I’ll finish off the week with another cover I didn’t know was a cover.
I certainly knew Sinead O’Connor’s smash ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was written by Prince (the number ‘2’ and the letter ‘U’ are kind of a giveaway). But I didn’t realize that it had been previously recorded by The Family, a band formed by His Purple Highness in 1985.
In keeping with yesterday’s theme, today I’m writing about another song I never knew was a cover until discovering that fact through SongPop.
Like most people of my generation, my first real exposure to ‘Unchained Melody’ was through the pottery scene in Ghost. Demi Moore, at her hottest, straddled the phallic slab of clay while the late Patrick Swayze approaches from behind and straddles her… yes, that left quite an impression.
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?
I’m not prepared to write a proper review of the new fun. album, Some Nights, because I’ve listened to it only a couple of times all the way through.
But I can say that I already love it.
The oddly punctuated trio most resemble a modern-day incarnation of Queen, with no shortage of operatic bombast in their pop repertoire (popertoire?). This is the sort of ballsy, go-for-broke ambition you rarely see in the alt-rock world.
Since the release of Taylor Swift’s new album, Red, I’ve read several versions of the same joke: referencing the country-pop superstar’s penchant for writing scathing break-up songs about the many men who’ve wronged her, people have begun to suggest “Taylor, maybe it’s you…”
That idea ran through my mind more than once listening to Red, another collection that’s exhaustively focused on the failings of the men in Swift’s life. I have to say, it’s quite a feat to make me feel sympathy for John Mayer.
