It used to be assumed that decent cover versions were few and far between - but the fact that we are now on to our fifth set of covers, seems to put that one to bed.
So, here we are - ten more cover versions that I think offer something at least as good as the original, and in most cases, also a something a little different. As ever, hopefully a little something for everyone in here....
1. Terrorvision: Surrender (Cheap Trick)
The 1978 original gave Cheap Trick their first single to enter the US Top 100. It went on to become considered one of the teen anthems of the era, with its story from the perspective of a baby boomer and their relationship with G.I. generation parents. It includes a thank you to Kiss, who had given Cheap Trick a big break the previous year, giving them a support slot on their 77 tour. Yorkshire's Terrorvision took it on as the B-Side of the single Middleman, from their 1994 album How To Make Friends And Influence People, providing a faithful if slightly heavier version.
Terrorvision: Surrender (Audio only)
2. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes: Dancing Queen (ABBA)
Now while ABBA are nowhere near my favourite band, one has to admit they had the knack for writing more than a few popular tunes. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes are something of a US punk supergroup, with a slightly shifting line up over their thirty odd years of existence. Currently they include Spike Slawson (Re-Volts), CJ Ramone (The Ramones), and Joey Cape (Lagwagon), and in the past have included the likes of Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) and Fat Mike (NOFX). The band is named after a children's book and only do cover versions on their records, with this pop-punk one (definitely providing something different) being the lead off single from their newest one, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes Blow It.... At Madison's Quinceañara.
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes: Dancing Queen (Official audio - is recorded live and mixes in a little bit of Janie Jones by The Clash))
3. R.E.M.: Pale Blue Eyes (Velvet Underground)
R.E.M. loved a cover version in their early days, with many ending up as B-Sides - in this case on So. Central Rain, from 1984s Reckoning - and then finding their way onto 1987s collection of B-Sides and rarities, Dead Letter Office (plus the odd one, like Superman, making it onto an album). This is a cover of a song by a band that influenced a huge swathe of bands coming through in the 80s. Pale Blue Eyes was written by the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed, and featured on their 1969 album of the same name. It is said to be about Reed's early love Shelley Albin, who ended up marrying some one else - and also actually had hazel eyes!
R.E.M.: Pale Blue Eyes (Live at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, 1984)
4. Fall Out Boy: We Didn't Start The Fire (Billy Joel)
Billy Joel's 1989 hit included lyrics referencing 119 different cultural, scientific, political and sports events from the year of Joel's birth (1949) to 1989. It is considered by many critics to be one of the worst songs in his catalogue, and it turns out even Joel himself isn't necessarily a massive fan of the song either! Fall Out Boys 2023 version was also received somewhat tepidly, with its updated lyrics including more events from after 1989 (although interestingly, not covid) - it seems many didn't like the fact that they didn't put the events in chronological order. However, I think it is worthy of inclusion.
Fall Out Boy: We Didn't Start The Fire (Live at the VMAs, 2023 - not sure about Patrick Stump's suit though)
5. Editors: Lullaby (The Cure)
The original was on The Cure's Disintegration album in 1989, considered a return back to the darker side of Goth, after the relative popiness of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Many have speculated the meaning behind Robert Smith's lyrics, thinking it might be about addiction, depression and even sexual assault. Smith himself said it alludes to childhood nightmares and the sometimes dark and disturbing songs his father would sing to him as a child. Birmingham post-punk outfit Editors got a hold of the song as their contribution to the Radio 1: Established 1967 - where each band invited, got to pick a song from the year they were allocated. It also ended up later on a Cure tribute album, Pictures Of You, given away with the NME in February 2009. Bassist Russell Leetch said that "Lullaby is the greatest dark pop song.... possibly of all years."
Editors: Lullaby (Live at Alexandra Palace, 2008)
6. Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (Bob Marley)
This Rita Marley penned track was on husband Bob Marley's classic eighth record, Rastaman Vibration in 1976. It is about a woman who's son has been shot dead in a gang fight - possibly about Trevor Wilson, younger brother of legendary Jamaican singer Delroy Wilson (made famous through his namecheck in White Man In Hammersmith Palais, by The Clash). Like many other classic British punk bands, Stiff Little Fingers were open to the influence of reggae, and adapted it for their debut album, Inflammable Material, an incendiary attack on The Troubles in Northern Ireland and bored, disaffected youth. It was a good fit thematically, of senseless violence and loss - "A single shot rings out in a Belfast night and I said oh - Johnny was a good man."
Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (Live audio - Brixton Academy, 1988)
7. Fats Domino: Lady Madonna (The Beatles)
This was originally a non-album single by struggling Liverpudlians, The Beatles, from 1968. It differed from their more recent psychedelic rock output, with a bit of a return to a more classic rock n roll style. Paul McCartney based the riff on Bad Penny Blues by jazz leader Humphrey Lyttleton. John Lennon contributed to the lyrics, which were about an overworked and exhausted mother. It seems that McCartney might have mentioned to producer Richard Perry, that his singing on the track was based on that of Fats Domino. Whether that played a part or not - Antoine Fats Domino, the legendary New Orleans rock n roller, put his version down later that same year for his Fats Is Back album. It just about scraped the Top 100, becoming Domino's 77th and final 'hit'.
Fats Domino: Lady Madonna (Audio only - and you can really see how Macca was influenced by his singing on this)
8. Love Spit Love: How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths)
The Smiths first had this as the B-Side of William It Was Really Nothing, before it appeared on the compilation album Hatful Of Hollow (and some versions of Meat Is Murder), and then released as a single in its own right. Unusually, it is largely built around a single guitar chord (F#), which is then hit with all kinds of effects. The first line - "I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular" - is adapted from the George Eliot novel Middlemarch. Love Spit Love were an off-shoot of The Psychedelic Furs, formed by Richard and Tim Butler during their bands hiatus in the 1990s. They were approached to cover this song for the 1996 teenage horror movie, The Craft. The performance overall is pretty faithful, but Richard Butler's Marlboro soaked voice really adds something new to the song.
Love Spit Love: How Soon Is Now? (Official video)
9. Kirsty MacColl: A New England (Billy Bragg)
Billy Bragg wrote this for his 1983 album, Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy, and has the identical opening line - "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long." - as Simon and Garfunkel's Leaves That Are Green. It also has the melody inspired by Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy. Kirsty MacColl's version followed a few years later, being produced by her new husband, Steve Lillywhite. She thought the song too short however, so Bragg wrote her an extra verse. MacColl would say that "his version was just the skeleton of the song, so I wanted to dress it up." After MacColl's tragic death in 2000, Bragg now always includes the extra verse when he plays it live.
Kirsty MacColl: A New England (Official video - god, I love this song so much)
10. The White Stripes: I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself (Dusty Springfield)
This is one of the many classics from the Hal David and Burt Bacharach combination, written during their time in the legendary Brill Building. It was initially recorded in 1962 by Chuck Jackson, before Dusty Springfield sang the definitive version in 1964, giving her one of her biggest hits. The White Stripes played a wonderful raw, heavy blues version for their Elephant album in 2003, and it has a video directed by legendary film director Sofia Coppola (Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation, Marie Antionette), that also features Kate Moss.
The White Stripes: I Just Don't Know What To Do (Official video)
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