I lack the discipline to choose ten favourite songs, but here are ten favourite cover versions. We know songs by their title and singer, but they are so often made by their arrangement and
production. Anyone could have sung anything to Giorgio Moroder’s mould-breaking ‘I Feel Love’, but Donna Summer takes the credit. By changing the production and arrangement,
covers transform songs. And all the better on Spotify because you can compare versions — instantly. Anyway, to business:
Nobody Does It Better — Aimee Mann
From a brilliant covers album: David Arnold’s James Bond Project. Rather than redo the original, this hams up its best qualities — especially the piano build-up to the first chorus, and the respectful pause before it. My favourite element: the Darth Vader backing vocals in the second verse. Aimee Mann’s incredible voice electrifies the track.
Tainted Love — Soft Cell
Most folk who bought this had never heard of Gloria Jones’ 1964 original, and most people who bought Rihanna’s 2006 track ‘SOS’ had never heard of Soft Cell’s 1981 cover. It’s the ever-mutating song for all seasons.
Shape of My Heart — Vox P
I can’t bear Sting’s original, but this Danish acapella group has built extra dimensions into the song.
Bills, Bills, Bills — Glee Cast
Anyone who loves covers should love Glee — and I do. The music is directed by Mark Brymer and Adam Anders, who record in in LA then send the tracks back to their native Stockholm to be arranged overnight. When approached to direct the music for Glee, Anders had a condition: ‘it cannot be karaoke,’ he said — i.e. not kids singing simple covers. The music has to be fresh: mashups, new arrangements, etc. Anders adds sophisticated harmonies, influenced by the Swedish choral tradition. I’ve chosen Bills, because it’s just so wonderfully different to what Kandi Burruss wrote for Destiny’s Child. Glee has plenty of detractors, but the quality of music and choreography is the best we’ve seen on TV since Kids from Fame.
Happy Together — Leningrad Cowboys & Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble
When the Cold War ended, what were the Red Army Ensemble to do? They teamed up with the cult Finnish group, Leningrad Cowboys, and covered contemporary music. Hearing Soviet-era singers put their all into happy-clappy Western numbers is, at first, hilarious — and then oddly catchy.
Norwegian Wood — Cornershop
This teases the George Harrison version a bit. It sounds just like it, but takes Harrison’s sitar conceit to its natural conclusion and the whole song is done in Punjabi. It’s weird because it’s not weird.
Just Can’t Get Enough — Nouvelle Vague
I came across Nouvelle Vague about seven years ago in a Belgian nightclub, and it was almost enough to make me think Brussels was interesting. They’re French and cover various songs in Bossa Nova style. The Depeche Mode original was utterly brilliant, but mainly because of the electronic effects. You’d never think it would work unplugged.
Don’t Cry for Me Argentina — Madonna
Lloyd Webber may sue for the very suggestion, but this is a Bach cover. The classics delivered so many incredible harmonies that you can build a pop song out of a snatched melody. Bach’s Prelude No1 in C was covered a century ago to produce ‘Ave Maria’. Lloyd Webber pretty much did the same, but Tim Rice’s great lyrics make you forget the original. Ten years ago, when I was a reporter sent to cover Madonna’s wedding, I found that she sang ‘Ave Maria’ in the church when she was checking it out. I suspect this is why: she’d done ‘Don’t Cry for Me’ for Evita and knew its origin.
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart — Elton John and RuPaul
While not musically brilliant, this is a comic triumph. Elton John covered his own song, before anyone else did, and took the piss out of the identikit music production which made the charts so dull in the early 1990s. His duet with the drag queen RuPaul is certainly camp, but shows John’s sense of humour — and his genius.
Call your Girlfriend — Erato
This has been a YouTube sensation in Scandinavia: three girls in the kitchen of their flat, doing a cover version of Robyn’s electro hit — armed with margarine tubs and a hell of a lot of imagination. It’s not on Spotify, but the YouTube video at the top of this post shows it better. This is a grassroots remix, demonstrating what a group of flatmates can do mucking about.
You can listen to Fraser’s Spotify playlist here.
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