Cover Songs: Volume 9
Click below on the streaming service of your choice to listen to the playlist as your read along. Note that only the YouTube playlist has all the songs due to the unavailability of a track in my version (Canada) of Spotify.
This is the ninth installment of an ongoing series exploring the art of the cover song. In the first volume, I outlined various types of cover songs (Straight-up; Modernization; Tempo Change; Genre Change; Reinvention) which provides the framework for my analysis. Reading the introduction of that first volume will help before continuing here.
The Playlist - “song” \ Original artist (Year) & Cover Artist (Year)
“It’s Not Unusual” \ Tom Jones (1965) & Belly (1994)
“Criminal World” \ Metro (1977) & David Bowie (1983)
“Gloria” \ Laura Branigan (1982) (Umberto Tozzi, 1979) & Angel Olsen (2021)
“Warm Leatherette” \ The Normal (1978) & Grace Jones (1980)
“Summertime” \ George Gershwin (1935) & Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company (1968)
“White Rabbit” \ Jefferson Airplane (1967) & The Damned (1980)
“California Sun” \ Joe Jones (1960) & The Ramones (1976)
“Motor Bikin’” \ Chris Spedding (1975) & Martha and the Muffins (1980)
“Our Love Will Still Be There” \ The Troggs (1960) & Fluid (1990 – YT only) & Fabienne DelSol & The Bristols (1998)
“Used to Love Her/Him” \ Guns N’ Roses (1988) & L7 (1992)
“Lucky Number” / “Wir leben immer… nock (Lucky Number)” \ Lene Lovitch (1978) & Nina Hagen Band (1979)
“Mind Your Own Business” \ Delta 5 (1979) & Automatic (2019)
In this playlist we’ll cover a lot of musical ground, featuring a couple of very famous songs I only recently discovered were covers, some connections between very different genres, and updated versions of some classics.
“It’s Not Unusual” \ Tom Jones (1965) & Belly (1994)
This is a straight-up cover, admittedly the ones I care for the least, but when a modern rock act takes a cheeky, rather ‘uncool’ ‘60s pop song from a cringeworthy icon and delivers it without irony and in a rocking way, well, who can say “no” to it?
I’m probably being too hard on Welsh singer Tom Jones, who by the early 1990s was well past his heyday. Born Tom Woodward, he started his career in 1963 as the lead singer in a beat group, Tommy Scott and the Senators. He went solo in 1964 and was renamed by his manager as Tom Jones, to take advantage of the 1963 film of the same name. “It’s Not Unusual” was his second single and entrenched him as a star after it went to #1 in the UK and top ten in the US. He leveraged his good looks and booming voice to have a successful career with singles such as, “What’s New Pussycat?” (a Bacharach/David song written for the film of the same name), and “Delilah.” While it seems the more earnest Jones wanted to chart a path as a serious R&B artist, all these tracks defined him as a more fun, carousing crooner that saw women swooning (and famously, throwing their panties) over him.
By the mid-1980s, Jones hadn’t had a hit album or single since the early ‘70s and had drifted into country music. In 1987, the 47-year-old singer surprisingly re-entered mainstream attention, first with a single, “A Boy from Nowhere,” but especially in fronting the Art of Noise cover of the Prince song, “Kiss.” Connecting with such well-regarded and creative artists created a minor re-branding for Jones, increasing his ‘cool‘ factor for fans of alternative music.
So, when the band, Belly, covered “It’s Not Unusual” in 1994 it didn’t seem so, well, unusual. What was surprising is they delivered a mostly straight-up version, mixing shimmering, edgy guitars with a catchy clap-beat and seductive backing vocals. It worked with the joie de vivre of the original and punked it up a little to gain a modern edge.
Belly (L to R): Gail Greenwood, Tanya Donnelly, Thomas Gorman, Chris Gorman
Belly’s creative driver was Tanya Donnelly, who after co-creating the acts Throwing Muses and The Breeders, connected with Fred Abong and brothers, Chris and Thomas Gorman to form her new band. Their first release was in 1993 with the wonderful LP, Star, which featured fantastic tracks like, “Feed the Tree,” “Gepetto,” and “Slow Dog.” Later that year they contributed a cover of, “Are You Experienced?” for the impressive and varied tribute album, Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Gail Greenwood then replaced Abong on bass.
Belly’s version of, “It’s Not Unusual,” appeared on the film soundtrack release, With Honors, in 1994. Oddly, I had a CD single of their cover of “Are You Experienced?” that had two additional tracks, the ‘Lunar Mix’ of the Star track, “Full Moon, Empty Heart,” and ‘The Usual Mix’ of “It’s Not Unusual.” I suspect it was a promo release I picked up from my sister-in-law, who worked for Warners at the time. ‘The Usual Mix’ was an intriguing dub mix of their Tom Jones cover, offering a totally different take on the track. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any trace of it online.
