Topic: Slow/'unplugged' covers of every commercially successful song

[I.D. Smith]

I got one recommended to me today via a Facebook advert for Viagra*:  The Proclaimers '500 Miles'

*An advert which I have no idea why it was recommended to me. No idea. Absolutely no idea. At all. Okay? Good.

Edit - New page erectile dysfunction

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've always liked Nina Gordon;s cover of Straight Outta Compton, but it falls into this category I guess.

And me. She also did an alright cover of Skidrow's 18 and life.

I think it at least gets a pass because she did it of her own volition 15 years ago, rather than it being some cynical wank for a Netflix drama or an advert.

[jobotic]

I'd never heard of Nina Gordon. Made me wince a bit but enjoyed it.

See? Country 'em.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Had you heard of Veruca Salt? She was one of them.

[jobotic]

I have yeah, although they passed me by. They good?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not bad. Seether was great.

[famethrowa]

Here's the best slow cover. Of a slow song. Done by the bloke in the steam room on the Blues Brothers, and his missus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IoTTSWkjRs

[lipsink]

Coldplay do 'Fight For Your Right To Party':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPX8uDTLeYo

[JesusAndYourBush]

Ukelele versions are pretty dire as well.

I like this pisstake of the sort of music you get in some adverts...

Andrew O'Neill & Amanda Palmer - Anti-Ukulele Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sflf0S66BxA

[Cuellar]

I like this pisstake of the sort of music you get in some adverts...

Andrew O'Neill & Amanda Palmer - Anti-Ukulele Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sflf0S66BxA

Somehow manages to be more annoying than the adverts it's parodying

[Johnboy]

Oh dear, Bernard at the height of his 'Dadrock' Bad Lieutenant phase. The only reason he's done BLT there is because of the Frente! version, which had been a big college radio hit in the US. 'Doesn't have the vocal chops to pull it off' though? It's basically the same as the vocal on the original single (by 1986 he was having vocal lessons and learned what natural key his voice had, which led to the re-recordings of Temptation and Confusion for Substance). It's the acoustic backing I object to.
This too is dreadful. Bloody mandolin as well for the full John Lewis 'girl with ukelele' effect. It also misses the point of the song somewhat by taking it seriously - it was written as a tongue in cheek parody of the' tragic C&W song' trope.

It's kinda laughing at rednecks. From what I said you may construe it to mean that I'm a redneck - I am not a redneck, I assure you, and 'Love Vigilantes' is like laughing at rednecks. The more ridiculous my lyrics are, the less serious the song is.

oh wow are those 87 versions of temptation and confusion in a different key to the singles?

[buzby]

oh wow are those 87 versions of temptation and confusion in a different key to the singles?

Confusion defintely is. In the original Bernard's straining at the top of his range in the choruses. The 1987 remake is pitched down. On the original Temptation his voice swings from one end of his range to the other (and is double tracked) - the 87 rerecording is a bit more down the middle. The 1987 vocal is also in a softer, more crooning style, as a result of him having singing lessons (he stopped when the teacher told him to study and try and emulate Tony Hadley's vocal style) and is also 2 minutes shorter than the original. They were re-recorded in the way they were playing them live at the time.

He has a history of redoing his vocals on earlier stuff he isn't happy with though. He redid the vocal for Blue Monday 88 around the same time, but Quincy Jones decided to keep his original vocal. He also redid the vocals for 1963 for it's release to promote The Best Of.. in 1995, along with completely rerecording Let's Go with totally new lyrics,

[Sebastian Cobb]

I like this pisstake of the sort of music you get in some adverts...

Andrew O'Neill & Amanda Palmer - Anti-Ukulele Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sflf0S66BxA

Didn't she get famous doing a ukulele cover of Fake Plastic Trees?

Having her cake and eating it there imo.

[The Culture Bunker]

Confusion defintely is. In the original Bernard's straining at the top of his range in the choruses. The 1987 remake is pitched down. On the original Temptation his voice swings from one end of his range to the other (and is double tracked) - the 87 rerecording is a bit more down the middle. The 1987 vocal is also in a softer, more crooning style, as a result of him having singing lessons (he stopped when the teacher told him to study and try and emulate Tony Hadley's vocal style) and is also 2 minutes shorter than the original. They were re-recorded in the way they were playing them live at the time.

Does remind me of how surprised I was (this being back in the my pre-internet days) when I picked up a vinyl copy of New Order's 1981-1982 (FACTUS8) EP and heard very different versions of those songs than I knew from 'Substance'. I've had disgusted looks from some hardcore NO fans over my expressing preference for the re-recordings.

[DrGreggles]

I've had disgusted looks from some hardcore NO fans over my expressing preference for the re-recordings.

I prefer the Substance versions too.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Oh dear, Bernard at the height of his 'Dadrock' Bad Lieutenant phase. The only reason he's done BLT there is because of the Frente! version, which had been a big college radio hit in the US. 'Doesn't have the vocal chops to pull it off' though? It's basically the same as the vocal on the original single (by 1986 he was having vocal lessons and learned what natural key his voice had, which led to the re-recordings of Temptation and Confusion for Substance). It's the acoustic backing I object to.

Maybe I should rephrase that to "Does have the chops, but very rarely displays them when singing live". The first time I saw Bad Lieutenant at Brighton Digital he was awful doing the acoustic mini set, the second time I saw them at the O2 supporting Pet Shop Boys, they'd dropped the acoustic and just performed the "real" version.

I prefer the Substance versions too.

Ditto. That said, I do rather like the raw, misbehaving sequencer on the 12" Temptation.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Didn't she get famous doing a ukulele cover of Fake Plastic Trees?

