Cover Me!

[This morning, as I procrastinate on finishing my memo for Legal Research and Writing, I find that my thoughts are turning, like the thoughts of most teenage girls half my age, to Britney Spears. Britney, it seems, is releasing a new album today. (Yes, it's still an album; the word in this case means "collection of songs." "CD" is the merely one of the formats on which the album is being released. You may buy her newest, if you're so inclined, on cassette or (I assume) vinyl, as well.) Among the hallowed pop traditions to which Britney has adhered thruout her oeuvre (ahem...) has been the tradition of including a cover version of a pop classic on each of her albums. Apparently, her newest contains a cover of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' "I Love Rock n' Roll," the 45 of which I played over and over and over on my parents' Kenwood back in 1981.]

[A new generation of music fans won't know the glory of the original, or those that do (who encounter Joan's on some Women of Metal compilation or something) might have Britney's as their first taste. I got to thinking about cover versions, and how they have screwed with my own internalization of pop songs. I haven't done a Pop List in a while, so herewith, Cover Versions of Pop Songs That Are More Familiar To Me Than The Originals:]

["The Tide Is High" Blondie
"This Wheel's On Fire" as done as the theme to Absolutely Fabulous, or (close second) Siouxsie & the Banshees
"Money Changes Everything" Cyndi Lauper
"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" Dead Can Dance
"The Beat Goes On" Sandra Bernhard (especially), or even Britney Spears (I can't make Sonny and Cher's version play in my head for anything right now!)
"Love Is Strange" Everything But The Girl
"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" Jimmy Somerville
"Don't Leave Me This Way" Communards
(Sorry, Gloria Gaynor; at least Cake's estimable cover of "I Will Survive" will never knock your version from its perch.)
"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" k.d. lang & Andy Bell
"You Were Always On My Mind" Pet Shop Boys
(regarding those last four: don't blame me for coming out of the closet in the late 80's/early 90's...)
"Venus" Bananarama
"You Really Got Me" Oingo Boingo, or (distant second) Van Halen
"Mrs. Robinson" The Lemonheads
"Hazy Shade of Winter" The Bangles
"To Sir With Love" 10,000 Maniacs w/Michael Stipe
"Fight The Power" Barenaked Ladies]

[This is just off the top of my head. I'm not saying that any of them is superior to the original (though some are, and I'm not going to tell you which ones...), but each of them has a more solid place in my memory than the original. Feel free to kill me now, or at least confiscate my CD collection for the good of the nation. Except for Travis' version of "Hit Me Baby One More Time..."]

Previously Next