# Gender, and remakes of songs. Anyone else find this comical? Examples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479 "2006-02-01T06:23:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/41 "2006-02-02T00:48:47Z")
> [@JoeSki](#): > > One Christmas season I was driving around when “Santa Baby” came onto the radio, and this time it was being sang by a male vocalist. > > Ya know, the song becomes so much more bizzare when you have a dude trying to seduce Old Saint Nick Everclear’s Art Alexakis, probably. It cracks me up. Shawn Colvin covered the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” - she changed the pronoun. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/42 "2006-02-02T00:50:18Z")
Cindy Lauper changed half the pronouns when she covered Prince’s “Used to Be Mine” ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/43 "2006-02-02T00:50:51Z")
**nvad]**, Lyle Lovett’s “Stand By Your Man” was the first one that came to my mind. It’s a great cover. Mary Chapin Carpenter does “Downtown Train” as does Tom Waits. I love both versions, although the lyrics seem seem so different when sung by a woman instead of a man: “The downtown trains are full With all those Brooklyn girls They try so hard to break out of their little worlds You wave your hand and they scatter like crows They have nothing that will ever capture your heart They’re just thorns without the rose Be careful of them in the dark” I also really like the Indigo Girls’ cover of “Romeo and Juliet.” ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/44 "2006-02-02T03:30:18Z")
> [@JoeSki](#): > > Ya know, the song becomes so much more bizzare when you have a dude trying to seduce Old Saint Nick Much like the cover of “Different World” by Linda Ronstadt and Stone Poneys, when it was covered by a male singer over the end credits of “Dodgeball?” Oh, wait…that was Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, too, right? ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/45 "2006-02-02T03:43:53Z")
I like Sixpence None the Richer’s remake of the La’s _There She Goes_ better than the original. But the gender thing still bothers me . I just love Leigh Nash’s voice though so I don’t mind too much. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/46 "2006-02-02T03:48:29Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > “The moment I wake up/before I put on my make up/I say a little prayer for you. I’m combing my hair now/and wondering what dress to wear now…” > > Recasting it with lyrics from a male point of view was just plain stupid! I’ve googled like crazy, and cannot find those lyrics, but trust me - they were awful! Er…trust me, from a female point of view the lyrics are also just plain stupid. The idea that there could be a stupider version out there, though, does chill my bones. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/47 "2006-02-02T03:50:13Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Annie Lennox looked **much** better in a suit, than Marilyn Manson does in a dress. Amen. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/48 "2006-02-02T04:14:13Z")
Sigh. This makes me need to hear Jeff Buckley’s faithful cover of “The Man That Got Away.” ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/49 "2006-02-02T05:02:57Z")
> [@Gail](#): > > I like Sixpence None the Richer’s remake of the La’s _There She Goes_ better than the original. But the gender thing still bothers me . I just love Leigh Nash’s voice though so I don’t mind too much. This song was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. It’s always been a favorite of mine. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/50 "2006-02-02T08:03:13Z")
> [@burundi](#): > > I also really like the Indigo Girls’ cover of “Romeo and Juliet.” What did they change? I’ve only heard it a few times; I remember hearing, “I know you know this song”, but did they actually change the characters? I think I’d like it even less than I do now if they did. Along the bizarre family lines, there’s Nancy & Frank Sinatra doing a father-daughter “Somethin’ Stupid”. Though I think it very nearly works. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/51 "2006-02-02T09:11:11Z")
I dunno, I kinda get a kick out of hearing female singers use the original song’s pronouns, especially if it’s a “torch song” or the like—it’s like hearing an undiscovered lesbian musical classic, or Marlene Dietrich singing pop. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/52 "2006-02-02T13:01:54Z")
Oh the male lyrics for “I’ve never been to me” are just awful! The female ones are horrible glurge, but the male ones are just yucky. Nina Simone does a glorious version of Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman”, without the Amphetamine verse, and changing the last chorus to "I " instead of “she”. It’s pretty great. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/53 "2006-02-02T13:50:42Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > Personally, I recently listened to Joan Jett singing the classic Gary Glitter song, “Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)” Thinking about Gary Glitter singing that lyric now gives me the heebie jeebies. Joan Jett must has a propensity for this. She also did a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover” which includes, among other lyrics: > [@](#): > > I don’t really know her > but I think I could love her ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/54 "2006-02-02T14:04:40Z")
Interesting that you should ask this. Last night I was doing a Joan Baez, singing “Long Black Veil.” I got to the line “_The judge said Son what is your alibi? If you was somewheres else then you won’t have to die._” I reflected that Joan and I left it in the masculine, as though just playing a persona, like a storyteller or actor speaking a character’s lines crossgender. The reason why was probably the gendering of the following lines: “_I spoke not a word though it meant my life. For I was in the arms of my best friend’s wife._” Just because the lover in a long black veil is a woman, does that determine that the narrator has to be a man? They could, after all, be lesbians. The irony is, when Baez recorded that in the early '60s, she did not want to come out as a queer woman. At the time it would have been career suicide. When she was outed in the press some years later, she called a press conference and came out. Anyway, it was just a song, and singers have always been free to use crossgender narration any time they feel like it: Witness this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/55 "2006-02-02T14:12:26Z")
Baez also did a cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” with the original lyrics. BTW, her time as a “queer woman” consists of one lebian affair. “Stand By Your Man” is a song giving advice, and the singer’s gender doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/56 "2006-02-02T14:13:32Z")
I always thought the early Beatles cover of _Boys_ sounded odd. The changed the lyrics for the verses…e.g. “My girl says that when I kiss her lips…”, but in the chorus sing “hey, hey…hey,hey… hey, hey…yeah, Boys!” as if intending to sing about how great boys are. Even before then they used to sing _To Know Her Is To Lover Her_, masculinized from the more familiar version that had been sung by The Teddy Bears. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/57 "2006-02-02T14:22:03Z")
P.S. I should have mentioned too that the song’s author, [Marijohn Wilkin](http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/wilkin.html), is a woman. As soon as she’d written it, she gave it to a male singer, Lefty Frizzell. Gender isn’t even an issue here. It’s like writing fiction. S.E. Hinton narrated _The Outsiders_ in the first person as Ponyboy (convincingly; at first everyone assumed she was a guy). Chris Bohjalian, a straight male, wrote _Trans-Sister Radio_ in multiple first persons (à la _As I Lay Dying_) including a transwoman, two genetic women, and a man. The trans people who’ve read it all agree he got it right. Anyone can do it without being queer or transgendered or anything. It’s called “imagination.” The best writers have it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/58 "2006-02-02T14:26:24Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > BTW, her time as a “queer woman” consists of one lebian affair. She was Lebian? I didn’t even know she was Arab! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/59 "2006-02-02T14:45:12Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > Along the bizarre family lines, there’s Nancy & Frank Sinatra doing a father-daughter “Somethin’ Stupid”. Though I think it very nearly works. Not even close – it was creepy as hell. Still is. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479/60 "2006-02-02T17:55:27Z")
A few months ago, I heard a female singer (didn’t catch her name) covering Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville.” She changed the refrain to “Some people say that there’s a _man_ to blame…” I thought it worked. Overall, I say change the pronouns. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-and-remakes-of-songs-anyone-else-find-this-comical-examples/342479.md?page=4)