Hello All,
The band that brought Linda and I together, Simply Red, were known to do the odd cover over the years. One song in particular became "our song" - their cover of The Stylistics "You Make Me Feel Brand New".
Mick Hucknall was once asked why Simply Red never covered a Beatles tune. His response was something on the lines of " How can I improve what they did?" He was right.
There are times when you can improve a song or at the very least make it sound like you did it first. Simply Red, on their last studio album covered The Faces' "Debris" and did a very good job of it - they must have done because Mick went on to become The Faces' "new" lead singer when they reformed, for want of a better word, last year. Here's a couple of examples of what I'm on about . . .
We own a few CD's with some excellent cover versions. One that springs to mind is Sheffield's The Arctic Monkeys cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" that featured on "The Live Lounge Volume 2".
Today, I heard possibly one of the worst cover versions I've ever heard and sadly it comes from one of my favourite singers. George Michael no less has covered New Order's "True Faith" . See what you think . . .
Those of you who know the song know it as an upbeat "dance" tune . . . this version, slowed down way too much and with George's voice doctored beyond recognition, has, quite frankly, done the song no service at all.
Now, George has had his troubles recently, and getting back to what he does best is without doubt the best thing for him to do. However, George, as a fan, get back to writing some of your own music and come up with another "Everything She Wants" - please????
Keep on Listening,
Eddie
PS For those of you too young to know what George Michael tune I'm rabbiting on about, here it is!
