They Did It Their Way - N, O and P

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.

N

Leonard Nimoy - Proud Mary
No Doubt - Hateful
No Doubt - It's My Life
Nylons - Happy Together
Nylons - Kiss Him Goodbye
Nylons - Lion Sleeps Tonight


O

Roy Orbison - Crying (with k.d. lang)
Joan Osborne - Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?


P

Dolly Parton - If
Dolly Parton - Imagine
Dolly Parton - Me And Bobby McGee
Dolly Parton - Stairway To Heaven
Dolly Parton - Those Were the Days
Dolly Parton - Where Do the Children Play?
Dolly Parton - Drive Me Crazy
Dolly Parton - Tracks of My Tears
Pearl Jam - Last Kiss
Phranc - I Enjoy Being a Girl
Placebo - Running Up That Hill
Placebo - 20th Century Boy
Pogues / Kirsty MacColl - Miss Otis Regrets / Just One Of Those Things
Polyphonic Spree - Wig In a Box



Leonard Nimoy's version of "Proud Mary" is from the collection, "Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off," which also includes such gems as William Shatner's versions of "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" and "Mr. Bojangles," Joel Grey's heart-felt rendition of "White Room" and Andy Griffith's recording of "House Of the Rising Sun."

No Doubt's cover of Hateful is from the previously-mentioned Clash Tribute, "London's Burning." Their version of It's My Life was a single that was moderately popular.

I think if you were gay in the 1980s, you were issued CDs of The Nylons. Feeling obliged to represent them, I stuck to their iconic recordings of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Happy Together and Kiss Him Goodbye.

Okay, yes, Roy Orbison wrote and recorded "Crying." But he also recorded Crying as a duet with k.d. lang for the soundtrack to the Jon Cryer movie, "Hiding Out." At the Roy Orbison tribute concert shortly after he passed away, k.d. performed this song as a solo and received a well-earned standing ovation.

Joan Osborne's recording of Do I Ever Cross Your Mind is from the previously-mentioned Dolly Parton tribute, "Just Because I'm a Woman."

If and Stairway To Heaven are from Dolly Parton's 2002 album, "Halos and Horns." She uses the Shatner approach to part of "If a picture paints a thousand words/Then why can't I paint you?/The words would never show/The You I've come to know."

Imagine, Me And Bobby McGee, Those Were the Days and Where Do the Children Play? are from "Those Were the Days," Dolly's favorite songs from the 1960s and 70s. In almost all cases where it was possible, the songwriters and/or original artists performed the songs with Dolly (Kris Kristofferson sings on "Me and Bobby McGee," Yusuf Islam played guitar on "Where Do the Children Play?"). Only Bob Dylan turned her down.

Drive Me Crazy (when Fine Young Cannibals did it, it was "SHE Drives Me Crazy") and Tracks of My Tears are from her most recent album, Backwoods Barbie.

Pearl Jam's Last Kiss comes from the previously-mentioned benefit collection, "No Boundaries."

Phranc's rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I Enjoy Being a Girl" was included on Phranc's 1989 album, "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (would you guess?). In the album artwork, I particularly liked the way she rested the glass of milk on the patch of Astroturf.

Placebo automatically gets points just for have the guts to cover Running Up That Hill. They get more points for actually re-imagining the song. The problem was with the way it was released. After they released "Sleeping With Ghosts," they released a deluxe version with a second CD added, which included "Running Up That Hill." This CD turned out to be kind of difficult to put one's hands on. Finally, after much clamor, Placebo released it as a single on iTunes.

Placebo recorded 20th Century Boy for the soundtrack to the movie, "Velvet Goldmine," and appeared in the movie. Here's a bonus clip of Placebo performing the song with Bowie.

The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl recorded Miss Otis Regrets / Just One Of Those Things for the previously-mentioned AIDS benefit album, "Red Hot + Blue."

And Polyphonic Spree recorded Wig In a Box for the previously-mentioned Hedwig tribute album, "Wig In a Box."