# Popular songs covered in a significally different style. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2005, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314 "2005-07-13T09:59:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/81 "2005-07-16T12:41:06Z")
_Big Band of the 30s Plays Big Music of the 70s_. “If you like the taste of a processed cheese / Served on Fiesta ware, it’s sure to please.” No, actually, the Carpenters’ _Close to You_ is the kind of song Hal Kemp would have been happy to play, had it been written in 1936. I had an idea to do a sequel of '80s and ‘90s music – Lloyd Webber’s _Memory_ would have been vastly improved upon with a Guy Lombardo treatment, or perhaps They Might Be Giants’ _Ball and Chain_ as a Casa Loma flag-waver. Then I realized: who gives two shits? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/82 "2005-07-16T13:49:49Z")
I just heard, for the first time, this decidely uptempo ska remake of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Tears of a Clown”. [Allmusic.com](http://Allmusic.com) suggests that it is the English Beat’s version. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/83 "2005-07-16T14:02:20Z")
Have a listen to Frank Sinatra’s version of the later Otis Redding hit, _[Try a Little Tenderness](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47E17DC49A97220C7932B43C0A67FA458FE4AED81106E495AD1A930499F0563F240A2C6CCB7E577B479AAB327AE5908D9C8EF468DA1&sql=17:1603299~T00C)_. It may as well not even be the same song! 'Ol Frank also recorded _[MacArthur Park](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47E17DC49A97220C7932B43C0A67FA458FE4AED81106E495AD1A930499F0563F240A2C6CCB7E577B479AAB327AE5F09D9C8EF468DA1&sql=17:926591~T00C)_ as an Easy Listening ballady/croony song, long before Donna Summer Disco’d it out in the late 70s. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/84 "2005-07-16T15:12:42Z")
Yesterday at a grocery store I heard a countryfied version of Sweet Child O’ Mine. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/85 "2005-07-16T15:36:36Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Cyndi Lauper did a reggae-ish cover of her own “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” which I disliked fairly intensely when I first heard it but now like at least as well as the original. Hey now, hey now. I saw her last year and she did that version. I never could understand why Madonna’s career did so much better than hers. Up to me, things woulda been reversed. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/86 "2005-07-16T21:55:57Z")
Must we remember the day-glo abortion that was Mariah Carey covering “Bringing On the Heartbreak” by Def Leppard? Or Britney Spears doing “Satisfaction,” “My Prerogative,” “The Beat Goes On,” or any other things that make me want to drive a steak knife into my ear? ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/87 "2005-07-17T00:24:38Z")
Jimi Hedrix - All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) Splodgenessabounds - Two Little Boys (Rolf Harris) Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Delilah (Tom Jones) William Shatner - [lots](http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Shatnersings.htm) But who could forget Peter Sellers Shakespearean rendition of A Hard Days Night (and other Beatles songs) [list here](http://www.mp3.com/albums/181441/summary.html) ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314/88 "2005-07-17T00:59:43Z")
Stairway To Heaven - Dolly Parton [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-songs-covered-in-a-significally-different-style/312314.md?page=4)