Belly released one more LP, King, in 1995 and had further minor success with the single, “Super-Connected,” before breaking up in ’96. Donnelly issued four solo LPs between 1997 and 2006. Belly reformed in 2016 and released another LP, Dove, in 2018.
“Criminal World” \ Metro (1977) & David Bowie (1983)
Though not his most lauded, 1983’s Let’s Dance was David Bowie’s most commercially successful album. For me, aged thirteen, it was his first release after I’d become a fan and was entering my prime music discovery years. I listened to that album a lot. While the big three singles, “Let’s Dance,” “China Girl,” and “Modern Love,” dominated attention, other tracks such as “Without You” (released as a single in select countries, including the US), and “Cat People (Putting Out Fire),” which was on the Cat People film soundtrack, were also well-known.
Thus, a deeper album track such as, “Criminal World,” flew under the radar (though was the B-side to the “Without You” single). I paid little attention to writing credits back then, but in time knew that “China Girl” was a cover of an Iggy Pop tune, but never delved deeper on the other tracks. So, I was startled to discover a couple years ago that “Criminal World” was also a cover.
I knew of Peter Godwin from his 1983 new wave track, “Baby’s in the Mountains.” It got some airplay on my local radio station, CFNY, and later was on Volume Five of the amazing Hardest Hits series of CDs. I did not know Godwin was originally from a British band, Metro, which existed from 1976 to 1980. Metro also included Duncan Browne (who would also have minor solo success after) and Sean Lyons and released three albums.
“Criminal World” was their first single. Originally written by Godwin in ’74, it appeared on their self-titled debut LP in 1977. Mixing late stage glam rock with early new wave, the track had notoriety for being banned by the BBC (not uncommon in those days) for having gay overtones. Though Godwin was straight, he wrote the song in response to the androgynous and sexually ambivalent styles of the glam scene. The lyrics, “I saw you kneeling at my brother's door / That was no ordinary stick-up / I'm well aware just what you're looking for,” appeared to run a little too hot for the staid BBC. “Criminal World” was originally titled, “Punk News,” inspired by the likes of the New York Dolls and Television, but the title was changed by the time of its release since punk had broken out and was all the rage by ’77. Musically, the track started slow and subtle, steeped in the ‘70s styles of R&B and glam rock, and ended with a final third that was slightly progressive (influenced by Queen) but thoroughly modern with a post-punky drone – Godwin compared it to the end of The Beatles’, “I Want You.”
Hmm, what would David Bowie see in a glam-era inspired track about androgyny and being gay? Even though Let’s Dance was Bowie’s lean into pop music, capturing the popular R&B styles of the early ‘80s, led by the enormous success of Micheal Jackson, the song seemed to offer good potential for inclusion on the LP. Bringing in Nile Rogers of Chic fame, the album featured a groovier, pop-dance iteration of Bowie that divided his fans.
Further, Bowie adjusted the lyrics of “Criminal World,” which also alienated his gay fans. The lyric, “I’m not the queen so there’s no need to bow/I think I see beneath your make-up/I’ll take your dress and we can truck on out” became, “I guess I recognize your destination/I think I see beneath your make-up/What you want is sort of separation”. And then the reference that had alarmed the BBC became, “You caught me kneeling at your sister’s door.” It was an odd, and for the gay community, disappointing disavowal of queer culture for Bowie, one of its pioneers. Why he chose the song seemed a bit mysterious. Bowie had shocked with his appearance and behaviour early in his career, but his music and lyrics did not tend to court controversy, so his changing of the lyrics was consistent to that approach.
Bowie’s version of “Criminal World” converted it into his Let’s Dance sound. The tempo was a bit quicker, especially through the first half, and rode a thick, rolling bassline to amp up the R&B feel. Guest guitarist on the album, Stevie Ray Vaughan, provided his usually bluesy, guitar trickery into the middle interlude, and the original’s droning finale was abandoned, keeping the track to a tidier, pop format. It was a cover that mixed all the approaches – straight up with a slight tempo change, some modernization and a genre change, all resulting in a slight reinvention – so very Bowie.
Laura’s debut album, featuring “Gloria”
“Gloria” \ Laura Branigan (1982, from Umberto Tozzi, 1979) & Angel Olsen (2021)
In the early 1980s you could not get away from Laura Branigan. Hailing from the Westchester County, New York, she spent the 1970s as a journeying back-up singer and after issuing a couple unsuccessful solo singles, released her debut LP, Branigan, in 1982. The album just cracked the top forty in the US and it’s debut single, “All Night with Me,” was a minor hit. But the next single, “Gloria,” went to #2 in the US and #6 in the UK and launched her career, following with a string of hits over the rest of the decade such as, “Solitaire,” “Self Control,” and “Ti Amo” (also a cover of a Tozzi hit). Branigan passed away in her sleep in 2004 at age 52 from an aneurysm.
