Playlist: Covers 6

I may have gone too early with the 'Scorchio' playlist last week, as temperatures have topped 31°C (88°F) round these parts (probably about 5°C more than normal). So what instead? Well, I just checked and it's been ten months since our last covers playlist! Time to rectify that right now...

It's easy to think that cover versions are generally inferior specimens, but hopefully the previous five playlists have started to prove that wrong. So, here are ten more top tunes from the disparate worlds of pop, soul, rock, indie and reggae, to keep you entertained.

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1. Soft Cell: Tainted Love

Photo: Fin Costello / Redferns

It took me a long time to realise that this staple tune from my youth was actually a cover version. It was a tune Soft Cell had in their live set, and was enough for Phonogram to get them in to record it as a single (it was chosen over Franki Valli's The Night, which was also a contender). It gave them a UK number one, and was in fact, the biggest selling single in the UK in 1981 (in 2023, it was the 59th best selling single of all time in the UK). While Gloria Jones' Northern Soul original from 1965 doesn't seem to get as much love, I actually prefer it (although the versions are notably different in tone and tempo). It was only ever a B-Side, but was discovered by British DJ Richard Searling in the early 1970's, who thought it would go down well on the Northern Soul circuit centred around South Lancashire.

Soft Cell: Tainted Love (official music video)

2. The Supremes: You Can't Do That

From the pop hit machine of Lennon-McCartney comes You Can't Do That. Although credited to the pair (as per usual), this was mostly a John Lennon composition - a semi-autobiographical tune with a theme of jealousy that he would re-visit over the years (Jealous Guy etc.). It was written as a 12-bar blues song, influenced by Wilson Pickett and featured as the B-Side to Can't Buy Me Love in 1964. Detroit legends, The Supremes, did their Motown take on this, and a bunch of other songs by British invasion bands, and their 1964 LP, A Bit Of Liverpool. It included several Lennon-McCartney tunes, a couple by Dave Clark, and some Motown tunes, like Do You Love Me?, that had been covered by British bands.

The Supremes: You Can't Do That (On Shindig!, 1965)

3. Greg Kihn: For You

Photo: Gems / Redferns

A deep cut from The Boss's debut LP, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., way back in 1972. Springsteen's original recording included several future E-Street members - David Sancious, Garry Tallent and Vini Lopez. Greg Kihn, who is perhaps less well known in the UK and who sadly died last year, had a career as a musician, radio DJ and novelist. He covered the song for his 1977 album, Greg Kihn Again.

Greg Kihn Band: For You (On TopPop, 1977)

4. The Fall: Lost In Music

Yet another entry into The Fall's list of idiosyncratic cover versions. The disco sound of Sister Sledge seemingly couldn't be any further from the dour, erratic indie of Mark E. Smith and co. The original had that Nile Rodgers / Bernard Edwards (Chic) produced sheen, while The Fall's version, from 1993's The Infotainment Scam, has those trademark Mark E. Smith more spoken than sung vocals - and yet somehow retains the essential disco groove to it, propelled by Craig Scanlon's guitar work.

The Fall: Lost In Music (Audio only)

5. Chaka Demus & Pliers: Twist & Shout

We're back in Beatles territory with this one. This though, is actually a cover of a cover of a cover… Written in 1961 by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, the first version was by R&B act, The Top Notes. The following year, soul legends The Isley Brothers released their take on it, before an up and coming Liverpool group called The Beatles added their stamp. I wonder what happened to them.... John Lennon didn't like his vocal performance on the song, but author Mark Lewisohn called it, "arguably the most stunning rock and roll vocal and instrumental performance of all time." Of course, we're not looking at this one though - there were also versions by Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, a French version by Sylvie Vartan and one by hip-hop trio, Salt-N-Pepa. We though, are going to the 1993 take on it by Jamaican reggae duo, Chaka Demus & Pliers. It was another single from their hugely successful LP, Tease Me, and like the album, hit the UK number one spot.

Chaka Demus & Pliers: Twist & Shout (Live on Later With Jools, 1994)

6. Susan Cadogan: Fever

This was perhaps the best known work by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell (under the pseudonym John Davenport), being originally recorded by Little Willie John in 1956, with Peggy Lee's 1958 take being perhaps the most well known (she also re-wrote much of the lyrics without credit). There were later notable versions from a wide range of acts, from Madonna to Michael Buble. But we are going for one in the middle, from another Jamaican reggae artist, this time Susan Cadogan, who had some hits in the mid-70's. She got to work quite a bit with producer and future pop guru Pete Waterman (of Stock, Aitken & Waterman fame / notoriety). Her version of Fever never charted, and by the turn of the 1980's, she was back in her old day job at the Library of the West Indies - although she still put out a number of local hits.

Susan Cadogan: Fever (Audio only)

7. The Gits: A Change Is Gonna Come

We are back digging in the fertile world of R&B and Soul for this entry. Sam Cooke wrote this, a deeply personal song, influenced by a time when his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana, providing the background for this civil rights anthem. It was only a minor hit (#31 in the US) but is now considered one of his finest works (it is now preserved in the Library Of Congress). It clearly rang a chord with his peers, as Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin both recorded versions after his premature death in 1964. Originally from Ohio, but relocating to Seattle, The Gits were contemporaries of early grunge acts like Nirvana and Tad. Their restrained rock reimagining of this classic appears on second album, Enter: The Conquering Chicken, released posthumously after the tragic murder of lead singer Mia Zapata (see her story here).

The Gits: A Change Is Gonna Come (Audio only)

8. The Ataris: The Boys Of Summer

The Boys Of Summer was penned by Eagles drummer Don Henley, with music by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and features on his solo record Building The Perfect Beast. It is all about "aging and questioning the past" according to Henley (he was all of 37 when he wrote this, so positively ancient). The title references Roger Kahn's book about the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, which in turn references a poem by Dylan Thomas. Indiana rockers, The Ataris, tackled this for 2003's So Long, Astoria, updating the "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac" to reference Black Flag (1980s Californian hardcore punk legends) to fit more with the band references of their audience. Henley didn't like it, noting somewhat sneerily, "And if you noticed, we haven't heard much from the Ataris since then." Campbell though, thought it was an unusual choice for a young band and admitted, "I kind of like their version."

The Ataris: The Boys Of Summer (Official music video)

9. The Jam: David Watts

Another tune from the great British wordsmith Ray Davies; David Watts was on The Kinks 1967 LP Something Else By The Kinks and was the B-Side to Autumn Almanac. It is, on the surface, all about Davies' admiration for his old school mate, David Watts, almost something of a schoolboy crush (but in actual fact, it seems to have been about the head boy at the time, who Davies didn't want to name). In 1978, The Jam put it out as a single (double A-Side with A Bomb On Wardour Street) from their third album, All Mod Cons. Unusually, because of the key, this one has bassist Bruce Foxton on lead vocals, rather than Paul Weller.

The Jam: David Watts (On Revolver [ITV}, 1978)

10. English Teacher: Transmission

As far as I know, this may just be a one-off cover. This was part of English Teacher's set for the BBC 6 Music festival in 2025, featuring a guest appearance by Sheffield rock and roller, Richard Hawley. It is an absolutely blistering take on the post-punk classic Transmission, from Joy Division. It was a non-album single for them in 1979, which they ended up speeding up from the original version they had recorded the previous year. It is considered one of their finest works, and appears on many Greatest Of All Time lists.