They Did It Their Way - W to Z

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.

W

White Stripes - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
White Stripes - St. James Infirmary Blues
Lilias White - Aquarius
Dar Williams - Comfortably Numb
Dar Williams - You Won't See Me



Y

Dwight Yoakam - Ring Of Fire
Thom Yorke - Ladytron
Thom Yorke - 2HB
Yusuf - Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood


Z

Warren Zevon - Knockin' On Heaven's Door



White Stripes covered St. James Infirmary Blues on their first album, and covered Burt Bacharach's and Hal David's I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself on their album, "Elephant." St. James is okay, but I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself is really wonderful.

Lilias White was the one chosen to sing Aquarius for the AFA benefit recording of "Hair."

Dar Williams covered Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb on her album "My Better Self." She performed You Won't See Me for the Rubber Soul tribute, "This Bird Has Flown."

Dwight Yoakam covered Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire on his album, "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc."

Thom Yorke recorded both Ladytron and 2HB for the soundtrack of "Velvet Goldmine."

Yusuf is here because even though he is generally known as "Yusuf Islam," the album itself listed him only as "Yusuf." And it included an interesting take on Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood -- not just because of the arrangement, but also because of the vitriol that has been aimed at him in recent years because of his name and his religion.

Warren Zevon recorded Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door on his last album, "The Wind" as his response to his own cancer.

They Did It Their Way - T, U and V

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.

T

Teenage Fanclub - Personality Crisis
Templeton Twins - Hey Jude
Templeton Twins - MacArthur Park
Third Eye Blind - Train In Vain
Tom Tom Club - You Sexy Thing
Tourists - I Only Wanna Be With You


U

UB40 - Can't Help Falling In Love
UB40 - I Got You Babe (with Chrissie Hynde)


V

Violent Femmes - Children of the Revolution
Violent Femmes - Crazy
Violent Femmes - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?



Teenage Fanclub's cover of the New York Dolls' song, "Personality Crisis" is from the soundtrack of the movie, "Velvet Goldmine." I still like this movie, and I still like the soundtrack -- a mixture of original tracks, cover tracks and songs written for the movie. Some of the best David Bowie songs that Bowie never wrote or performed.

The Templeton Twins versions of Hey Jude and MacArthur Park are from the Annoying Music Show collect, "Song For People."

Third Eye Blind's cover of the Clash's "Train In Vain" is from the previously mentioned tribute album, "Burning London."

Tom Tom Club covered Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" on their 1991 album, "Dark Sneak Love Action."

The Tourists (including Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart before Eurythmics) had a hit with I Only Wanna Be With You in the UK, but it didn't get a chance in the US.

UB40 has three albums devoted to covers, based on the fact that a lot of Reggae musicians perform covers frequently. So all three "Labour Of Love" albums could theoretically be inserted here. Of course, I''m not going to do that.

UB40's cover of Can't Help Falling In Love was on their 1993 album, "Promises and Lies." I think the main reason I included it here was to provide contrast to Erasure's cover of the same song.

Their collaboration with Chrissie Hynde on I Got You Babe can be found in several places, but most easily on UB40's "Greatest Hits" collections.

Violent Femmes covered T-Rex's Children of the Revolution on "The Blind Leading the Naked."

Violent Femmes cover of the Culture Club's Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? was on their album, "Why Do Birds Sing?"

Violent Femmes cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" does not yet have a video. They currently have a call out to people to submit their own videos for the song. The song is only available through iTunes and on vinyl.

They Did It Their Way - R and S

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.

R

Bonnie Raitt - Home
Bonnie Raitt - Runaway
Joey Ramone - What a Wonderful World
Ramones - Do You Wanna Dance?
Ramones - Needles And Pins
Ramones - Surfin' Bird
Roches - Hallelujah Chorus



S

Sherie Rene Scott - Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters
Shaggs - I Love
William Shatner - Mr. Tambourine Man
William Shatner - Spleen / Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds
Shriekback - Get Down Tonight
Simon & Garfunkel - Bye Bye Love
Simon & Garfunkel - Red Rubber Ball
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Dear Prudence
Mindy Smith - Jolene
Mindy Smith - Word
Patti Smith - Boy In the Bubble
Patti Smith - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Patti Smith - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Patti Smith - Gimme Shelter
Jo-El Sonnier - Jambalaya
Jo-El Sonnier - Louisiana 1927
Squirrel Nut Zippers - I've Found a New Baby
Stranglers - White Room


Bonnie Raitt's versions of Karla Bonoff's "Home" and Del Shannon's "Runaway" are both from her album, "Sweet Forgiveness," which is still one of my favorite albums.