Umberto Tozzi was an Italian singer who had a string of hits over the ‘70s, and his track, “Gloria,” co-written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, had been a hit in Europe in 1979. It was then a minor hit the same year in the UK for Jonathan King, who wrote English lyrics for it. His version had an Elton John feel to it, with strings and an understated vocal.
Branigan picked up “Gloria” on the suggestion of her label’s managing director, Doug Morris, and worked with Greg Mathieson, who had arranged and played keyboards on Tozzi’s original. Laura’s version was a straight-up cover and was consummate ‘80s, mixing ‘70s disco with cheesy ‘80s synths. It was the best produced and most forceful of the versions, giving it what she called, “an American kick.” For this playlist I am using Branigan’s version as it is the most famous in North America and would certainly have been the version that inspired Angel Olsen’s cover.
Olsen is a St. Louis born singer and guitarist who has been steadily building a successful career both commercially and critically. Starting in a more edgy, indie vein, she has been evolving her music into larger compositions and also leaning into country. Following her breakthrough albums, My Woman (2016) and All Mirrors (2019), emotional works that saw her push her powerful vocals to new heights, she found herself stuck at home like everyone else during the pandemic lockdowns. She decided to do something out of character, an EP of ‘80s covers, Aisles – indeed, they were songs she’d heard walking the grocery aisles (and thus it being likely to have been Branigan’s version). For such an earnest artist, why this turn? Because “I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous.”
However, the results from Olsen didn’t come across as very fun or spontaneous, though did have a hint of a wink and a nudge in converting driving, bouncy, novelty tracks like Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance,” into an electro-plodding dirge. Quite frankly, I could have selected any of the tracks from Aisles for this playlist as they were all interesting tracks delivered in icy, electronic compositions that pulled from the ‘80s vibe but offered a modern, alternative edge. She did a nifty take on the slower version of Alphaville’s, “Forever Young,” and a bang-up, straight on cover of Billy Idol’s, “Eyes Without a Face.” OMD’s, “If You Leave,” received a modern, edgy update, stripping its pop feel into an austere result.
I saw Olsen perform in 2019, touring for All Mirrors, and was a little surprised at how often she was delivering the songs as full-throated belters. I’ve never been a fan of singers that repeatedly hit you with the big moments, preferring those be reserved for occasional, more impactful use. I found the show a bit off-putting and turned my high opinion of Olsen’s work into a more hesitant position. Her subsequent move into pure country further alienated me. But when she issued Aisles in the interim, I loved it. Why? The whole album was understated, and her vocals were surprisingly, considerably restrained – even just spoken in places. It was opposite of what I’d seen in concert and the direction she’d seemed to be heading.
Thus, Angel’s cover of “Gloria” was surprising and, for me, pleasing because it took the original’s disco peppiness and turned it into a painfully slow, moody version with Olsen delivering unemotional, understated vocals. And it worked! I found Olsen’s take drew you in, retaining the melodic hooks of the original while the more subtle turns kept you on edge, bending your ear to hear where she was taking the track. This was the nudge and wink, making you wonder if she was going to explode or keep you in tension, never releasing the suspense of the track. Some strings (to add a little contrasting warmth to the icy electronics) and a minor lift towards the end enhanced this feel, building towards something that, ultimately never quite arrived, leaving the song as it began, a bit cold and foreboding. It was a complete reinvention, modernization, and genre change, a version that Olsen made her own. It was everything a good cover should be.
“Warm Leatherette” \ The Normal (1978) & Grace Jones (1980)
Covers like this are fun when you mix artists that, on the surface, seem opposite to each other. But when it comes to Grace Jones, she has always seemed able to slip into any milieu, so the distance can shrink quickly.
In 1978, the use of synthesizers was still in the early stages of evolution. Their use in modern rock was especially new, as was the genre itself as the post-punk age exploded. Daniel Miller was from London and had worked as a film editor and also a DJ in Switzerland. He was enervated by the experimental synth sounds coming out of the Krautrock scene. Returning to England at the time punk broke, he was frustrated at the focus on guitar as the driving force for new music. He picked up a synth and started making his own music.
