Between the Covers (2006) is a compilation of classic songs covered by a mix of performers whose net proceeds supported the T. J. Martell Foundation’s research efforts for research and treatments for cancer and AIDS.
I included the original singer/group and the year the song was a hit after the song titles above. Quite a variety of years!
My favorite cover song on Between the Covers is Maxwell’s version of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” Do you remember these songs? Have you heard these cover versions? Any favorites? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Lenny Kravitz– | American Woman (Guess Who, 1970) | 4:21 |
| 2 | U2– | Everlasting Love (Robert Knight, 1967) | 3:19 |
| 3 | Madonna– | American Pie (Don McLean, 1971) | 4:32 |
| 4 | Rod Stewart– | Downtown Train (Tom Waits, 1985) | 4:39 |
| 5 | Sarah McLachlan– | Ol’ 55 (Tom Waits, 1973) | 4:14 |
| 6 | Tori Amos– | Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana, 1991) | 3:15 |
| 7 | Dixie Chicks– | Landslide (Fleetwood Mac, 1975) | 3:48 |
| 8 | Eric Clapton– | Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out (Unplugged Version) (Bessie Smith, 1929) | 3:39 |
| 9 | Norah Jones– | Cold, Cold Heart (Louis Armstrong, 1949) | 3:38 |
| 10 | Maxwell– | This Woman’s Work (Kate Bush, 1988) | 3:59 |
| 11 | Sheryl Crow– | The First Cut Is The Deepest (Gene Pitney, 1966) | 3:49 |
| 12 | Alicia Keys– | If I Was Your Woman / Walk On By (Dionne Warwick, 1964) | 3:06 |
| 13 | The Bacon Brothers (2)– | If I Needed Someone (The Beatles, 1965) | 2:41 |
| 14 | David Bowie & Mick Jagger– | Dancing In The Street (Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, 1964) | 3:18 |
I know most of the original songs on here and about a third of the cover versions. The best are probably the Lenny Kravitz , the Bowie and Jagger, Eric Clapton and the Rod Stewart. The worst the Madonna.
Steve, what possessed Madonna to sing “American Pie” baffles me.
I’ve just spent a lot of time on Wikipedia and YouTube looking some of these up. (Many of these covers I’m already familiar with.) These are generally such iconic songs that the remakes can’t be as good, but that’s okay. They only have to be good, not as good.
Just a few random comments:
I just listened to a number of versions of “Everlasting Love,” trying to figure out which version I’m familiar with. I think it’s the Carl Carlton version that I heard on the radio back in the day. I really recommend the video for the Gloria Estefan version, which features five drag queens doing Estefan. Very well done.
There is an “American Pie” video which is a Must See. It’s been out for about ten years now, so some of you are probably aware of it, but it was new to me. A magazine article listed a group of what it called “dying cities,” and it included Grand Rapids, Michigan. To prove it wasn’t dying, Grand Rapids commissioned this video, which has its citizens lip-synching to a performance of the song. (They couldn’t license the original recording, but they could license a Don McLean live version.) This is so elaborately set up, and performed so joyously, in one remarkable nine-minute take…it is just a Wow! I’m serious. Go watch it.
“Downtown Train” is on my (long) list of favorite Rod Stewart songs. “Landslide” I love in both its Fleetwood Mac and (Dixie) Chicks versions. “Dancing in the Street,” well, I can listen to the Bowie/Jagger version, but I’ve never been fond of it.
I don’t know where you pulled out that Gene Pitney did the first version of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” in 1966. I see his version as 1990. Cat Stevens wrote the song, and recorded it in 1967. P.P. Arnold recorded the first version, earlier in 1967.
Jeff, thanks for that informative comment! The BETWEEN THE COVERS liner notes provided the list of “hit versions.” Like you, I was skeptical of the Gene Pitney citation (I’ve never heard his version) but listed it anyhow. You’re right about that “American Pie” video! Wow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI The Grand Rapids LipDub
Jeff beat me to the comment about “The First Cut Is the Deepest”: it was written by Cat Stevens, although it certainly has that Gene Pitney “Only Love Can Break Your Heart/It Hurts to Be in Love” vibe.
