An archive of wild, weird and wonderful cover versions
What the World Needs Now Is Love was written in 1965 by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David and first recorded by Jackie DeShannon. Abraham, Martin and John is a 1968 song written by Dick Holler and first recorded by Dion. Los Angeles DJ Tom Clay combined covers of both songs along with news and interview samples. Released as a single (taken from the album of the same name) on MoWest/Motown in 1971, it reached number 8 in the Billboard charts.
Malcolm Braff is a Brazillian born, Swiss jazz pianist. This cover of Prince‘s Sexy M.F is taken from his 2011 album Inside.
Sexy M.F. was originally released as the first single from Prince and the New Power Generation’s Love Symbol album in 1992.
Best known as the group behind the Soul Train theme (aka TSOP – The Sound of Philadelphia) and pioneers of the disco sound, MFSB (an acronym for either ‘Mother, Father, Sister, Brother’ or ‘Mother Fuckin’ Son-of-a-Bitch’ depending on who you ask) was a pool of more than 30 Philadelphia-based studio musicans who backed such groups as The O’Jays, The Stylistics, the Three Degrees and The Delfonics as well as producing seven studio albums and multiple singles. Their cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Freddie’s Dead is taken from their second studio album MFSB released in 1973.
Freddie’s Dead first appeared on Mayfield’s 1972 soundtrack for the Blaxploitation movie Super Fly – one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.
Another of my favourite Freddie’s Dead covers comes courtesy of L.A.’s Fishbone and was the opening track on their breakthrough 1988 album Truth and Soul…
Take It Easy, My Brother Charles originally appeared on Jorge Ben, the sixth studio album by Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Jorge Ben, released in 1969. This cover by Brazillian jazz trio Som Três (‘We are Three’) is taken from their 1970 album Um É Pouco, Dois É Bom, Êste Som Três É Demais (which I think translates to something like ‘One is Little, Two is Good, this Sound of the Three is Too Much’).
UK based funk/soul group Baby Charles’ cover of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor is taken from their eponymous 2008 debut album. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor was the first single by the Arctic Monkeys and appeared on their 2006 debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. As well as being covered by the Sugababes and a best-not-mentioned Tom Jones version, Australian group The Vines also released a cover of the song, which featured on the Japanese release of their fifth album Future Primitive in 2021.
Beedle the Bardcore doth craft most excellent tavern covers. This is one of my favourites, first posted to YouTube in 2021. Still D.R.E. by Dr. Dre was the lead single from Dre’s multi-platinum second studio album, 2001, released in 1999, with additional vocals by Snoop Dogg and lyrics ghost-written by Jay-Z.
The Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P is taken from their 2008 album Look-A Py Py. The Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band are a German funk group founded by members of the Mighty Mocambos. P.I.M.P originally appeared on 50 Cent’s 2003 Dre mixed debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’. I’ve also got a soft spot for this smart parody version by 50 Pence, taken from his 2004 album, 50 Pence Presents…
Inspired by a road rage incident he was involved in (!), Cars was the debut single by Gary Numan and appeared on his first solo album The Pleasure Principle in 1979. Cookin’ On 3 Burners are an Australian funk trio whose cover of Cars is taken from their 2009 album Soul Messin’, while Katzenjammers are a steel band from Trinidad and their cover of Cars was released as a 7 inch single in 2005.
The Dead Weather’s cover of Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric? was the B-Side of their 2009 debut single Hang You from the Heavens. The Dead Weather are Jack White, Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Dean Fertita (Queens Of The Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence ( The Raconteurs).
Are ‘Friends’ Electric? first appeared on Tubeway Army’s second album Replicas and was written by the band’s lead singer Gary Numan, who later said of the song’s lyrics:
“All my early songs were about being alone or misunderstood. As a teenager, I’d been sent to a child psychiatrist and put on medication. I had Asperger’s and saw the world differently. I immersed myself in sci-fi writers: Philip K. Dick, J.G Ballard. The lyrics came from short stories I’d written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines – ‘friends’ – come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a number one single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew.”
After discovering one of their A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble compilations, Noel Gallagher invited Amorphous Androgynous (ex-Future Sound of London’s Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans) to remix the Oasis track Falling Down. This resulted in the psychedelic masterpiece ‘Falling Down: A 20 Minute Cosmic Oozescape Psychedelicized by the Amorphous Androgynous’ which went far beyond the remix remit and involved brand new orchestration and vocals (edited version above, full version below).
Sadly, a full collaboration between Noel and Amorphous Androgynous was undertaken but never released. You can read AA’s side of that story here, but their epic 16 minute remix of the Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds track What a Life! can be found here.
The Mike Flowers Pops offering up three groovy Velvet Underground covers for the price of one here, with All Tomorrow’s Parties, Venus in Furs and White Light White Heat (plus a little flourish of The Floral Dance at the end). Formed by Liverpudlian Michael Roberts, a graduate of the Chelsea School of Art, the Mike Flowers Pops became unexpectedly famous in 1995 when they recorded a lounge version of the Oasis hit Wonderwall at the same time time as the original was still in the charts. The Pops’ version peaked at number 2 in the British charts and became the Christmas number one in Scotland that year, beating Oasis whose original peaked at number 2 in both territories. When asked by Q magazine in 1996 if he had ever heard Oasis, Lou Reed stated “Not that I would know. Oh, Wonderwall? The one I know is the Mike Flowers one. That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard in my life.”
It’s taken me so long to put a single Richard Cheese track on the blog because I couldn’t decide which one to choose, I love so many, but this is easily one of my top 5!
Richard Cheese is a character created and portrayed by Los Angeles based actor, comedian and singer Mark Jonathan Davis. This cover of Garbage’s 1995 hit Only Happy When it Rains, performed in the style of Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, is taken from the album Lounge Against the Machine released in 2000.
Singin’ in the Rain is one of the most famous songs from the 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, although the song itself first appeared in the 1929 musical The Hollywood Revue with Cliff Edwards and the Brox Sisters (see the fabulous stage set and choreography below!), and then featured again in a few more movies, including the 1940 film Little Nellie Kelly where it was performed by Judy Garland.
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