Miller had recently read the novel, “Crash,” by J. G. Ballard and was quite taken with it. Using it as inspiration, he created the minimalist, electronic songs, “Warm Leatherette” and “T.V.O.D.” He spoke the lyrics and used sound effects and samples. It was cold, unemotional, and unlike anything else anyone was making in 1978. It surprisingly found an audience and, though not a charting success, helped accelerate the rise of experimental, modern synth rock. After including a mailing address on the single’s release, Miller found artists sending him tapes to work with him and make more music like, “Warm Leatherette.” This led him to form the label, Mute Records, also in 1978.
Grace Jones was born in Jamaica but moved with her family to Syracuse, New York in her teens. Her striking, angular looks, long, leggy frame, and forceful presence made her a natural for modeling, and she soon found herself in magazines and on the world’s top runways through the early ‘70s. In 1977, she made the surprising turn to music, launching herself into the fashion-adjacent world of disco and clubs such as New York’s Studio 54, where she was a regular. Jones released three albums between 1977 and 1979, all produced by Tom Moulton, which featured her disco takes on various songs from musicals and French artists such as Édith Piaf and Jacques Prévert. Her first hit came on her second LP, Portfolio, with the Piaf song, “La Vie en rose,” which was a club hit. However, overall, she remained on the fringes, not charting highly though becoming a darling of the gay scene.
Grace made a turn for her fourth album, changing her sound and approach. Released in 1980, Warm Leatherette was again a collection of covers but this time of contemporary tracks selected from the nascent post-punk scene. Her versions mixed reggae and new wave, with some traces of her disco origins. It was produced by Chris Blackwell, the founder of her label, Island Records, and recorded in his relatively new Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. He gave her a band of impressive musicians from varied backgrounds and musical styles, a collective he called, The Compass Point All-Stars. The core was the emerging Jamaican powerhouse rhythm section of Sly and Robbie (Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass), combined with Brit Barry Reynolds on guitar, Jamaicans Mikey Chung (guitar), Uziah ‘Sticky’ Thompson (percussion), and Tyrone Downie (keyboardist and from The Wailers – though he joined later and didn’t play on Warm Leatherette), and French-African Wally Badarou (keyboards). Blackwell’s goal was to leverage the players’ eclectic contributions into something new, which came to be known as The Compass Point Sound. They backed Grace Jones’ on her next three albums.
Warm Leatherette featured covers of the Pretenders, “Private Life,” Roxy Music’s, “Love Is the Drug,” and Tom Petty’s, “Breakdown” (he even wrote an additional verse for her). But the most surprising result of the disco ingénue’s reinvention was the title track, her re-make of The Normal’s avant-garde tune. Jone’s version rode a funky, reggae-ish bassline, delivering the “warm leatherette” lyrics in a dramatic flair. Sly and Robbie’s rhythm was offset by a bouncy, piano-tinged tone accented with tight, reggae stroked guitars. As with all Grace Jones performances, her distinct vocal rode shotgun, intriguing the ear with her alternating turns between threatening and sultry vibes. It was a good cover as a reinvention and genre change.
It seemed most of the Warm Leatherette album was issued as a single, with the title track being the fifth, reaching #20 in the US Dance Chart. The album didn’t measurably alter her success record, but that would change with her next LP, 1981’s Nightclubbing.
“Summertime” \ George Gershwin (1935) & Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company (1968)
I’ve been a bit of a sucker for ‘reaction videos’ on YouTube, where either younger folk listen to older music for the first time, or someone older but raised in classical or opera music discovers rock music. It’s entertaining seeing someone’s reaction to a well-known song on a first listen (for better or worse), but I also love how it makes me listen to the songs anew.
During one of these videos, I was embarrassed and shocked to learn that one of my all-time favourite songs, and one of classic rock’s best tracks, “Summertime” by Janis Joplin, was not her song. Even worse, it was a well-known track from the long popular Gershwin musical, Porgy and Bess, and had been covered thousands of times as a jazz standard. The 1959 version by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong has over 116 million plays on Spotify, so this was not exactly a secret. And I call myself a music fan! Much like those in the reaction videos, I grew up in my own music bubble and, never having been a fan of musicals – so much so that I actively avoid them – I thus had a total ignorance of Porgy and Bess. Though, I was surprised I hadn’t crossed paths with this song in my occasional jazz listening, but as we’ll discuss, that’s perhaps because the jazz versions of the song vary quite a bit from the version that I knew best.
Porgy and Bess was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward (who wrote the original novel, Porgy) and Ira Gershwin. It debuted in 1935. “Summertime” was an aria with lyrics by Heyward that was recurring throughout the musical. Billie Holiday’s version in 1936 was the first to chart, reaching #12 in the US, and thus I’ve used that version for the original, though naturally it had been performed many times in theatre before then. Early rockers Sam Cooke (1957) and Ricky Nelson (1962) did versions, and Billy Stewart did an upbeat, scat version that reached #10 in 1966. Ella and Louis’ recording of Porgy and Bess in 1959 is perhaps the best-known jazz version. Holiday’s version was quintessential jazz of the era, in which a light, plodding rhythm with a stand-up bass underpinned expressive horns, clarinet, and the sultry, impeccable vocal out front from the jazz legend.