Of the songs here, I like Tori Amos’s take on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the best. It’s not a note-for-note duplicate of Nirvana’s original. I’m kinda ho-hum about most of the others.
Deb, I’m mostly ho-hum on most cover songs, but like Jeff Smith I’m fond of Rod Stewart’s version of “Downtown Train.” Diane is a big Dixie Chicks fan so I hear their version of “Landslide” every time I ride in her car. Tori Amos is underrated.
I’m familiar with all but a couple of the originals but (SHAME!) none of the covers. For me, the ultimate cover version is the Jimi Hendrix cover of “All Along the Watchtower”, so good that it changed the way Dylan sang the song. The terrific Vanilla Fudge cover of the Supremes “You Keep Me Hangin’ On. On “After the Gold Rush” Neil Young takes Don Gibson’s peppy, up tempo “Oh Lonesome Me” and slows it down to a lovely, mournful crawl. And the weirdest? An unlikely REM cover of Lulu’s “To Sir With Love”, from the 60s movie.
Michael, I had forgotten about REM’s cover of “To Sir With Love.” Quite a mind-bending version!
Agree on those but never heard the R.E.M. version of To Sir With Love. The Clash did a blistering cover of I Fought the Law and Bryan Ferry did a great cover of Jealous Guy. Also a lot of great covers of Hallelujah.
Well, I find a rather respectful reading of the song by a 10,000 Maniacs augmented by extra musicians including Michael Stipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELuAy7wMie4
Thanks for that, Todd. I’m probably wrong about this but I could swear I heard a version with just Stipe on vocals and assumed it was REM. I heard it only once, probably on Sirius. Never heard it again and have never been able to find it, so it probably doesn’t exist.
One more addition: the originl of “If I Were Your Woman” was Gladys Knight & the Pips (1970).
Jeff, you’re right. Carl Carlton’s 1974 version of “Everlasting Love” is virtually identical to the Robert Knight original, but was the much bigger hit. The Knight version reached #14, the Carlton #6, exactly 7 years later.
I cannot even imagine the abomination of Madonna doing “American Pie,” so I am glad I’ve never heard it. I know a few of the covers, particularly the Chicks version of “Landslide,” which I hear more than the Fleetwood Mac original. Agree with Jeff about “Dancing in the Streets,” which can’t tough the original. I do like Sheryl Crow’s “First Cut is the Deepest.”
Jeff, I’m with you on Sheryl Crow’s version of “The First Cut is the Deepest” but I’m also fond of Rod Stewart’s version, too.
“American Woman” is such a vile turd of a song that any version that doesn’t flush it is part of the problem. Lenny Kravitz, like Keanu Reeves and Stephen Colbert, is my age…but I suspect they all have more money.
Pops and Norah Jones do fine Hank Williams covers, and his version was a hit, too…the Tori Amos cover is the only other one collected here I’m sure I’ve heard. It’s fun.
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2015/06/eight-miles-high-saturday-music-club-on.html includes some Interesting takes.
Todd, I was struck with the variety of covers on this compilation CD. There are some very strange pairings here.
Having just been in Grand Rapids, I really enjoyed that. Always loved Dancing in the Streets, with the video, of course. Thanks for the links, Todd.
Foolish of me–I have heard the Bowie/Jagger cover of “Dancin’ in the Street”, too…and saw that video back when. You’re quite welcome, Patti–and thanks, George and Jeff Smith, for the heads-up on the Grand Rapids lip-sync video, new to me, as well…and as polite a biting the thumb at NEWSWEEK pomposity as one could want.
As for covers of “All Along the Watchtower”, Rick Robinson seemed particularly pleased to be introduced to this one, featuring Jasmin Tabatabai on vocal and guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORm2TDa7U2w
https://secondhandsongs.com/ is an exhaustive list of cover versions, easy to get lost in.
I heard several of these and enjoyed them. I’ll be interested to track down Sarah McLachlan’s version of Ol’ 55.
As a side note, I have a Bacon Brothers CD and quite enjoy it.
Beth, I’ve heard the Bacon Brothers like to ham it up!