Joey Ramone covered What a Wonderful World on his last album, "Don't Worry About Me." And he covers it like only Joey Ramone could.

The Ramones Do You Wanna Dance? and Surfin' Bird are from their album "Rocket to Russia," while their cover of Sonny Bono's Needles And Pins comes from "Road to Ruin." If you don't know the Ramones's version of Surfin' Bird, here's the album version (just to prove there is a song underlying this, since most of their live versions of this song don't seem to have actual lyrics).

The Roches opened their album, "Keep On Doin'," with Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

Sherie Rene Scott did an album (under the name "Sherie Rene") called "Men I've Had," a sort of concept album of songs by male artists she has worked with, such as The Who's "Squeezebox," and Eric Clapton's "Let My Love Open the Door." I'm afraid it's largely a forgettable album (IMHO), but I included Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters here.

The Shaggs recorded I Love on their second album, "Shagg's Own Thing." It sounds like they got some music lessons, but not enough.

As previously mentioned, William Shatner's recordings of Mr. Tambourine Man and Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds can be found on the "Golden Throats" collections, if you can find them. "Spleen" is a dark and troubling narration that leads into "Lucy In the Sky" and just about makes the experience unbearable.

Since Barry Andrews left XTC in 1978, one of his projects has been a band called "Shriekback" with Dave Allen from Gang of Four. One of their more popular tracks in the late 1980s was their cover of Get Down Tonight by K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

Simon & Garfunkel somewhat famously recorded the Everly Brothers' Bye Bye Love on the album "Bridge Over Troubled Water." They less famously recorded a live version of Paul Simon's song, Red Rubber Ball, which was a hit for The Cyrkle. This recording I found as a track on the "Old Friends" collection.

Siouxsie & the Banshees covered Dear Prudence on their album, "Hyaena." One of my favorite Siouxsie tracks.

Mindy Smith's two contributions are from previously mentioned and re-mentioned collections. Jolene is from the Dolly Parton tribute album, "Just Because I'm a Woman" (though she also included it on her own album that came out about the same time), and The Word comes from "This Bird Has Flown," the Rubber Soul re-enactment album.

All of Patti Smith's tracks here, Boy In the Bubble, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Everybody Wants to Rule the World and Gimme Shelter, come from her covers album, "twelve" (there are 12 tracks on the album).

Squeezebox prodigy Jo-El Sonnier recorded Jambalaya on his Rounder album, "Cajun Life." He recorded a wonderful version of Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927 on his major label debut. Here's a video I stumbled across of Jo-El doing "Whiter Shade of Pale." His label never succeeded in pigeon-holing him successfully into Country or Blues, so he's now not exceedingly well known.

Squirrel Nut Zippers recorded I've Found a New Baby, but no one seems to care enough to post anything on YouTube. So here's one of their music videos as a substitute.

I got the Stranglers's version of White Room as a 7" single tucked into the album, "Stranglers IV." The four tracks on this promo single were included on the CD version of this album. Again, no YouTube video. So here's Golden Brown instead.

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."

Putting things into storage....

I created a second blog in order to compile the "They Did It Their Way" postings into one central location. I promise I'll try to keep in in alphabetical order (which means I'll have to lie about the dates I post things). I also finally got around to adding YouTube links for the "A" and "B" lists.

The new blog is called (wait for it... wait for it....)

They Did It Their Way

I also added a link to the new blog in the sidebar under "Additional Reading."

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. ;-)

They Did It Their Way - L

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.