In the late ‘80s, I was in my teens and after my swoon for new wave, got into classic rock for the first time. A popular thing in Toronto at the time were lazer shows at the planetarium. I went to the Lazer ‘60s show and naturally smoked some pot beforehand, as you do for a lazer show. This was the first time I recall hearing Joplin sing, “Summertime,” and I don’t know if I’ve had many such first listen experiences like that, sitting stoned in the dark planetarium while watching lazers play on the ceiling in concert with the enthralling psychedelic sounds of Big Brother and the Holding Company. It still gives me chills thinking back to it. I think the song is good enough to entrance me at any time, but that introduction sure locked me in.
The famous cover of the album, Cheap Thrills, featuring “Summertime”
Janis Joplin didn’t generally write her own music, preferring to put her raspy, powerful vocal talents to others’ tunes. She was a covers juggernaut, I suppose. Her natural talent, charisma, performances, and unabashed rock lifestyle quickly put her on the front edge of the late ‘60s rock scene. Her first two albums were recorded with the San Francisco band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the second of which, Cheap Thrills in 1968, included their version of, “Summertime.” It wasn’t released as a single, but the album went to #1 in the US.
The original song had a dramatic element – not surprising from a musical – that captured the hazy, lazy feel of a hot summer, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy / Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high,” and feelings of hope, “One of these mornings / You gonna rise up singin’ / Yes, you’ll spread your wings / And you’ll take to the sky.” The early jazz versions were mid-tempo, and not so quick that the dramatic effects of the lyrics had time to apply their force. Naturally, most versions took the somewhat languid pace to apply musical flourishes through the background, while the vocals always sat out front – as evidenced in Holiday’s version.
Joplin and the band slowed it further, emphasizing the drama and allowing Janis to employ one of her most powerful and affecting performances, which is saying something for her. The psychedelic music hooked you just as much, most notably through the incredible guitar work of James Gurley. The acid rock solos were offset by the song’s signature, beautifully rising and melodic guitar line, which opened the track, was the main solo in the middle, and then finished it out. It is one of rock’s greatest guitar performances and made this version a world apart from the original, making it wholly its own track – apparently so much so that I never imagined it was a Gershwin tune. Now, that’s a good cover.
“White Rabbit” \ Jefferson Airplane (1967) & The Damned (1980)
Arguably one of the best-known and most consummate examples of the psychedelic era – in direct competition with Joplin and “Summertime” – was “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. It still has the ability to create goosebumps almost fifty years later and after having heard it a thousand times. The San Francisco group, formed in 1965 by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, vaulted to the front lines of the psychedelic scene after being joined by vocalist, Grace Slick, and with the release of their second album, 1967’s Surrealistic Pillow.
After a failed first single, the LP’s second single, “Somebody to Love,” became a top ten hit, paving the way for the same result with the third single, “White Rabbit.” As a take on Lewis Carroll’s books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Slick’s lyrics drew on the stories’ many bizarre visual and contextual elements to enhance the tune’s dreamy sound. Starting slow with one of the most famous basslines in rock history and a subtle, marching drum (Slick, who wrote the song, took inspiration from “Bolero” by Ravel), the sound spun up into an epic crescendo featuring the power and distinctive tone of Grace’s vocal. The echoey guitar throughout enhanced the track’s trippy vibe.
The original artwork for The Damned’s single of, “White Rabbit.”
A common feature of the early punk scene was covering early rock tunes from the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Damned, noted for being the first UK punk band to release a single, were no different and issued their cover of “White Rabbit” in 1980 as a single in France and Germany. It would later be added to expanded releases of their fourth LP, The Black Album, including a rather rocking extended version.
The Damned put their dark, menacing sound into the track, abandoning the psychedelic mood of the original in place of an aggressive, fast, and pounding version – i.e. punk. The original had foreboding aspects, and they were brought to fore via Dave Vanian’s booming vocals and Paul Gray’s growling bass. The marching drums of the original were featured in double-time for the intro, leading to a pounding, crashing rhythm from the formidable Rat Scabies throughout the rest. Keeping the infectious, melodic touchstones of the Airplane’s version as well as some edgy guitar, it was an utterly fantastic cover thanks to its changes in tempo and genre.
