One of the SongPop categories I’ve recently unlocked is ‘Best Covers.’
The selections include many of the tracks you’d expect — Jimi Hendrix’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect,’ for example — but also some surprises.
For example, did you know that ‘Torn,’ the 1997 hit by Natalie Imbruglia, was a cover of a song by L.A. alt-rock band Ednaswap?
Imbruglia was an Australian actress who put her acting career on hold in the late 90s to give the music business a shot. Her first single took off like a rocket. Buoyed by a video that demonstrated the wonders of a gorgeous woman in a short haircut and a sleeveless top, ‘Torn’ became one of the biggest hits of the decade.
Imbruglia continued to record (to this day, in fact) but never scored another hit. She likely shows up in the ‘One-Hit Wonders’ category of SongPop as well as ‘Best Covers.’
As for Ednaswap, I hope they did well financially because they are no-hit wonders who received zero recognition for writing and originally recording the song that Imbruglia rode to stardom.
He was warm – he came around like
He was dignified
He showed me what it was to cry
Well you couldn’t be that man I adored
You don’t seem to know – don’t seem to care
What your heart is for
No I don’t know him anymore
There’s nothin’ where we used to lie
Conversation has run dry
That’s what’s going on
Nothing’s fine
I’m torn
I’m all out of faith
This is how I feel
I’m cold and I am chained
Lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I’m cold and I am shamed and bound
And broken on the floor
And I can see the perfect sky is torn
You’re a little late
I’m already torn
So I guess the fortune teller’s right
I should have seen just what was there
And not some holy light
But you crawled beneath my veins
And now I don’t care
I have no luck
I don’t miss it all that much
There’s just so many things
That I can’t touch
There’s nothing where he used to lie
My conversation has run dry
That’s what is goin’ on
Nothin’s right
I’m torn
I’m all out of faith
This is how I feel
I’m cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I’m wide awake
And I can see the perfect sky is torn
You’re a little late
I’m already torn
Meet Me In Montauk 
Fascinating! Just fascinating!
Dana, is that you being a bit facetious? I love this kind of info. 🙂
No, Andrea, Dana was being completely sincere. We all find this sort of thing fascinating (and are grateful to Clay – notable, as I write this on Thansksgiving – every day for providing so many fascinating tidbits through his blog). I am so surprised, as this sort of song seems so “singer songwritery” (well, at least as Imbruglia recorded it – I might have thought this version was the cover!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1XWJN3nJo and here is the much better cover 🙂
We just had a very funny conversation… Clay, did you switch the video? Dana and I were just debating the two versions quite passionately, before he concluded that this, the original, was not originally posted on your blog (which would mean we were debating the virtues of the same video). Clarify, please… did you switch videos?
Not sure what you mean. I included a link to the original in the body of the post but haven’t touched it since.
Ah… he must have hit the link, watched that video, then never watched the original one you actually posted as your SOTD. 🙂 We were just debating the differences between the same version (as I was saying I like the Imbruglia cover better, and he was insisting that the one I liked was the original you had posted…. never mind!!)