Transformative cover versions...

I get tickled pink when an artist takes a song, gives it a thorough makeover, and ends up with another version of the song that makes you think about the intended meaning of the lyrics, laugh with delight, twists the gender around or is just a damn lot better than the original.

Here's a few cover versions that stand out to me - feel free to add some of your own...(and here's hoping I don't break any of Betty Sue's reviewing rules along the way):

Winners!

Stop! in the name of love: Bang Gang recently did a version of this 60's Supremes hit. Instead of a soul music style, it's got a jangly guitar and folky voice; and the lyrics don't change, but it's sung by a man. Result: you're not sure if the male singer is in a relationship with a bisexual male or female. I find this version catchier than the original, and have sung along to it in the car many times.

Respect: Imagine my suprise when I found out that the first to record this song was not soul diva Aretha Franklin, but soul king Otis Redding. The original version was a bit of a suprise to me: imagine a bombastic fast paced soul track, with fast trumpets and trombones in between phrases, with words along the lines of: "you betta show me some respect woman, havin' dinner ready when I get home late at night..." (making it up here, but you get the picture - this guy was stuck in the Dark Ages...) Then along comes Aretha. Loosens up the song, slows the tempo, adds some female backing singers.... Transforms the whole song into an anthem for the feminist movement, that sticks two fingers up at the original version of the song. Pure genius.

Comfortably Numb: Never was much into "Prog Rock", therefore only have some vague memory of the original Fink Ployd version of the song from some long distant ex-boyfriend's CD collection. I think it was a bit slow and guitary, with smokey vocals. Enter the Scissor Sisters, with their fast castrato vocal disco Bee Gees style version that makes you want to dance around the lounge room (well if that's the only place you tend to dance these days).

Ticket to Ride: This Beatles classic was always about someone worrying that their love was one-sided; that any minute, their lover was going to take off with someone else. But it was somewhat disguised by the edgy rock and roll beat, and managed to sound almost euphoric. Then along came The Carpenters*. Piano background, slower pace, and Karen Carpenters' perfectly enunciated, pure as snow melancholic voice... "I think I'm gonna be sad, I think it's today... the boy who's driving me mad is going away... He's got a ticket to ride, and he don't care...". This version is perfect for rainy afternoons spent reminiscing about relationships of yesterday...

Hard Rain: This straightly-delivered, folky song of Bob Dylan's was given a good going over by Bryan Ferry. You'd never notice it was written as a protest against the Vietnam war - instead, this version of the song is done in a kind of glam/doo-wop style. With electric guitars, female backing vocalists, and an even 4:4 beat. Kind of in the same style as Leonard Cohen's "First we take Manhatten".

One Man Guy: Loudon Wainwright wrote this song about being his own man. A generation later, his son Rufus Wainright recorded the song, but Rufus' sexual orientation lends a new meaning to the words, implying that he is singing about fidelity; not being the type to sleep around.


Duds

Something: We were rifling through C-chan's father's Frank Sinatra record set and found a record from later in Sinatra's career where he murders I mean covers this Beatles song. It's plain awful. Treacley, pompous and stilted. Shouldn't have messed with the original, which captures beautifully the feelings and insecurities of being in the earlier phases of a love affair. Perhaps Sinatra was too big and famous at this stage to remember what it was like to be insecure?

I Got You Babe: I've added this one only because I want to have a whinge about UB40. I don't think the original Sonny and Cher version of this song is anything to blog home about, and hence don't think that UB40's version is comparatively worse. It's just that UB40 got away with being a $100-an-hour reggae style party band and not writing any of their own material. Well nothing that became a hit anyway. They do so many cover versions in this style that it becomes unimaginative (red red wine, I can't help falling in love with you etc etc).

*(we are not ashamed of our CD collection!!)