My mother used to sing that song to me when I was young, so I love it so much. I’ve heard a lot of covers, but dislike most.
Johnny Cash did it around the time he did “Hurt.” It’s not bad, in a Johnny Cash sort of way. Fiona Apple sings with him. Since I can’t post the MP3 here, I’ll link you to YouTube. Just ignore the video and listen
Graceland, especially the Willie Nelson version. You Do Not Talk during that song around here. Or sing along. It demands complete silence and respect. That’s a Texas-based household headed by a Tennessean for you.
I still have no idea what the hell it’s about, but Somebody Told Me by the Killers. It’s linked to a very specific, happy time in my life and gets me all nostalgic for growing up in Vegas.
“Birdhouse In My Soul,” They Might Be Giants. Only very rarely played, even on the alternative station, but when it does, the only permitted sound in the car is the inevitable sing-along that ensues.
MrWhatsit knows all the words to American Pie AND all the words to the Weird Al version, “The Saga Begins.” He sang them to Whatsit Jr. as a baby. He says it was because sometimes Whatsit Jr. would take a while to fall asleep, and he needed something really lengthy to sing to him so he didn’t have to keep restarting the damn song.
And, worlds away from the first song, “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry–whenever that comes on in the car, my husband and I sing and dance until the song’s over.
Well, my default answer to that, no matter who asks, is “Yes!”, but some people do find it a little bit annoying. We love it here.
No, the reason I asked was that there was one episode that had Kristin Chenoweth (of Wicked fame) and Ellen Greene (from Little Shop of Horrors) singing Birdhouse In Your Soul.
I’m hoping that’s a good link…YouTube is blocked here at work so I can’t verify.
U2, Where The Streets Have No Name. That gradually speeding up and crescendoing organ intro that gets overlaid with electric guitar, bass and drums still gets me every time. It’s one of those songs where I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it: through the headphones on my AM/FM/Cassette walkman in the morning just as I was getting off the bus and heading into the subway on the way to high school, in the spring of 1987. I actually stopped and stood still on the sidewalk to listen to the rest of the song because getting underground would lose the radio signal.
And I will admit to schmaltz, since I have a good segue for this. A woman that I always got mixed up with Helen Reddy in the 70s (but I wasn’t even 10 years old yet, so I’ve got an excuse), Anne Murray. I have to listen to “You Needed Me” if it ever comes on the radio. It’s schmaltzy schlock, but there it is.