“California Sun” \ Joe Jones (1960) & The Ramones (1976)
While The Ramones can be legitimately credited for inventing the punk sound thanks to their furious pacing, short and tight compositions, and unadorned styles, it was no secret the band was drawing on early rock ‘n’ roll as their inspiration, in particular by applying their sound to the surf rock of the early ‘60s. This was evident at the outset thanks to their second single, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” which was also included on their 1976 debut LP. Though a Ramones original, it could easily be taken as an update on a late ‘50s jukebox tune. However, its non-album B-side was unequivocally a throwback, it was their rollicking version of the surf rock classic, “California Sun.”
The original was recorded and released in 1960 by R&B singer, Joe Jones. He hailed from New Orleans and had played in bands since the 1940s, played piano and singing with the likes of B.B. King. He released several singles in his time and managed acts such as Shirley and Lee and The Dixie Cups. His biggest hit was also in 1960 with a top ten hit, “You Talk Too Much.” “California Sun” was written by Henry Glover, a successful record executive who in 1958 moved from the King Records label to Roulette, where he championed acts such as Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Ronnie Hawkins and his band, The Hawks, who would eventually become The Band. Roulette released Jones’ version of, “California Sun.”
Jone’s recording was a sparse, consummate early rock ‘n’ roll tune, beholden to jump blues origins and sprinkled with sprightly, sax accents. The tune’s undeniable hooks and infectious beats were in place, yet it didn’t break through. In 1963, The Rivieras, an unlikely surf rock act from the decidedly non-coastal locale of South Bend, Indiana, added organ and surf guitars to the track and took “California Sun” to a US top ten chart placing. Their success and contribution to modern rock was covered in The Builders profile. It would definitely have been their better known and surf-styled version that inspired The Ramones.
In most respects, The Ramone’s cover was straight-up to The Riviera’s version but the tempo change (um, super fast?), crunchy guitars, and pounding drums put The Ramone’s punk stamp on it. “California Sun” and “White Rabbit” are two of my favourite cover songs as examples of how great songs can be adapted into new genres in surprising and exhilarating ways. Punking up classic rock tunes was one way the new genre ingratiated itself, by blending the familiar with the new.
“Motor Bikin’” \ Chris Spedding (1975) & Martha & the Muffins (1980)
Chris Spedding was an artist I had always been vaguely aware and had learned his history and involvement in the early punk scene when writing the profile on the birth of punk. While never a punk himself, his use of the punk band, The Vibrators, as a backing band and their performance in the formative ‘100 Club Punk Special’ festival in 1976 helped connect him forever to that scene. It was then that I heard Spedding’s best-known song, “Motor Bikin’.”
When writing the profile on Toronto band, Martha and The Muffins, I was surprised to discover they covered, “Motor Bikin’” on their second LP, Trance and Dance, issued in 1980 just five years after the original. While their take on it was fairly straight-up, they put just enough of their signature, early new wave sound on it to create a nice little dichotomy between the two versions that exemplified the changes in modern rock over that five-year span.
Spedding was an English guitarist who established himself as a premier studio musician in the early 1970s. He played in several different bands and performed as a hired hand on many notable recordings such as Harry Nilsson’s album, Nilsson Schmilsson, the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, Brian Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets, and the Rodriguez album, Coming from Reality (now famously only a success in South Africa until the documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, popularized Rodriguez in North America in 2012). Spedding also produced the Sex Pistols’ first demos in 1976. His first solo album was a 1970 instrumental LP, Songs without Words, only released in Japan. There followed a few more LPs but he remained best known as a player on others’ more famous releases.
His 1976, self-titled album, his fifth, was intended as an attempt to assert himself as a solo artist and create his own presence as an artist. Presaging the punk approach and similar to the trends of the prior few years, especially in what would be known as pub rock, he offered a collection of songs that were modernized, toughened takes on the rock ‘n’ roll styles of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The album included the intriguing, “Guitar Jamboree,” which featured several guitar segments mimicking each of his guitar heroes.
But it was, “Motor Bikin,’” released the year earlier in ’75 as a single and then included on the LP, that broke through for him. It reached the top twenty in the UK singles chart. A quick paced, straight-ahead rocker that blended elements of rock ‘n’ roll, a dash of rockabilly, and a slight punk edge. It harkened back to the tunes about cars, motorcycles, and racing that frequented the early days of rock ‘n’ roll and that had marked its rebellious tone. One of the song’s catchiest elements was the female backing vocal, but I can’t find any credit as to who that was. I mention it only because it helped made it a perfect tune for the Muffins to cover.
Indeed, Martha and the Muffins’ cover was straight-up, keeping the tempo consistent, though the dual female vocal from the two Marthas (Johnson and Ladly) gave it a different call and response element. Spedding’s guitar sections were mostly abandoned, instead leaning into the keyboard and sax sound that defined the Muffins’ early new wave sound. The result was a familiar take on the tune but altered into a slight genre change and, as a result of abandoning the older rock ‘n’ roll feel of Spedding’s version, a modernization. It was a fun cover that showed how the emerging pub and punk rock scene of mid-‘70s had given way to the new wave and post-punk vibes of the 1980s.
