A-ha’s “Take On Me” gets a swinging tribute courtesy of Lake Street Dive
I recently discovered this cover of Yellow Brick Road sung by Sara Bareilles. Beautiful.
Says Sir Elton hisself:
“I was so blown away by the version of Yellow Brick Road. I’ve never heard anyone sing one of my songs like that ever. I can’t thank you enough, giving your time and blowing my mind with that version. Because when someone sings your songs they usually copy you and she made it her own. That’s brilliant–it’s a hard song.”
Heart doing Battle of Evermore:
Here’s fantastic version of Bare Necessities - in a minor key! brilliant.
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Santana’s cover of “Europa” by Gato Barbieri–switched from saxophone to guitar. Santana’s cover doesn’t come across as sad as Gato but great
“I Want You To Want Me” is one of Cheap Trick’s biggest hits. But the version of the song most people know is the live version from Cheap Trick at Budokan. Here is the original studio version of the song that was released a year earlier on their album In Color.
Why does this qualify for this thread? Because the original studio version of the song isn’t that great. So Cheap Trick’s live version qualifies as a better cover version.
I’m surprised Eva Cassidy - Songbird hasn’t been posted. It brought a lot of public attention to Eva. Unfortunately she had already died.
Eva also covered Sting’s Fields of Gold
Songbird is Christine McVie’s masterpiece. It’s on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album.
Eva Cassidy has been mentioned ten times in this thread. I have mentioned her many times over the history of the SDMB. Enough times, I suspect, that people on the SDMB are sick of my talking about her. I consider her version of “Over the Rainbow” the best song performance in history. Also, on the list of my 50 favorite performances of songs is her version of “Fields of Gold”. One website I just found says that she performed 109 different songs that can be found somewhere online or in recordings (and there are probably many that weren’t recorded). I think they are all great. I think they nearly all are better than the original versions of the songs. If you put her name into a YouTube search, you will find many of them. You can also find many reaction videos to her performances of songs. Many CDs of her songs are available (nearly all after her death) and I own all of them.
I just watched her small stage version, how is that even possible. The singing and playing is flawless. Through just a pub PA - amazing talent.
What does PA mean in this context?
WAG (not having seen the song/performance), I’m assuming Pub PA is referring to the speaker system ( PA) in a pub.
ETA test ¶
Odd, ( PA), without the space, makes a paragraph symbol.
ETA2, PA, in this context, would stand for Public Address
That is correct. In other words, in a small venue, without the benefit of recording studio equipment.
Here’s a website about the recording of that album:
The Mississippi musical act Yot Club (one fellow, heh) released a cover of This Must Be the Place which is so sentimental and lovely that it makes the Talking Heads original sound like sarcasm. Even that cover art is perfect. To hear this song with memories of Baltimore puts a lump in my throat.
Yeah I know—I tried to include that very link but it wouldn’t let me, likely as that was only my second post ever, ha! Hope everyone enjoys that cover and keeps this fellow in business.
I always liked this ‘version’, but that’s mostly due to liking the movie.
I’m calling these covers.
I just listened to one of my new favorite songs. It’s a remake of Somethin’ Stupid by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman. Apparently this made number 1 in the UK.