The best cover albums by a single artist covering another
Posted by IanBlackburn on 10 September 2008 - 11:33am.
Two of my favourite albums remain:
Famous Blue Raincoat - Jennifer Warnes covers Leonard Cohen
Nilsson Sings Newman - Harry Nilsson covers Randy Newman
Can anyone better those? (must be a single artist covering another single artist)
Bookmark/Search this post with:
- More from IanBlackburn.
- Login or register to post comments
I love
"Wicked Grin" which is John Hammond covering Tom Waits.
The Springsteen one, The
The Springsteen one, The Seeger Sessions is quite good.
Robyn Sings
Robyn Hitchcock sings Dylan. I think it's excellent.
Coincidentally I recently downloaded Big Daddy's song by song cover of Sgt Pepper. They specialise in "modern" songs sung in the style of the 1950's.
If you ever wanted to hear Lucy in the Sky sung by a fake Jerry Lee Lewis this is the place to hear it.
as does
Brian Ferry.
Big Daddy -
agreed, it's a very entertaining album. I particularly like the Buddy Holly vocal on A Day in the Life . . . "I read the news today a-ho boy". Great sleeve too.
Sticking with the Beatles, Ann Dyer and No Good Time Fairies released a strange but compelling CD in 1999 called Revolver, A New Spin. It's not all great but when it's good it's very good, especially their version of Rain.
Yes, just like the real Sgt Pepper that track is the highlight
Instead of ending with the crash of a piano chord it ends with a plane crash! I seriously thought I was hearing things at first. "Oh how rude!"
If you like cover versions all the Big Daddy albums are worth getting.
Shelby Lynne
Her recent take on Dusty Springfield is pretty great
Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny has just released an album of covers of Tom Waits songs. It's wonderful.
Ta for the tip
Much as I generally don't bother with tribute albums as they rarely add anything to the original - this one sounds like a goody. SSJ is a real trooper - fantastic live.
Jennifer Warnes?
As in "I've had the time of my life"??? Covering Leonard Cohen? Wow, that sounds intriguing. And I love love love Randy Newman...
I'm going to have to investigate further. Thanks for the heads up!
That's her
But she does a wonderful job on this album. Let us know what you think...
Certainly will
Found one of the Jennifer Warnes tracks on Youtube and loved it.
Album on its way from Amazon... hoorah!
She Sang as a backing singer
with Leonard Cohen's band and tour and on record in the 70's and 80's. That and the fact of her being a good friend of said Mr Cohen put her in a more interesting place when covering him.
Famous Blue Raincoat is just tremendous.
Do the Mermaid Avenue
cd's by Billy Bragg and Wilco count? If so I am voting for them as they are pretty bloody good.
The CD Don McLean sings Marty Robbins
Contains an excellent, near breathless cover of El Paso where, unlike the original, the singer really sounds as though he is resigned to death.
Mary Lee's Corvette does a track by track live version of Blood on the Tracks. I don't know what it's like.