The album that introduced me to “Our Love Will Still Be There”
“Our Love Will Still Be There” \ The Troggs (1966) & The Fluid (1990) (YouTube playlist only) & Fabienne DelSol and The Bristols (1998)
This is another track I only discovered was a cover after a good twenty years listening to it. In the grunge era, I was entranced by my vinyl copy of a 1990 Sub Pop EP, Glue, from the Denver band, The Fluid (though my album only listed them as Fluid). It was produced by Butch Vig, soon to be the producer of Nirvana’s Nevermind album and later part of the band, Garbage. The main song from Glue that I put on many a mixtape in that time was a rocking, suitably grungy track, “Our Love Will Still Be There.” Driven by crunchy guitars, pounding drums, and a hook-laden, quick, repeating rhythm and melodic chorus carried by vocalist, John Robinson, it stood out as a nice mix of grunge and pop.
Then, some ten years ago, I heard a version of the song during a show on TV, and thanks to the app, Shazam, I was able to identify it. It had a distinctly older, more psychedelic feel to it, and sure enough, it was from The Troggs, which to that point I had only known for their more famous tunes, “Wild Thing” and “Love Is All Around.” This prompted me to dive deeper and discover other gems such as, “With A Girl Like You” and “Any Way That You Want Me.” Once again, a cover acted as a gateway to other music.
Hailing from Andover, England, The Troggs were part of the garage rock era that helped move rock from the early rock ‘n’ roll sounds into the tougher, rawer variants that would lead to modern rock. Despite its catchy qualities, “Our Love Will Still Be There” was not issued as a single and thus was not part of their string of top ten hits over 1966 and 1967. It was the first track on the second side of their debut album in 1966, From Nowhere, and was written by their singer, Reg Presley. It captured their blend of psychedelia and pop, with the loose garage rock guitar, catchy melody, and funky rhythms.
Not long after this discovery, I came across Fabienne DelSol, a French singer based in the UK. She sang in English and offered up a diet of psychedelic and garage rock tunes with the band, The Bristols. They issued a series of singles between 1996 and 1999 before releasing two albums in 2000 and 2001. Fabienne then went solo, having released four albums since. Her cover of “Our Love Will Still Be There” was while still with The Bristols and appeared on a 7” single issued in Japan by indie label, Vinyl Japan, which specialized in garage, indie, and punk. (The flipside of the single had a song from Japanese garage rockers, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant.) The Bristols track then became available in the UK when their label, Damaged Goods, issued a greatest hits album in 2006 collecting their singles and several album tracks into one release.
The Bristols’ take was closer to The Troggs’ original, keeping the plodding rhythm as opposed to the quick-step take by Fluid. It was stripped down to a loose, drum and bass track, with fuzzy, psychedelic guitars rumbling in the background. Fabienne’s accented vocal was front and centre, like a cross between Nancy Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot. It was a modernized take on The Troggs’ version, though straight-up in terms of maintaining the ‘60s garage rock feel. It just showed how this catchy song had legs and could be refreshed quite nicely for each era.
“Used to Love Her/Him” \ Guns N’ Roses (1988) & L7 (1992)
Coming off the immense success of their 1987 debut LP, Appetite for Destruction, Guns N’ Roses issued a mini-LP, Lies (also known as G N’ R Lies), as their follow-up, released in late ‘88. The album reached #2 and the single, “Patience,” reached the top ten in the US and UK in 1989. Its success was somewhat remarkable since it was mostly an acoustic album, markedly separating it from their rocking debut.
I was going to school in New Jersey during that time and was inundated with that first album, and quite frankly had never fully warmed up to their modern glam rock sound. While home in Toronto a friend pulled out Lies, primarily to snigger and revel in the track, “I Used to Love Her.” I was surprised by the more stripped down sound and found it far more approachable than the epic tracks of their prior album. While “I Used to Love Her” came across as a novelty track because of its snarky, black-humoured and misogynistic lyrics, the catchy melody and sprightly mix of acoustic and subtle, electric guitars was hard to deny. Probably more because it was so different for G N’ R, it caught my ear and became the only G N’ R album I would ever buy.
L7, on the other hand, was a band I was heartily into from the time I first discovered them a few years later. I was first introduced to them via the album, Bricks Are Heavy, led by the powerful track, “Pretend We’re Dead.” I quickly discovered their earlier album, 1990’s Smell the Magic, and then followed through with their next LPs, Hungry for Stink, in 1994. They offered an intoxicating mix of power pop, grunge, punk, and a dose of heavy metal all delivered with swagger from the all-female quartet.
