They Did It Their Way - G and H

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.

G

Garbage - I Just Wanna Have Something To Do
Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone
Joel Grey - White Room
Andy Griffith - House Of the Rising Sun
Nanci Griffith - Across the Great Divide
Nanci Griffith - From a Distance
Nanci Griffith - I Fought the Law
Nanci Griffith - If I Had a Hammer
Nanci Griffith - Speed Of the Sound Of Loneliness
Nanci Griffith - Bluer Than Blue
Nanci Griffith - When I Dream
Nanci Griffith - Ruby's Arms
Nanci Griffith - If These Walls Could Speak


H

Nina Hagen - Ave Maria
Nina Hagen - Fever
Nina Hagen - Las Vegas
Nina Hagen - Move Over
Nina Hagen - My Way
Nina Hagen - Pillow Talk
Nina Hagen - Sonntagmorgen
Nina Hagen - Spirit In the Sky
Nina Hagen - Sugar Blues
Nina Hagen - TV Glotzer (White Punks On Dope)
Nina Hagen - Wir Leben Immer...Noch (Lucky Number)
Jennifer Hudson - Easy To Be Hard


Garbage covers the Ramones. Not the best cover in the history of the world, but (a) Garbage rarely does covers, and (b) people don't cover the Ramones very often.

Gnarls Barkley covers Violent Femmes. You have to give points to anyone who covers Violent Femmes successfully.

Joel Grey and Andy Griffith dip into the "Golden Throat" collections again. This particular CD is called "The Great Celebrity Sing-Off," and apparently is not out of print.

Nanci Griffith has recorded two albums of her favorite folk songs -- "Other Voices, Other Rooms" and "Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful)." "Across the Great Divide" and "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" are from the former, while "If I Had a Hammer" is from the latter. Her most recent album, "Ruby's Torch," is full of her favorite torch songs, though I might take issue with categorizing some of these songs as "torch songs." "Bluer Than Blue," "When I Dream," "Ruby's Arms" and "If These Walls Could Speak" are all from this album. Nanci Griffith also recorded "From a Distance" long before Bette Midler did, and it was a best-selling single in most countries except the US. Her US label wouldn't release the single because they thought people wouldn't like her singing voice. I included her version of "I Fought the Law" because it stands out in contrast to other versions, such as the one by The Clash. Nanci does it as a sort of a cross between Buddy Holly and Hank Williams.

Nina Hagen might be the queen of covers. I don't believe she's ever released an album that didn't include at least one cover song.(except maybe "Om Namah Shivay," which is an odd album even by Nina Hagen's standards). And, remember, Nina's cover of Sid Vicious's cover of "My Way" is where I got the name for this collection. "TV Glotzer (White Punks On Dope)" and "Wir Leben Immer...Noch (Lucky Number)" are from early in her career, first available in the US (to my memory) on a 10" EP. "My Way" and "Spirit In the Sky" were both on "Nina Hagen in Ecstasy" ("Nina Hagen en Ekstase"). :"Move Over," :"Las Vegas" and "Ave Maria" were all on "Nina Hagen" in the late 80s. Only Nina can get away with doing "Ave Maria" as a guitar ballad interpolating "Maria" from "West Side Story." "Pillow Talk" was on "Revolution Ballroom" in 1993. "Sonntagmorgen" was on "Freud Euch" (English version on "Bee Happy"). And "Fever" and "Sugar Blues" were on "Big Band Explosion," which I discussed in an early posting.

Jennifer Hudson's version of "Easy To Be Hard" is from the previously mentioned "Hair" benefit recording.

Nina Hagen - Sugar Blues

Nina's been applying her style to big band standards for the last few years, with varying degrees of success.

But this one seems to work okay.

They Did It Their Way

Some of you already know of my ongoing project that I call "They Did It Their Way".

One day I noticed how many of my CDs contained cover tunes. Not just the popular ones, but more obscure ones and the more unusual ones. So I started collecting them for my iPod under the album title, "They Did It Their Way".

For example, Nina Hagen's cover of Sid Vicious's cover of "My Way" (her instrumentation is the same, she just sings it in German). Or anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (a punk band that only does covers). Or Dar Williams's version of "Comfortably Numb". And Elton John's version of "Pinball Wizard" could never qualify since it appeared on the pop charts.

Recent finds for the "They Did It Their Way" project:

Sarah McLachlan - Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2
I think only one or two tracks were written by Sarah McLachlan. Includes her covers of "Blackbird" and "River," as well as a version of "Unchained Melody" that I'm not sure I like.

Karan Casey - Ships In the Forest
This one depends on whether you count traditional Irish tunes as "covers". Previously, she had recorded "The World Turned Upside-Down" and "The Ballad of Accounting" (genuine covers of songs from the 1960s). On this album, she performs "Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" as well as several other traditional tunes. This album is kind of low-energy, slow-tempo stuff. Not for everyone.

Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
Includes covers of "Drives Me Crazy" (yes, Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy") and "The Tracks of My Tears".

Placebo - Running Up That Hill
One of those extremely rare covers of Kate Bush. This was released on the Special Edition of their album, "Sleeping With Ghosts". I never was able to find this special edition, though. The track was finally made available as a download through iTunes.

Let me know if you've found any interesting or unusual covers recently.