TOP 5 COVER VERSIONS OF ALL TIME

In the age of Tik Tok where there's an over-saturation of cover version trends that go viral across the globe, I thought it might be a good idea to choose 5 of the best cover versions non-internet-related.

Plus it's Monday and it's raining and my first choice is aptly related to the subject.

5. I Don't Like Mondays - Toris Amos

In a post-Columbine/9/11 America, 'I Don't Like Mondays' seemed to take on extra poignancy (or at least to me) around the time Toris Amos released her 2001 cover version of 'The Boomtown Rats' classic on her 'Strange Little Girls' album.

Of course, the original version was written about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego but Amos's cover imbues it with all the fragility of a new century blinking into the light of a new apocalypse, one that is carrying over a hangover from the last.

I also love the bell-like vibraphone-like synths that accompany her close-to-breaking voice which is a perfect metaphor for someone teetering on the edge about to commit carnage.

4. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood- Lou Rawls

After Nina Simone laid down the original version of the song in 1964, there has been an abundance of cover versions of this classic song written by Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott and Sol Marcus, though, none of the others (to my mind) are quite so hard-hitting and satisfying as Lou Rawls's epic version which really pulls you through the emotional wringer.

When I listen to Rawls with his growly-smooth voice deliver the lyrics to this song of heartbreak and anguish I feel as if he's delivering the most devastating drunk-dialed answer phone message to his ex-partner ever. It feels confessional as if he needs to explain and expunge himself of the demons inside his heavy soul.

Check it out!

3. Something - Frank Sinatra

As way of revenge for what the Hippies did to America, Frank decided to add a "you hang around, Jack!" additional line to George Harrison's most famous love song 'Something'. It was a cross-generational splitting of the atom basically and only Sinatra could have pulled it off without giving a flying fuck.

But in all seriousness, Sinatra and Harrison apparently got on really well when they met as demonstrated in the photo above when George attended Frank's studio sessions for one of his most low-key and underrated 60's albums 'Cycles' for the Reprise label. Later reports suggested Harrison wasn't at all happy with Frank's cover of his song but by that time it was too late.

There's something about the 50-something Sinatra working his way through the choppy waters of the counter-culture of the 60's/70's like Neddy Merrill in John Cheever's 'The Swimmer' that lends an existential poignancy to his cover version of Harrison's classic song.

Perhaps even better is Frank's later version with sublime Nelson Riddle arrangement recorded for his 1980 'Past, Present and Future' trilogy album. But for now, I'm leaving you with the brassy, 'don't give a fuck' 1971 performance live from his Royal Festival Hall concert.  

3. A Case Of You - Prince

Prince was the kind of artist that could do a cover version and make you believe he wrote the original song so uniquely expert was he as a musician in the way he could live the emotion of the lyrics and melody as if it had just been newly created.

One of the greatest surprise tracks I've ever stumbled upon was his version of Joni Mitchell's 'A Case Of You' where he sings with a high falsetto voice that I doubt anyone else could pull off in such an extraordinary way. When I listen to it now, I have absolutely no doubt he's a 'lonely painter' who 'lives in a box of paints'.

Prince could paint with all the colours of the rainbow musically speaking and it truly shows here.

1. Only You - The Flying Pickets

It may very well be because of the immortal use of the song in Wong Kar Wai's 'Fallen Angels' movie (2:35) in which the protagonist drives a girl pillion through Hong Kong in the early dawn to the sound of the Flying Pickets's 'Only You', (the most unlikely cultural cross over I've ever come across) that has forced me to put this in the top 5 cover versions of all time.

Also in the Pickets' favour is their beautifully mundane original video set in a dead-end pub with faces as long as horses and side burners from hell.

Yazoo never stood a chance with their original version against this motley acapella crew.