Nottingham by Mumford & Sons.

I've come by these songs from all different directions. Liking the artist and finding it that way. Deliberately searching for covers of a certain song. Just being recommended the cover, sometimes without even knowing it's a cover.

Almost certainly, given how popular it is, I'd heard Whole of the Moon by The Waterboys. But the first time I really heard it was the Mystery Jets cover on my Discover Weekly. I liked the cover. It hit me at the right moment, got me in the feels. But I prefer the original. For some reason the cover omits what I think is the best line? "I spoke about wings, you just flew."

The first time I really remember hearing Such Great Heights, or the time I got properly into it, was the Cub Sport cover. It's like, what if Such Great Heights... but slow and sad? An extremely covered song. I also like the CHVRCHES cover - and their song The Mother We Share was an early example of a song I went looking for covers and remixes of.

Some songs I've got several versions of and am not entirely sure which one is the original and which are covers. Maybe none of the ones I've collected are the original. I could look it up but I kind of like not knowing. Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby, and Archie, Marry Me, being two prime examples.

And here's an example: until I was looking it up for this post I assumed Heartbeats was a Jose González original and there was a cover by The Knife. This is in fact the other way round! I love them both.

A good cover is a whole other point of view on a song. Take the original and pep it up, or slow it down, and it finds a whole new audience. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them!

Filed under listening.