So I’m a singer with a voice suited for musical theatre, but no ambition to pursue it, so I sing in a rock band. Recently I discovered Muse’s version of “Feeling Good” and fell in love with it. I’m now on a search to find a song with similar characteristics that would lend itself to this kind of treatment - meaning, changing from a style similar to Michael Buble’s version to rock instrumentation and arrangement.
My hope is to find a song that’s not particularly well known… perhaps from a musical, not necessarily. After browsing the iTunes store for a few hours and coming up dry, I thought I’d turn here. Any help?
That’s a tough one for a lot of reasons. The only insight I can offer right now is that your links are both the same. Is this thge MUSE version?
I’ve always liked Joan Osbourne’s take on “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.” (Originally by Jimmy Ruffin) Is that the type of thing you’re looking for? You could find a lot of good stuff from the Motown era.
If it’s not what you’re looking for, at least watch the ending from about 2:45.
I love to play the standard (sung more famously by Julie London) “Cry Me A River” just using mostly 5ths which gives it more of a rock feel. I’ve never heard of anyone arranging it like that, but I think that’s what you’re looking for.
The first song I thought of when I hear the Muse version is Sarah Slean’s “Sweet Ones”. It’s got that same rollicking piano melody and you can easily do it as a bombastic rock version with minimal tweaking. It’s one of her better-known tracks, but I’d be surprised if anyone outside of Canada had heard of her.
Here’s an audio snippet and here’s a YouTube video of a live performance… I couldn’t find a full-length version of the studio version in either audio or video, unfortunately.
My apologies for posting the wrong link, I’ll makes sure to check them next time! SiXSwordS, thanks for posting that link, that is the Muse version; that would be the “after”, what I’m searching for is a “before” along the lines of Buble’s version, that I could then work with to really make it my own.
This is the closest to what I’m looking for that anyone’s mentioned, and the fact that this song was featured in V for Vendetta actually makes a very cool connection for me. Additionally, the lyrics “You nearly drove me Out of my head” are perfect (though “nearly” might be changed to “damn well” or something of the sort, as the album we’re working on is entitled “The Poets of Bedlam Hospital,” and is set in an early 20th century mental institution.
Another song I’ve been thinking about is “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Miserables. Thematically it relates to nicely our last album (about a failed revolution) but I think would be more difficult to do something fun with.
If anyone has any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
I may be misunderstanding what you’re looking for, but you do know that “Feeling Good” is from a musical, right? It’s from The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, 1965.
I hear “power-ballad” and I think hair metal (though you may men something completely different!), whereas I’m looking for something in a more dramatic vein, with a lot of potential to have fun with the vocals as well as to give it that “pomping up.”
One thing I especially like about “feeling good” is that it’s from a musical, but it doesn’t have to have that context to work. Another thing I found interesting is the way “feeling good” has travelled - pretty much any cover you hear of it is based on Nina Simone’s version, not on any rendition from the musical itself. It’s been covered by everyone from George Michael to the Pussycat Dolls.
I know this was an odd request, and a difficult one to nail down. To pinpoint what I’m looking for a little bit better, another song that would have the same possibilities would be “Minnie the Moocher,” right up to when it drops out of the sultry, 4/4 swung feel into cut time (“a diamond car with platinum wheels…”) - lyrically, however, I’d want something much more open to my own, and the audience’s interpretation.
If you can get a duet going, try Mel Torme’s “Comin’ Home Babe”. Get a nice thick bass sound for that and it should rock hard.
Although Janis Joplin did an epic cover of this already, “Little Boy/Girl Blue” (Hart-Rogers) maybe done in a minor key instead could be quite haunting.
No use old girl, you may as well surrender
Your hope is getting slender
Why won’t somebody send a tender Blue boy
To cheer a little girl blue
“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” Left alone with just a memory
Life seems dead and so unreal
All thats left is loneliness
Theres nothing left to feel
Also, check out the album by Snakefarm called “Songs from my Funeral” where they take old folk songs about death and double crossing and put them into a modern context.