L

k.d. lang - After the Gold Rush
k.d. lang - Bird On a Wire
k.d. lang - Hallelujah
k.d. lang - Rose Garden
k.d. lang - Secret Love
Cyndi Lauper - Midnight Radio
Christine Lavin - Reminiscing With the Elusive Gentle Lonely Boxer Of Love
Annie Lennox - Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye
Annie Lennox - Something So Right
Annie Lennox - Take Me To the River
Annie Lennox - Train In Vain
Annie Lennox - Whiter Shade Of Pale
Lotte Lenya - Moritat vom Mackie Messer
Lotte Lenya - Surabaya-Johnny
David Lindley & El Rayo-X - Papa Was a Rolling Stone
David Lindley & El Rayo-X - Werewolves Of London
Lords Of the New Church - Like a Virgin
Lyle Lovett - Stand By Your Man
Lene Lovich - I Think We're Alone Now
Lene Lovich - I Think We're Alone Now (Japanese Version)
Low - Nowhere Man

After the Gold Rush, Bird On a Wire, Hallelujah are all from "Hymns of the 49th Parallel," which is an album of covers of Canadian songwriters. The deluxe edition of k.d.'s latest album, "Watershed," includes a nice live recording of "Hallelujah" as well. Rose Garden is from "Angel With a Lariat," and "Secret Love" is from the soundtrack of the documentary, "The Celluloid Closet."

Reminiscing With the Elusive Gentle Lonely Boxer Of Love is Christine Lavin's mashup of "Alone Again, Naturally," "The Boxer," "Those Were the Days," "Windmills of Your Mind" and "Elusive Butterfly" (I think I got them all, but not in the right order).

Cyndi Lauper's version of Midnight Radio is from the previously- mentioned album, "Wig In a Box," a tribute to the music from "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," and a fundraiser for the Harvey Milk school in New York.

Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye is from the previously mentioned, "Red Hot and Blue" AIDS fundraiser album from the early 90's. Something So Right. Take Me To the River, Train In Vain and Whiter Shade Of Pale are all from "Medusa," which is Annie's cover album.

Okay, here's the tricky one. If it was written by Kurt Weill and sung by Lotte Lenya, can it truly be called a "cover" song? Answer: I don't care. "Surabaya-Johnny, warum bist du so roh? / Surabaya-Johnny, mein Gott, und ich liebe dich so / Surabaya-Johnny, warum bin ich nicht froh? / Du hast kein Herz, Johnny, und ich liebe dich so." If you think Bette Midler can chew the scenery on this number, wait until you hear Lotte Lenya sing it. Even if you don't speak German, you have a pretty good idea of what she's singing about. Nimm doch die Pfeife aus der Maul, du Hund!

Papa Was a Rolling Stone and Werewolves Of London: Reggae-ska-blues covers of two great songs. Both from the album, "Very Greasy."

I have the Lords of the New Church's version of Like a Virgin on an IRS sampler CD from the mid-1980's. Just in case you were wondering if I ever throw anything away, here's your answer: I still have promo CDs I got over 20 years ago.

Lyle Lovett's version of Stand By Your Man is very nice. Everyone laughs at the idea of a man singing this song, but there is absolutely nothing in the lyrics that indicates that the person saying these things is a woman. And when a man sings it, it sounds kind of sexist.....

I Think We're Alone Now, both in English and in Japanese, just because. I still love Lene Lovich's music, and she didn't do very many covers.

Low's version of Nowhere Man is from the previously mentioned "This Bird Has Flown," the tribute to "Rubber Soul." Good. Not great, but good.

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."

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.

They Did It Their Way - F

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.

F

Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By
Marianne Faithfull - Blowin' In the Wind
Marianne Faithfull - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Marianne Faithfull - Monday, Monday
Fine Young Cannibals - Ever Fallen In Love
Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds
Flying Lizards - And Then He Kissed Me
Flying Lizards - Dizzy Miss Lizzie
Flying Lizards - Great Balls Of Fire
Flying Lizards - Money (Single Mix)
Flying Lizards - Summertime Blues
Tennessee Ernie Ford - Let It Be
Aretha Franklin - Somewhere
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed
Fun Boy Three - T'Aint What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)


I include Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By," but probably not the one you're thinking of. She had a hit with this in the sixties, so she could be considered the original artist, even though the song was written by Mick Jagger. The one I'm including is her more gentle re-recording of the song on her 1987 album, "Strange Weather." Here's a video of her singing this version in 2007. The other tracks are ones she made in the 1960s. The ones I wish I could include but don't have CDs of are her recordings of "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" and "Working Class Hero".

