This song, a cover of the song originally recorded by Carson and Gaile in 1966 and made famous by father/daughter duo Frank and Nancy Sinatra in 1967, went to #1 in the UK in 2001. Kidman and British hitmaker Robbie Williams make a charming pair, good enough to earn the coveted Christmas #1 that year.
We've got you. In a rare John Lombardo vocal performance, here are John and Mary (providing a feverish violin) giving a fantastic rendition of a classic.
After Yusef Islam - formerly Cat Stevens - (allegedly) called for the death of Salman Rushie for his book The Satanic Verses, Natalie Merchant demanded this song be removed from future pressings of their album In My Tribe and they never played it again.
Which is a shame. It's a beautiful song and they performed it beautifully.
Alana Davis took an Ani DiFranco folk song and made it her very funky debut single. It would be her only top 40 single (to date - she's still making music) but it is so spectacularly done, I still listen to it to this day.
I somewhat love this live version a little better. Davis's personality truly shines through in this live performance. This is the very meaning of "taking ownership of a song" personified.
In 2018, Alana Davis re-recorded the song. It's far more stripped down, and yet seems even MORE genuine.
Before they were national superstars, the Goo Goo Dolls were a local Buffalo band and a big deal. On a couple of their early albums, they teamed with local personality Lance Diamond on a couple of covers. The band met Diamond when then-vocalist Robby Takac moved into the same apartment building as him.
In this free concert in downtown Buffalo (and, for the record, I was in downtown Buffalo but not at the concert that day, and I don't remember why we didn't go), Diamond joined the Goos for these covers, which were both incredible.
There was once a time where I posted a LOT of Charli XCX on Wicked Guilty Pleasures. Some of you have asked why I don't post her stuff anymore.
I don't have a great answer for that - I'll probably get back to it at some point, but there's a lot of great music. Even Charli realized that. This song, a cover of the Sam Smith hit, was recorded in 2014, and it's pretty excellent.
It takes a singer with a pretty huge voice to cover a duet by themselves.
Carly Rae Jepson is that singer. This song, originally sung by Fleetwood Mac and performed at a festival in tribute of the band, was such a duet. Clearly, she's making some concessions with the chorus, but she makes it work.
Unfortunately, it seems like this was a one-time performance, which is a shame, because she absolutely slayed this song.
The Rolling Stones were - are - a band with a lot of roots in soul and blues. Devo is the opposite of that. That doesn't mean that they're bad - Devo is excellent! - they're just different bands. So when Devo covered one of the best known Rolling Stones songs, it was met with some skepticism.
It shouldn't have been. The frenetic, electronic nature of the cover brings a different feel to the song, but still a valid, enjoyable one.
You may recall that when I posted the first Cover Me Canada special last year, I told you two things. 1) The bands in the competition could, as part of their audition, cover one of four Canadian classic songs - we featured Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" in that installment 2) I would be revisiting the other three in the future.
Don't worry. I'll be featuring the other three songs soon. - me
Whereas that post took me by surprise, I had some time to plan this one. It's still going to be a tour of Canada, but this time, we know where we're going. And we're starting with The Eastman Encounter, from Ontario, covering "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane. Their cover is pretty faithful, if not a little guitar-heavy. The video was recorded at Stroud Farms, outside of Oshawa, Ontario.
The Metronomes from British Columbia took over a mall for an acapella version of the song. Frankie Cena is the leader of this little glee club, and it suits him, as does the spotlight, as he's gone on to other TV hosting jobs.
TEA, from Montreal, Quebec, did NOT go acapella. They went orchestral, and I have to admit, I like the song on the harp and standup bass. It's inventive and I will be looking into what else they might have done for a future post.
Let's head back to British Columbia and get a little heavy with 2StepCloser. Now, it's been a few years, and I'm sorry to report that this duo has broken up, but you can still enjoy their Cover Me Canada audition.
