Shuffle: Top 10 Covers

I'm often on the fence when it comes to covers. I think it was because this one time I was told about a really, really, really good rendition of "Whole Lotta Love" some chick did on American Idol, and when I finally checked it out, I got burned. She butchered it.

 After that, it took awhile before I could open my heart to covers, but I was finally able to see how incredible they can be. Emphasis on CAN. A good cover should present an old song in a completely different light. It shouldn't replace the original but take place in your heart right next to it. It should be like hearing a new song you already know the lyrics to. Musicians have the ability to completely own something, make it their own, and then push it back out into the universe to be enjoyed by all, and that's what a cover should sound like. So here are my favorite cover songs.

It says "Top 10" but I refuse to put them in order because that makes me nervous. And these are my favorites AS OF RIGHT NOW.

  Tom Waits - Somewhere

This song is originally from one of my favorite movies, West Side Story. When Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer sing it, it is a song about a 1950s rough, New York Romeo and Juliet, torn apart by gang violence and prejudice, and it is beautiful. When Tom sings it, however, he is singing to everyone who has ever felt out of place and alone in this crazy, mixed-up world. I hear such hope in his harsh, gravely voice. It is a truly wonderful rendition, unexpectedly soft and gentle. It proves that even when he isn't singing his own lyrics, Tom Waits is still a poet.


  Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)

I'm pretty sure this is the first hip hop song I liked without my brother's influence, which was kind of a big deal for me. Watching it again now as an adult, I'm stuck by how fearless Jay-Z always has been. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said covering a song is to make it your own. Jay-Z takes the chorus from a musical song about a little red-headed white girl, and makes it a striking commentary that resonates to this day. He can easily call a song from Annie the "ghetto anthem", and when all the video does is show adults in a black New York neighborhood staring angrily, apathetically, sadly into the camera while young black youths sing "instead of kisses we get kicked" around them, Jay-Z is making a statement that academics and scholars take whole books to explain.


  Hugo - 99 Problems

And bouncing off of Jay-Z, we get this insanely addictive Hugo cover. This is truly taking a great song, completely shifting the genre, and making it fresh and just plain awesome. I'm really into this folk-country-rock sound recently. This is just a fun song to listen to. I can't really sing along to rap songs without looking like a total idiot, so it's nice when indie or rock bands cover the songs so I can a) sing the lyrics and b) learn the lyrics so I can then sing to the original and still look like an idiot, but an idiot who knows what she's doing.


  Johnny Cash - Hurt

"And here is the four saddest minutes in the history of music." So says the top Youtube comment for this video. I'd heard this song several times before I even realized it was a cover song. To be fair...to me, I don't particularly like NIN. In my opinion, when Nine Inch Nails sing it, it sounds like another whiny, childish metal song written to cater to miserable kids to give them something to listen to while lighting candles to play with the wax. When Johnny sings it, there is real hurt in his voice. There is an age and a wisdom you can't fake. The video showing old footage of his career and himself, an old man, singing these lyrics alone - will bring a tear to the eye of even the toughest men.


  Frank Turner - Thunder Road

 I may be watching this video with my chin in my hands while deeply sighing. This is the love of my life, okay? He sings to my heart. And this cover of one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs is so beautiful. For one thing, it's easier to make out the lyrics. And I had this dream of me driving down a highway, with the window down and this song playing. I finally did it, with the original and this version, and it is just as incredibly satisfying. Springsteen's version is to played driving when the sun is setting. Frank Turner's is to be played driving in the early morning. I don't know what makes me thing that. Maybe I just want to see Frank early in the morning, hey-yo!


  Florence + The Machine - Addicted to Love

That video is just a compilation of her face, which is not a complaint. Anyway, Florence can always been trusted to take a poppy, happy 80s song and fill it with melancholy and beauty. You don't expect to softly sway to a Robert Palmer song, but that's what you end up doing. The Robert Palmer version is about how awesome and exciting it is to have an addiction! To love! When Florence sings it, she's staging a personal intervention with herself because she has a problem and needs to go to Lovers Anonymous. I just want to be friends with Florence Welch.


  16 Horsepower - Sinnerman

 I mentioned this song on Monday. Whatever, it's a great song. So atmospheric! Basically, this is a great song to listen to if you want to hear this creepy, creepy song sung in a creepy way by a man. If you want to listen to this creepy, creepy song sung in a creepy way by a woman, definitely check out the original by Nina Simone. Although 16 Horsepower's version is more folk while Simone's is more blues, but either way, it's the song you'll hear when you've got the devil walking up to your front door.


  The Puppini Sisters - Wuthering Heights

When I look at the Puppini Sisters, I feel so strongly the desire to achieve that Pin-up Girl look, but then I remember how much of an effort I'd need to put into that every day, and the desire subsides. I will make due with listening to their jams. Their shtick of being modern day Andrews Sisters suits me fine, because I may have been one of the only 14 year-olds in 2003 listening to "Rum and Coca-Cola". Anyway, this is a cover of a great Kate Bush song, and somehow the lyrics are even creepier when sung in a jaunty, retro tune by three girls in red lipstick and with big smiles. It also makes the song incredibly catchy.


  Miley Cyrus - Jolene

Okay, so this song is a little different than the others because Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus are both country singers and they sing this song in a country style. However, the reason I love this version is because it shows how incredibly talented Miley Cyrus really is, when stripped of the Disney Channel nonsense. I will go down to fisticuffs defending Miley Cyrus because of this song, she sings it so well. You may click play skeptically, but I guarantee you will play it til the end because it is so very good.


  The Vaccines - We Are Never Every Getting Back Together


I am all about the Vaccines right now. In fact, they will probably be features in my post on Monday, so I won't talk too much about them right now. I won't lie when I say I know the Taylor Swift original. I know it, I sing it, I like it, okay? But it's so fun hearing proper bands singing music candy like this. The lyrics are so fucking goofy, and I'm aware of it in the original, but it's heightened and made even more hilarious in this cover. And now I can blast this song and sing aloud without ever getting grilled by my family and peers! LIKE EVER!