Walk on by

So the other day as I was traveling for work I went through an old CD envelope. Listened to some old compilation CDs I had made. On one of these I heard "Walk on by" by Cyndi Lauper. Many years ago when I first heard this song, it was from Cyndi's cover album "At Last". Where she covered alot of 'old' songs.
Walk on by was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick I believe. I've always loved Cyndi Lauper. From back when she first came out in the 80's, to now. When she stopped coloring her hair 50 different ways and wearing outrageous costumes, and just concentrated on singing and being professional, I think thats when she shined. She has an amazing voice. You never heard her sing many ballads. In the early-mid 90's she put out a 'greatest hits' album. It had a few ballads on there, and they were my favorite.
So going back a few years, a retro artist covering a golden oldie, I give you Cyndi's Lauper's take on Dionne Warwick's Walk On By:

Rolling in the Park

Yeah I got lazy on this one. Not an old song, not an unknown either. Probably the biggest hit so far this year I think. Wanna hear something crazy? Back in the day artists sold albums by the millions. Since 2004 when they started tracking digital download sales (legally) there have only been 2 albums that have sold over a million "full" album downloads. And one album with a million full CD downloads plus a million actual CD purchases. Sure there are singles that sell in the multi millions, but full albums and CD album purchases.
Eminem's Recovery and Adele's 21. Lady Gaga's Monster will hit that mark soon. Adele is the first and only artist to do both so far. Pretty crazy feet in this age of the digital download era.
Which brings us to this cover. Adele's first single off the new album blew up on the charts and the covers. Its probably been covered by 100's of thousands amatures and has been done by dozens of professional artists.
Linkin Park's front man Chester Bennington pretty much is the only dude to have the pipes necessary to belt out the chorus. They bring it down with just a piano and the vocals. There is another acoustic attempt thats on youtube, but they polish with this one.

With Every Heartbeat Part 2

Another artist covering their own song in a way, and we call it either acoustic version or Part 2.
Robyn actually came on the music scene back in the early 90's from the UK. You may remember a dance hit called "Show me love". Then she fell off the face of the earth as far as the US is concerned. I know I never really heard from her again...until channel surfing the other night.
So you think you can dance, this couple was in mid routine, doing a creative dance with some stretchy/bouncy fabric attached to eachother, pulling away, coming back, that kinda thing. The dance didn't make me keep it on that show, but rather the song they were dancing too. It went really well with the choreography, made me stop and listen and really look at what was going on. I thought, "what a good song".
So I googled it, found what it was and listened to it. What I heard wasn't the same thing. What I was finding was an upbeat dance song that resembled what I heard.
Googily, googliy, found it. BBC radio broadcast version. Close to or maybe this was the version I heard, so I'll take it.
This is what I love about covers. Taking a song that was produced one way, and doing it another in order to give it a different feel and meaning. I heard this version first, so after hearing the original I think, "that was stupid, why not record it this way and release it, its way better and sounds like it was actually meant to be this more simple and elegant." The lyrics don't sound like they belong in a pop/dance song either. Why do record companies not have enough faith in the ballads? Let them be heard!
Heres Robyn with her own song live BBC radio piano version:


Here is the "original" version release in the UK back in 2008:

Everybody's got a Price

This week I went lazy. Can't remember what I was gonna post. Anyway came across this little diddy.
Ban called Karmin, I think its just a girl and a dude. Anyway the cover Jessie J (ft B.O.B)'s song Price Tag. Its acoustic, the girl sounds alot like Jessie J, but what I really dig is the trombone! Without it, its just another youtube cover.
The trombone gives the song a new dimension and keeps the "pep" of the original.

Yellow

I couldn't decide which to post as the cover this time. Torn between both of them.
So I'll post both and we'll do a poll, see which one is better.
The song being covered is Coldplay's Yellow. We have well known Sara Bareilles doing an amazing, maybe too simple version. The piano, I had to listen to a couple times in order to appreciate it.
Next up is Jem. Not from Jem and the Holograms. This version is where I'm leaning towards. More effort into the arrangement and more of a lullabye. Both interpretations went softer and more mellow. Both have turned Yellow into Gold in my mind.

Born to Express Yourself

This is a cover of a mashup. Now sometimes mashups are considered covers. you can take one song and put it to the music of another, "covering" it per say. Mashups in my opinion are that, 2 or more songs mashed together. Usually mashups are similar songs or have similar music.
We have here 2 songs that are so similar that many accuse Lady Gaga's Born this way of plagerism for Madonna's Express your self. 90% of people would probably agree if you played them side by side. Same cord progression, melodies, just sped up a little and off timed hook exchanges. Madonna doesn't care so people should leave it alone.
Anyways, there are tons and tons of mashups of these two songs. There are even several mashup covers. What we have here is a unique event. Both songs are of the "pop" variety, have different lyrics and different meanings and identities.
What Doll & the Kicks have done is made one song out of two. So they've actually covered 2 songs with one blended song that sounds like one song. If you've never heard Madonna's Express yourself or Lady Gaga's Born this way you couldn't tell this was two different songs.
They have their own video on youtube for this but, I went with a slide show of my "smiley face". I'm expressing the way I was born!

Fix You

I almost wanted to put this on the other blog but since it’s a cover I’ll post it here. And instead of detailing why I like this version ( which is obvious after you watch/listen ) I’m going to disperse a little of why I chose it.
I think somewhere FB or MS I’ve posted a link to this before, but oh well, here we go again. It disserves a second go around. I’m sure someone hasn’t seen it yet.
2 things
1st, if anyone knows me they know how much I like watching old people on TV and movies. Grumpy old men and Everybody loves Raymond especially for the “old people”. I’m not in a hurry to get old but I look forward to the day (60yrs old) when my boys get to change my diapers!
2nd, I haven’t had much success so far this season in running or loosing weight. This afternoon’s run was short and tough. The last couple runs have been difficult to even go short distances.
So after watching the biggest loser I find myself in the usual self pity funk. I’m trying to figure out whats wrong, why can’t I stop eating and drinking the crap, why can’t I push through miles or the pace like I did last year? Why can’t I get and stay motivated? Why can’t I fix this?
Which made me think of the Coldplay tune “Fix you”. The first verse and part of the chorus keep trying to ring out in my head.

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse…
…Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Of course the song and especially this video means something else entirely. Watching Fred Nittles sit up there with his oxygen tank and the rest of the Young @ Heart chorus sing this for one of their own that passed away a week before the performance is something else.
Young @ Heart Chorus covering Coldplay's Fix you.
They've disabled embedded video for this, so you'll have to follow the link.
Fix you

Here is a 2 for from Young @ Heart. Another example of interpretation of a song. They don't really do a different version, but the simple fact of who they gives the song a different meaning. From a punk band to senior citizens, pure gold.
Young @ Heart covering the Ramone's I wanna be sedated