I grew up listening to The Boxtops The Letter. Great rock song and I love it.
But, I always thought the emotion and sentiment in that song got blown away by the driving rock beat. If you look at the lyricsthere is depth there.
Eva Cassidy must of felt the same way. She slowed it down and gave it a blues feeling.
Eva always added a new twist to any song she covered. this time I think she nailed it. Especially considering that most of Eva’s recordings are either live cuts or were done in really small studios. She died before she ever got a major label recording contract. Given even better production and studio musicians this could have been even better.
Set aside the Box Tops version. Listen to Eva’s totally different approach.
Does it work for you?
Actually her version is clearly based on the Joe Cocker/Leon Russell arrangement, incorporating some changes they made to the melody as well as an adaptation of the horn part from that version.
I’m kind of “meh” about it, but then I’m an old fogey.
What I would like is to hear someone do a version with a habanero beat, like Big Mama Thornton’s version of “Hound Dog”. It could use a New Orleans/Latin treatment.
Eva Cassidy died almost 20 years ago. She was popular in the clubs around Washington DC. She could have easily been forgotten. Fortunately one of her songs got air time in the UK and her posthumous album became a hit. A lot of the recordings were recorded at her club appearances. It must of been a big job getting them cleaned up for her compilation album. She covered a wide range of genres. I enjoy her album Songbird.
I was not aware that Al Green did an amazing R&B cover of the song. It took a few clicks to find the right Greatest Hits CD but I just ordered it. 38 Al Green tracks for 10 bucks? Yeah, I’ll take a copy of that.
I thought Eva Cassidy’s version was good, aceplace57, and that’s how I voted. But I definitely prefer the Reverend Al’s version. I just wish it was 3 minutes longer and featured an extended sax solo.
It’s a reasonable cover. It does what I like covers to do, put a different spin on a song. It’s somewhere between OK and good, but I’m not super enthusiastic about it. I did end up voting “good,” after thinking about it. Now the Al Green version. That’s a great cover.