What makes a great cover version? For me, it's more about inspiration than choice of song.
Let's face it, we've all heard some distinctly average versions of some distinctly wonderful songs. But on the flipside, artists who identify the true DNA of a great piece of music can steer a trusty, time-worn vessel into glorious uncharted waters.
Take The Fall's version of Lost in Music. The 1979 Sister Sledge single is a worthy dancefloor filler with a great big smile on its face. But in the hands of Mark E Smith it becomes a sneeringly deranged post-punkĀ romp with a groove that quite frankly kicks the backside off the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Fowler written original. This is the sound of Salford putting the cheek into Chic. The subtle lyric change from "I quit my nine to five" to "I quit my ten to five" alone is pure delinquent genius. Would love to know what Sister Sledge think of it!
It's a similar story with The Slits' version of I Heard it Through the Grapevine. Technically, you shouldn't be messing with this revered Motown classic, but mess with it they do with a punked-up twisted dub that still disgraces enlightened dancefloors today.
The most successful covers take the original out of its comfort zone and repaint it in vivid new colours. Some of my favourites are Glasvegas turning The Korgis' MOR classic Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime into a howling feedback loop, ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard snarling all over Talk Talk gem Life's What You Make It, The Postal Service's dreamlike deconstruction of Phil Collins' Against All Odds and The Leather Nun's suitably sleazy take on ABBA's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - The Sisters of Mercy also played an incredible version live but sadly it was never officially released.
Angel Olsen deserves special mention for her continuing commitment to covers - her hypnotic version of Springsteen's Tougher Than the Rest was followed by the 2021 EP Aisles which feaured no less than five covers including stellar versions of 80s bargain-bin bothering beauties The Safety Dance (Men Without Hats) and Forever Young (Alphaville).
As a genre, heavy rock is always ripe for a reboot and Black Sabbath especially seem to have a magnetic appeal for artists looking for not so divine inspiration - Charles Bradley turned Changes into a modern soul classic, Moon Duo blissed out on psychedelic nugget Planet Caravan and Belarusian darkwave voyagers Molchat Doma gave Heaven and Hell the full Rick Wakeman treatment. All well worth a listen.
Of course, there are some cover versions that are now so ingrained in our culture that to all intents and purposes they belong to the people who made them famous, not the people who wrote them. I'm thinking Nothing Compares 2 U, Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home), Tainted Love, Since You Been Gone and Without You (the desperate story of original writers Badfinger arguably gives their version even greater emotional weight than the Harry Nilsson heartbreaker).
Irrespective of who owns them, cover versions add rich and vibrant shades to our ever-changing musical landscape and for that we should all be grateful.
One of my own favourites is the Sonic Youth cover of The Carpenter's Superstar
Bauhausā Ziggy reigns supreme for me - somehow it beats the unbeatable! Loved the props to Sistersā Gimme Gimme too - used to play that on live bootleg tapes, round and round and round.
Iād also give a nod to the north east - China Drumās Wuthering Heights as a thing to behold, alongside Leatherfaceās Eagle - a brilliant version of an oft-overlooked ABBA masterpiece and lastly, The Futureheadsā surprising Hounds of Love.
There must be something in the water in Sunderlandā¦ great piece - Iāll be winding myself up with songs I missed off the list all day now :)