Okay, I'll be honest. Roland Gift's voice does bug me a little. But virtually no one ever covers the Buzzcocks. And, like the Beatles, Elvis covers need to be represented as broadly as possible. So I included "Ever Fallen In Love" and "Suspicious Minds".

Flying Lizards album "Top Ten" is on my list of all-time favorites. Their breakthrough hit was "Money (That's What I Want)" and is probably the only thing anyone remembers about them at all. But they also did a fun version of "Manadalaysong" ("Song from Mandalay" sung auf Deutsch) and "Summertime Blues" on that same album. On their album, "Fourth Wall" (with a different singer), they did a cover of "Move On Up" (I've never been able to find a CD of "Fourth Wall," though). Finally, they did an album of nothing but covers, called, "Top Ten". That's where "Dizzy Miss Lizzie," "And Then He Kissed Me" and "Great Balls of Fire" came from, as well as "Get Up (Sex Machine)," "Purple Haze" and one of the most interesting versions of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" that I've ever heard.

The Tennessee Ernie Ford track is another visit to the "Golden Throats 4: Celebrities Butcher the Beatles" CD (out of print).

Aretha Franklin's version of "Somewhere" was on the soundtrack to the Quincy Jones documentary, "Listen Up" (also out of print, I believe). But here's a video of her singing "Somewhere" at the Kennedy Center Honors for Stephen Sondheim.

Here's a "One Degree of Separation" story: On the Specials second album, their back-up singers were these unheard of women calling themselves "The Go-Gos". Within a year or two, the Go-Gos had recorded their own album and had a smash hit with "Our Lips Are Sealed," a song that was co-written by singer Belinda Carlisle and Specials member Lynval Golding. The Specials split up. Three members of the Specials, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples, formed a new group called "Fun Boy Three," who recorded their own version of "Our Lips Are Sealed."

And, in a parallel to the Specials' relationship with the Go-Gos, Fun Boy Three's first album had back-up vocals provided by a then-unknown group called "Bananarama." The opening track on Fun Boy Three's first album was "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)".

They Did It Their Way - D and E

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.

D

Lea DeLaria - Donna
Depeche Mode - Route 66
Devo - Satisfaction (I Can't Get Me No)
Devo - Secret Agent Man
Devo - Working In a Coalmine
Donnas - Drive My Car
Doors - Alabama Song
Dr. John - Blue Monk


E

Jonathan & Darlene Edwards - I Am Woman
Jonathan & Darlene Edwards - Stayin' Alive
English Beat (aka The Beat) - Can't Get Used To Losing You
English Beat - Tears Of a Clown
Erasure - Can't Help Falling In Love
Erasure - Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
Erasure - River Deep Mountain High
Erasure - S.O.S.
Erasure - Solsbury Hill
Erasure - Take a Chance On Me
Erasure - Video Killed the Radio Star
Melissa Etheridge - I Will Always Love You
Everclear - Brown-Eyed Girl


Lea DeLaria's version of "Donna" comes from the Actors' Fund of America benefit concert and recording of "Hair". Again, in theory, you could either take every track from this album and include, or you could exclude the album because it's a complete recording of all the songs from the show. I took the middle path - include a few numbers, but not all.

Depeche Mode's "Route 66" is more a completist inclusion, as I'm not terribly fond of this track personally.

The Devo covers of Satisfaction, Secret Agent Man and Workin' In a Coalmine are there, well, just because.

The Donnas version of Drive My Car comes from "This Bird Has Flown," a tribute to "Rubber Soul" on the 40th anniversary of its release. Again, I only included three or four of the tracks off this album in the collection. The one track that drives me up the wall is what Fiery Furnaces did to "Norwegian Wood."

The Doors didn't do many covers, so you have to take 'em where you can get 'em, and "Alabama Song" is about all there is. You could almost fill up a CD with various versions of "Alabamasong," especially if you don't mind half of them being sung by Lotte Lenya.

Dr. John's version of "Blue Monk" is from a Thelonius Monk tribute album from the mid-1980's called "That's the Way I Feel Now." This track, Joe Jackson's version of "'Round Midnight" and Barry Harris's version of "Pannonica" are staples of my iPod at all times. I don't think I ever delete these three tracks.