The third single off Bricks Are Heavy was the song, “Monster,” released only in the UK and Europe. Its B-side was a cover of, “I Used to Love Her,” but they reversed the roles and thus overturned the misogynistic take of the original. They also did what you might have expected G N’ R to have done with the track and turned it into a rollicking rock song with thick guitars and attitude-filled vocals. A rolling bassline, booming drums, an edgy guitar solo, and breakneck pace sufficiently changed up the song while maintaining that irresistible melody. It was all done in a tidy two minutes. This was L7 at their best during that Bricks Are Heavy period, when they produced some of the best rock of the decade.
“Lucky Number” \ Lene Lovitch (1978) & Nina Hagen Band (1979)
You have to love it when a song is delivered by two of the most interesting and pioneering modern rock women of the modern rock period – and in two different styles consistent to their own brands. I have already covered this song from the perspective of Lovich’s role as an early female contributor to modern rock.
Lovich was born in the US but made her name in the UK music scene recording for legendary indie label, Stiff Records. Her first LP in 1978, Stateless, was a classic of the post-punk era, melding punk vibes with early new wave sounds and crafted via ‘60s styled pop songs. After her great cover of, “I Think We’re Alone Now” (a worthy cover for a future volume) failed to catch on, “Lucky Number” scored her a top ten hit in the UK. The album was written with her romantic partner, Les Chappell, who also performed on the album. Her distinct vocals, both in tone and with her sharp inflections, gave her music a thoroughly modern sound, fully evident in “Lucky Number.”
While the cover of “Lucky Number” first appeared on Nina Hagen Band’s album, Unbehagen, I knew of it from this North American EP with selected songs from their first two albums.
German diva, Nina Hagen, started her career as a teenager behind the iron curtain in East Germany. She moved to West Germany in 1976, settling in Hamburg and then travelling to London where she was exposed to the emerging punk scene. Returning to West Germany, she formed Nina Hagen Band and released their self-titled debut LP in 1978, followed by a second album, Unbehagen, in 1979. Their cover of “Lucky Number” was on that second LP.
Sung in German, Hagen’s version of the song was titled, “Wir leben immer… nock (Lucky Number),” which in English translated to, “We Are Alive… still.” Further, from what I can tell from translations, the lyrics were entirely different, so the cover was only of the original’s music. Of course, Hagen’s band gave it their own, disco punk brand with, of course, Hagen’s usually dynamic, quirky, and fierce vocals. A reinvention as only Hagen could do.
“Mind Your Own Business” \ Delta 5 (1979) & Automatic (2019)
Also featured in the profile on the first generation of modern rock women was Delta 5. Hailing from the dark wave hotbed of Leeds, England, where politics and music often mixed, the band started as an all-female trio before rounding out to a quintet with the addition of a couple of dudes. Their dual bass sound emphasized their funky take on the post-punk sound, infused with feminist views of which their 1979 debut single, “Mind Your Own Business,” was a case in point. An incredibly catchy drum and bass tune with echoey vocals, the track was a fierce rant on feminine independence. They released their only LP, See the Whirl, in 1981 before breaking up.
Automatic is an LA band formed in 2017, and like Delta 5 originated (but remains) an all-female trio. Drummer Lola Dompé is the daughter of Bauhaus/Love and Rockets drummer, Kevin Haskins, and her sister, Diva, plays in their father’s act, Poptone. Lola and Diva were also in an act together in the early 2000s, Blackblack. Her bandmates in Automatic are Izzy Glaudini and Halle Saxon and they are named after a track from the seminal 1981 power-pop LP, Beauty and the Beat, by The Go-Go’s.
Automatic (L to R): Halle Saxon, Izzy Glaudini, & Lola Dompe
Automatic’s version of “Mind Your Own Business” was their second release, a non-album single issued in 2019 and just before their debut LP, Signal. They have since released a second album in 2022, Excess. The band’s sound harkens back to early synth new wave, updated with modern twists, catchy pop vibes, darkly tinged rhythms, and haunting vocals. Their cover of “Mind Your Own Business” was mostly straight-up, keeping the bass and drum foundation, but mixed with their dark-synth tones and more haunting vocals to achieve a great modernization.
In 2021, Apple used the Delta 5 version in a commercial, a surprising alteration of the song’s intent to promote new privacy features in the iPhone. However, such an appearance can do much to boost the awareness of appreciation of a song, so hopefully it did the members of Delta 5 some favours.
Thus concludes another batch of great cover tunes, once again revealing how a good song can translate between genres, genders, and decades to reveal itself through different interpretations.