Having her cake and eating it there imo.

She did a cover of that, yes, as well as Creep,  I'm not sure she "got famous" doing it though.  There was a time when every man and his dog were doing Creep on the ukulele.  There's even an mp3 of a cabber performing it live at the Penderel Oak.

[jamiefairlie]

Maybe I should rephrase that to "Does have the chops, but very rarely displays them when singing live". The first time I saw Bad Lieutenant at Brighton Digital he was awful doing the acoustic mini set, the second time I saw them at the O2 supporting Pet Shop Boys, they'd dropped the acoustic and just performed the "real" version.

Ditto. That said, I do rather like the raw, misbehaving sequencer on the 12" Temptation.

7” version of Temptation is the only one I like. Confusion is just shit in every version, the writing was very much on the wall.

[buzby]

Does remind me of how surprised I was (this being back in the my pre-internet days) when I picked up a vinyl copy of New Order's 1981-1982 (FACTUS8) EP and heard very different versions of those songs than I knew from 'Substance'. I've had disgusted looks from some hardcore NO fans over my expressing preference for the re-recordings.

I already had he Temptation 12"and FEP-313-1 (the Canadian version of FACTUS 8) so I was surprised that they had chosen to rerecord them. I prefer the 12" version of Temptation (with the commotion at the start when Hook put snow down the back of Sumner's shirt), but the Substance version of Confusion.

Maybe I should rephrase that to "Does have the chops, but very rarely displays them when singing live".

Unfortunately his live singing has always been patchy at best. However, by the BL era at least it wasn't likely to be due to having to be off his face to go onstage.

That said, I do rather like the raw, misbehaving sequencer on the 12" Temptation.

It's not a sequencer. It's the arpeggiator of the ARP Quadra being triggered from the DR-55 drum machine with the notes being played manually (basically like a live quantiser). That's why it 'misbehaves' occasionally - the wrong key on the Quadra is being pressed at the wrong time. You can see Gillian playing it on the Quadra in the New York 81 early live performance of it (when it was still called Taboo No. 7).

Confusion is just shit in every version, the writing was very much on the wall Arthur Baker.

FTFY. Sumner in particular was embarrassed by the whole Confusion episode. Baker's M.O. was to use session musicians (at that time primarily John Robie) to knock out the music for a track based on the band's demo to make the best use of studio time. New Order didn't have anything written, and told him they weren't working with a session musician and that their writing process was basically jamming for weeks until they found something, so he booked them into a demo studio for two weeks but by the end of that they didn't have anything either. Sumner's takeaway from it was that they could come up with good stuff, but they weren't good enough musicians and couldn't do it at will.

[Johnboy]

Even though the first ones I heard were the Substance versions I think I prefer the originals - just can't hack that 1987 snare.

[jamiefairlie]

I already had he Temptation 12"and FEP-313-1 (the Canadian version of FACTUS 8) so I was surprised that they had chosen to rerecord them. I prefer the 12" version of Temptation (with the commotion at the start when Hook put snow down the back of Sumner's shirt), but the Substance version of Confusion.Unfortunately his live singing has always been patchy at best. However, by the BL era at least it wasn't likely to be due to having to be off his face to go onstage.It's not a sequencer. It's the arpeggiator of the ARP Quadra being triggered from the DR-55 drum machine with the notes being played manually (basically like a live quantiser). That's why it 'misbehaves' occasionally - the wrong key on the Quadra is being pressed at the wrong time. You can see Gillian playing it on the Quadra in the New York 81 early live performance of it (when it was still called Taboo No. 7).FTFY. Sumner in particular was embarrassed by the whole Confusion episode. Baker's M.O. was to use session musicians (at that time primarily John Robie) to knock out the music for a track based on the band's demo to make the best use of studio time. New Order didn't have anything written, and told him they weren't working with a session musician and that their writing process was basically jamming for weeks until they found something, so he booked them into a demo studio for two weeks but by the end of that they didn't have anything either. Sumner's takeaway from it was that they could come up with good stuff, but they weren't good enough musicians and couldn't do it at will.

Christ, I didn’t realize that twat Robie was ruining things that early.

[jamiefairlie]

Even though the first ones I heard were the Substance versions I think I prefer the originals - just can't hack that 1987 snare.

Or his singing, getting lessons was the worst thing he did, it unlocked the inner muso in him

[thecuriousorange]

The trailer for the new series of The Crown has one of these. It's How Soon Is Now.

[icehaven]

The trailer for the new series of The Crown has one of these. It's How Soon Is Now.

The curious masochist in me wants to listen to that just to see how they've done the riff.

[Tombola]

They haven't.

[Angrew Lloyg Wegger]

Are there any good examples of the opposite of this being done? I.e. a 'credible' indie guitar type song being covered with synthesizers, drum machines and autotuned/yelpy 80s vocals?

[The Culture Bunker]

Are there any good examples of the opposite of this being done? I.e. a 'credible' indie guitar type song being covered with synthesizers, drum machines and autotuned/yelpy 80s vocals?

Not 'credible indie', but I have somewhere a rather lovely synth-pop version of 'Sweet Child O'Mine' from about 20 years ago.

[Dr Rock]

Or t.A.T.u. doing How Soon Is Now.

Also Sugababes did Gary Numan and Girls Aloud done Arctic Monkeys

[Captain Z]

Probably countless dance remixes, but I really liked the 2007 Freemasons ft. Bailey Tzuke version of Alanis Morrisette's Uninvited (Brothers In Rhythm also did it a few years earlier as a bootleg remix rather than a 'cover').

[phantom_power]

That cover of Another Day In Paradise that has been on the Top of the Pops repeats (Ah Yeah!)