Jonathan and Darlene Edwards are one of the all-time greatest acts. They are, in fact, Jo Stafford and Paul Weston. To be able to play so technically nearly correctly, and to sing so perfectly out of tune requires an unbelievable amount of actual talent. Chip sums them up as "perfectly awful". Here's a video of a rather buff drag queen lip-syncing to Darlene's version of "Staying Alive."

The Beat's ska takes on Tears of a Clown and Can't Get Used to Losing You - again, 1980's staples.

Erasure do covers often enough that they finally just recorded an album of covers and called it "Other People's Songs". Some of these tracks are from that album, some aren't. The strangest thing they've done to any song is to make "Solsbury Hill" into a duple beat (if you don't know the original, it's almost entirely in 7/4, except for the occasional bar of 4/4).

Melissa Etheridge's version of "I Will Always Love You" is from a Dolly Parton tribute called "Just Because I'm a Woman".

Everclear's cover of Brown-Eyed Girl is from "Songs from an American Movie, Part 1".

Billy Bragg - "The World Turned Upside Down"

Posting about Karan Casey put me in mind of Billy Bragg's version of this song, so here's someone's YouTube video that they made to accompany Billy Bragg's studio recording of "The World Turned Upside Down". The video's not all that great, just basically the lyrics, but the recording is better than many other YouTube Billy Bragg videos of this song.

For more information about what this "They did it their way" thing is about, read here for the background and full listing of this personal game of mine.

They Did It Their Way - C

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.

C

Belinda Carlisle - Bless the Beasts and the Children
Karan Casey - Ballad of Accounting
Karan Casey - The World Turned Upside Down
Karan Casey - Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair
Johnny Cash - Hard Times
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Johnny Cash - If You Could Read My Mind
Johnny Cash - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Johnny Cash - In My Life
Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus
Johnny Cash - Redemption Song
Johnny Cash - We'll Meet Again
Roseanne Cash - I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
Roseanne Cash - Tennessee Flat Top Box
Eva Cassidy - Blue Skies
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold
Eva Cassidy - Take Me To the River
Eva Cassidy - Tall Trees in Georgia
Eva Cassidy - Time After Time
Eva Cassidy - What a Wonderful World
Eva Cassidy - Over the Rainbow
Eva Cassidy - Songbird
Clash - I Fought the Law
Clash - Police & Thieves
Julian Cope - 5 O' Clock World
Alan Copeland - Mission Impossible Theme / Norwegian Wood
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
Cowboy Junkies - Walking After Midnight
Bing Crosby - Hey Jude

"Bless the Beasts and the Children" comes from a PETA collection from the early nineties called "Tame Yourself." I think they included it because when she sings this song, Belinda Carlisle sounds like a sheep.

Karan Casey is a fine traditional Irish singer. As mentioned previously, "The Ballad of Accounting" from 1964, and "The World Turned Upside-Down" from 1975 are protest songs. At this site you can find free mp3 downloads of several versions of "The Ballad of Accounting" including one sung by the man who wrote it, Ewan MacColl.

Johnny Cash spent his last years recording a lot. Some new songs, some just songs that he liked. A lot of people thought that the fact that he recorded Nine Inch Nails' song "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" was just extremely funny. But both of them, especially "Hurt," just mean something different coming out of Johnny Cash's mouth. If you've never seen the video for "Hurt," click here. I also liked the fact that he recorded "Redemption Song" as a duet with Joe Strummer. And I guess Johnny Cash is about the only person who can cover Gordon Lightfoot without it sounding like a parody.

Roseanne Cash covers the Beatles, then Roseanne Cash covers her father. If you want a decent list of Beatles covers, you need to make sure you cover the bases of musical styles.

Eva Cassidy was another tragic loss. Also a great source for acoustic covers. Video from Blues Alley here.

Got to include The Clash when you can. "Police and Thieves" and "I Fought the Law."

Julian Cope was the lead singer of "The Teardrop Explodes." His solo career never really got him any hits in the US. Here's his video of "Five O'Clock World."

