They Did It Their Way - I, J and K

If you're seeing this for the first time and wondering what this "They did it their way" thing is about, read here for the background and full listing of this personal game of mine.

I

Indigo Girls - All Along the Watchtower
Indigo Girls - American Tune
Indigo Girls - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Indigo Girls - Clampdown
Indigo Girls - Finlandia
Indigo Girls - Get Together
Indigo Girls - Love Of the Common People
Indigo Girls - Midnight Train To Georgia
Indigo Girls - Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters
Indigo Girls - Romeo And Juliet
Indigo Girls - Thin Line
Indigo Girls - Uncle John's Band


J

Joe Jackson - 'Round Midnight
Marti Jones - Follow You All Over the World
Marti Jones - Room With a View
Marti Jones - Ruby
Quincy Jones - Birdland
Quincy Jones - I'll Be Good To You
Gary Jules - Mad World


K

Chaka Khan - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)
Alison Krauss - 9 To 5
Alison Krauss - When You Say Nothing At All


Yeah, it looks long, but the letter, "I," is just Indigo Girls, so I thought that was kind of cheating. And very few of their covers have videos available on YouTube. So I had to add two more letters of the alphabet in order to come up with ten non-Indigo-Girls tracks (not quite doubling the length of the list).

Finlandia was on their eponymous, self-released, vinyl EP. They have released a live version on their "Rarities" CD, but I digitized my EP because that version is, of course, the best one they've done, and all others are pale imitations. :-)

American Tune, Love Of the Common People and Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters were on "Reverse 1 - Live," a mostly-live EP that Epic issued only to radios in order to promote the Girls's first studio record (Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill got a stack of them and sold them, which is how I have one), and these three remain some of my favorite tracks of theirs ever.

All Along the Watchtower is from "Back On the Bus, Y'all," a commercially-released live EP also issued to promote their first studio record.

Get Together was on the "Strange Fire" CD release. "Strange Fire" was their first full album, which they also self-released. Epic bought it and re-released it after "Indigo Girls" was a hit. They took off a couple of tracks and shoved in the cover of "Get Together" (recorded for the soundtrack to the TV series, "The Wonder Years").

Romeo And Juliet was recorded on "Rites of Passage." It was always one of Amy's favorite numbers to perform while Emily went off the stage and took a break.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Midnight Train To Georgia and Thin Line are all from the "1,000 Curfews" album. I don't particularly care about the first two, but the third is a song they did live very often in the mid- to late 1980's. It was written by another Atlanta artist named Gerard McHugh, and I was very glad that they finally recorded this one.

The other two tracks both come from tribute albums -- Clampdown is from the Clash tribute, "Burning London," and Uncle John's Band is from the Grateful Dead tribute album, "Deadicated." Both tracks were included on the I Girls's "Rarities" CD.

Joe Jackson's version of 'Round Midnight, as previously stated, is from a Thelonius Monk tribute album called "That's the Way I Feel Now." This is one track that I don't think has ever come off of my iPod.

It might not be 100% fair to include Marti Jones because people who are not from the Chapel Hill / Research Triangle area quite possibly aren't that familiar with her or with the original versions of two of these songs. Follow You All Over the World is a song by the dBs, which Marti recorded on her first album, "Unsophisticated Time," which has never been released on CD. Room With a View is a cover of a song by Let's Active, and was released both on Don Dixon's most recent CD, "The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room," and on the Let's Active tribute CD, "Every Word." Ruby is a cover of a Janis Ian song, and is actually quite similar to Janis's own version (on her album, "Revenge"). Even if you don't know any of these three songs, all three are terrific songs and terrific covers ("Room With a View" being the weakest link).

The two Quincy Jones numbers aren't really performed by Quincy (arranged and produced, but he's not the primary performer), but I didn't know how else to list these two tracks from "Back On the Block." Birdland is performed by Joe Zawinul, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, James Moody, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. I'll Be Good To You is performed by Chaka Khan & Ray Charles.

Gary Jules nearly had a hit with his cover of Tears for Fears's song, Mad World. This gives you the video he did before the song got used in the soundtrack for Donnie Darko.

Chaka Khan's version Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) is just as 80's electro synth-pop as was the version of "I'll Be Good To You" on "Back on the Block," but Chaka Khan has always been a happy singer, so I can still listen to this.

Alison Krauss's cover of When You Say Nothing At All is widely known, but I think it's too nice to pass up. Her cover of 9 To 5 is from the same album as Melissa Etheridge's version of "I Will Always Love You," the Dolly Parton tribute, "Just Because I'm a Woman."