(Click the Snuggie to d/l)
1. Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler cover) – Tori Amos
2. Careless Whisper (WHAM! cover) – Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright
3. Girlfriend In A Coma (The Smiths cover) – Joshua Radin
4. Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover) – Teagan and Sara
5. In Between Days (The Cure cover) – Ben Folds
6. Send Me An Angel (Real Life cover) – Dirty On Purpose
7. Refugee (Tom Petty cover) – Melissa Etheridge
8. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper cover) – Ben Gibbard
9. Lovers In A Dangerous Time (Bruce Cockburn cover) – Barenaked Ladies
10. Kangaroo (Big Star cover) – Bat For Lashes
11. I Want A New Drug (Huey Lewis and the News cover) – Glen Phillips
12. When Doves Cry (Prince cover) – Damien Rice
13. People Are Strange (The Doors cover) – Echo and the Bunnymen
14. Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits cover) – The Killers
15. Jessie’s Girl (Rick Springfield cover) – OK Go
16. Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler cover) – The Dan Band
Three of these tracks have been featured in FCS posts before, I know. But I really like them. Heck, I could have probably done nothing but Cure covers (OK Go also has a rather insubstantial cover of The Lovecats floating around, and Bat For Lashes has an interesting take on A Forest).
Notes:
Track 6: Wait, it’s not “Simian Angel?” Huh.
Track 9: I dig Bruce Cockburn’s songs, but the overly synth-y feel of his early stuff, like “Lovers In A Dangerous Time,” suits neither his protest folk (“If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” for instance) or his more ballad-y fare. BNL, on the other hand, nails the song, and this version of it is one of my favorites on a desert-island level.
Track 10: Okay, I know that Alex Chilton’s band was completely inactive during the 80s, but I’m just sneaking this on here. First, Natasha Kahn just has a Voice, and it has that same ethereal quality to it that I love about Lourdes Hernandez (aka Russian Red). Second, “Kangaroo” is my fave Big Star song.
Track 12: If you’ve not heard Australian radio station Triple J’s “Like A Version” compilations and you’re a cover enthusiast, you are Missing Out. This is from one of the discs. Damien Rice also has a cover of “Creep” aka The Radiohead Song That People Who Are Really Into Radiohead Don’t Like, a song I have enough versions of to warrant its own post in the future.
Track 13: A cover from the 80s, not an 80s cover, this breaks the rules, too. Rules are made to be broken. Plus, who doesn’t love The Lost Boys.
Track 14: Because who doesn’t love Empire Records (or Hot Fuzz, for that matter?) This track isn’t what I’d expect from The Killers at all.
Track 16: The circle completes itself. A live version of that seminal cover from Old School‘s wedding band.
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this is excellent. DAMN YOU.
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