The Alan Copeland and the Bing Crosby tracks come from the previously mentioned, "Golden Throats 4: Celebrities Butcher the Beatles" (out of print). The Alan Copeland number is an inspired piece that commingles "Norwegian Wood" with the theme from "Mission Impossible." You can hear 30-second previews of both tracks (and the entire CD) at Amazon but apparently not at the iTunes store.

Cowboy Junkies cover of "Sweet Jane" pretty much speaks for itself. "Walking After Midnight," not as good a cover.

They Did It Their Way: A and B

In an earlier posting, I mentioned my personal project that I call "They Did It Their Way." It's my collection of recordings done by people other than the performers who made the songs famous. So, for example, the Simon and Garfunkel recording of "Red Rubber Ball" can be included: Even though Paul Simon wrote the song, its popular recording was by The Circle.

The other criterion is that I must own a CD containing the track (or I must have purchased the album/track from iTunes).

So I'll trickle the listing into the blog alphabetically by artist name with info about where to find the tracks or some other commentary on the recordings.

So let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start):

A

Tori Amos - Angie
Tori Amos - A Case of You
Tori Amos - Famous Blue Raincoat
Tori Amos - Ring My Bell
Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Tori Amos - Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Maya Angelou - Scandal in the Family
Paul Anka - Jump
Paul Anka - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Louis Armstrong - Mack the Knife (duet with Lotte Lenya)


B

B-52s - Downtown
Bangles - Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)
Bauhaus - Third Uncle
Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust
Beatles - Money (That's What I Want)
Beatles - Please Mr. Postman
Beatles - Roll Over Beethoven
Beatles - Till There Was You
Sandra Bernhard - Little Red Corvette
The Bobs - Helter Skelter
The Bobs - Psycho Killer
David Bowie - Alabama Song
David Bowie - Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
The Breeders - Wicked Little Town
The Brothers Four - Revolution
Kate Bush - Candle In the Wind
Kate Bush - The Man I Love
Kate Bush - Rocket Man
Kate Bush - Sexual Healing
David Byrne - Don't Fence Me In


Some of the tracks by Tori, frankly, get skipped when they pop up on my iPod on "Shuffle."

Maya Angelou's "Scandal In the Family" cannot truly be called a cover because she wrote the song. But since she is not now known primarily as a singer, I wanted to include it.

The Paul Anka numbers come from his album, "Rock Swings," which is largely a bunch of grunge and metal songs done Vegas style. He also does "Black Hole Sun" on that album. Theoretically, the entire album could go into this collection, but I didn't want to over-represent the album on my iPod.

The version of "Mack the Knife" comes from a Lotte Lenya collection of theater songs (mostly Kurt Weill). It also includes an eight-minute uncut recording of the recording session for this track in which Louis Armstrong tries to explain to Lotte Lenya how to swing.

If you do not know "Tear Off Your Own Head," it's one of the best songs Elvis Costello has written in the last ten or fifteen years.

Including the Bauhaus tracks is almost cheating because they really did not do anything new to either of these two songs. They are virtually remakes of the originals, just a little harder and louder.

The Brothers Four track is from the "Golden Throats: Celebrities Butcher the Beatles" collection. It is, in some ways, one of the most perverse covers possibly of all time. It's one thing for Paul Anka to croon, "A mosquito, my libido." It's another thing for a Lettermen-style group to croon (in unison) "You say you want a revolution, Well, you know, we'd all love to change your head." The style of music is so directly and completely at odds with the song being sung that it's hard to believe that the singers (or at least the producer) had any sense of irony at all.

This also is the first occurence of a natural subset of any such collection: Beatles Covers.

The Breeders track comes from "Wig in a Box," the Hedwig tribute album. Again, theoretically, the entire album could go into the collection, but I just picked my favorite individual tracks.

The two best of the Kate covers are "Rocket Man" and "Sexual Healing". On "Rocket Man," she gives the song a kind of reggae beat, then adds very Irish fiddle and pipes. And it works surprisingly well. She also adds the fiddle and pipes to "Sexual Healing," but the song is different enough that I can forgive the duplicated effort.

The David Byrne track is from "Red Hot & Blue," the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS benefit album from 1990.

I think future postings in this series will have to be shorter....

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.