They Did It Their Way - M

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.

Halfway through the alphabet now, but considerably more than halfway through the whole list.....


M

Bobby McFerrin - Drive My Car
Bobby McFerrin - From Me To You
Bobby McFerrin - Sunshine Of Your Love
Sarah McLachlan - Dear God
Sarah McLachlan - Solsbury Hill
Sarah McLachlan - Rainbow Connection
Sarah McLachlan - Blackbird
Sarah McLachlan - Homeless
Sarah McLachlan - River
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - I'll Be There
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - Natural Woman
Natalie Merchant - After the Gold Rush
Natalie Merchant - Space Oddity
Natalie Merchant - To Sir With Love (with Michael Stipe)
Morningwood - Ring My Bell
Alison Moyet - Almost Blue
Alison Moyet - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Alison Moyet - Man I Love
Alison Moyet - Ne Me Quitte Pas
Alison Moyet - There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Live)
Alison Moyet - Windmills Of Your Mind


Again, the first two Bobby McFerrin numbers are part of the subset of Beatles covers, so any interpretation that is different from the original Beatles version is valid for inclusion (as long as it doesn't actually desecrate the original).

Sarah McLachlan doesn't do covers that often, but she has a way of picking some of my favorite songs to cover. All of these are from her two "B-Sides and Rarities" collections, though I have some of the singles for which these were the B-Sides. Peter Gabriel's song, Solsbury Hill, might well be my favorite all-time song. Sarah does justice to it, though she flubs the line, "And Liberty, she pirouette." But it's a live recording, so it's easy to forgive her. Her version of XTC's Dear God was included on the XTC tribute album, "A Testimonial Dinner." Her version of Blackbird is from the soundtrack to "I Am Sam." Both Sarah and James Taylor recorded Joni Mitchell's River for their respective Christmas albums. She recorded Paul Simon's Homeless with Ladysmith Black Mombazo, who originally recorded it with Paul Simon -- this is not miles away from the original version, and it's probably my least favorite of her covers. Her version of The Rainbow Connection is okay, nothing to write home about, but nothing to discard outright.

Me First And the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock cover band. That is, they do punk rock versions of non-punk songs. They don't do anything else. So I just picked my two favorites -- (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman and the Jackson Five's I'll Be There that sounds like it should turn out to be "Just What I Needed" by the Cars.

Three Natalie Merchant covers: Space Oddity, After the Gold Rush and To Sir With Love. This last is a duet with Michael Stipe. It was recorded live at one of the Inaugural Balls at Clinton's first inauguration, and it was requested enough that it was released as a single. Which explains why the sax hits a sour note -- no second takes, no pitch correction software. It's an honorable sour note.

Morningwood's version of Ring My Bell was a B-side. Whatever happened to Morningwood, anyway? Did they ever do a second album, or did they make enough money off that one song to retire?

Alison Moyet did an album full of standards and covers called, "Voice." It's not my favorite album, but I don't mind listening to a track here and there. Windmills Of Your Mind, Almost Blue and The Man I Love are from "Voice." The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face was a single only, never included on an album. Ne Me Quitte Pas was a B-side from the time of "Essex." If you're a fan of scenery-chewing singing, you'll love her version of Ne Me Quitte Pas. There Are Worse Things I Could Do is from the live CD that came with the import version of her Singles collection.

I found out recently that Alison is only a few months older than I am, so that, of course, raises her in my esteem even farther. ;-)