h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Really?
Are you serious? I'd like to think they were being loud somewhere...

I have an unfortunate image of them as middle-aged housewives. "We've got a Fuzzbuster and we're gonna use it!"

The last I heard was that the singer and guitarist live in Japan, doing quite big gigs through out the year. They took off there when they released "Pink, Pink Sunshine"

I think this was about 4 years ago, ages after they were around, and a long time after the noise was toned down.

Ever get the feeling it got distracted along the way?

I was thinking today about any more ideas, though I have to admit that decent cover versions are slightly thin-on-the-ground. The problem is that the performers either have to make it very different from the original, or just very better. And when you're so used to hearing the original either of these can be very difficult to pull off.

or do what the Sugar Babes have just done and take the WORDS of one song (Freak by some 70s disco combo) and the MUSIC of another (Gary Numans Are Friends Electric)

Love the song, but find the video very disturbing......

...whose cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' 'Second That Emotion' was rather fine, at least at the time.

Jimster - once again you are playing with madness. A good song can survive being covered by any band? *What?*
Hold on, aaah, you're pulling my leg. Which is a shame, 'cos I'd just replenished my stock of es.

One-hit wonders: I'm stunned to confess that I helped ensure that Dr and the Medics were not a one-hit wonder by buying 'Burn'.

Covers by the same band: Nirvana did three versions of 'Polly', all of which are rather good.

Best Beatles Cover: I've only heard it as a theme tune (for 'Grace Under Fire') but Aretha Franklin's 'Lady Madonna' was a belter.

Soory to continue the sidetrack, but I just had to point this out to SDM;
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/9440/fbpage.html
The official Fuzzbox homepage...
, who is sadder than you can *possibly* imagine.

Honestly not pulling your leg, Jack. If a song is so flimsy that just being covered can "ruin" the original, then I don't reckon it could have been that good in the first place. As I said earlier, you'll always have the original. What is to one person a sacred track is, to another person, just a load of tripe. Every song has the potential to be hated by someone, whereas not every song is recognised by everyone as a classic. As an excellent entry that entered Peer Review today shows, Unchained Melody has been covered over 600 times, proving that it's popular with someone (Simon "Pop Idol" Cowell, for one, as he's been responsible for getting the song to the No. 1 spot twice!). But not everyone thinks it's such a great song as to worry about massacring it at the local karaoke.

My fave Beatles cover is probably Dear Prudence by Siouxie & the Banshees.

Fave cover BY the Beatles is probably Baby, It's You, a song by Burt Bacharach.

Jimster

Aha, in that case I agree with you, Jimster. But what I meant was that if a cover version is in the charts, you hear it all over the place, and it can actually drive the original version out of your head. (This only applies to rarely-heard originals BTW). Or at least it can taint the memory of the original, so that when you hear it in your head the cover version starts blasting out instead. Then you have to find the original version and play it repeatedly so your mind is cleansed!

Sorry to sidetrack again but I've been to the Fuzzbox site.
It all looks and sounds much more exciting than we really know it could possibly be!

Doesn't it just!

Another reply to Jack - that is possibly the most annoying thing ever... in that instance, yes, even the original can be "ruined" temporarily

Although I do like both tracks, I always find it frustrating when the opening bars of either "How Soon is Now" by the Smiths or "Hippy Chick" by Soho start up. I can never tell which one it is until either the whiny guitar or the female vocals come in, depending on which one it is...

One of the funniest thing I saw was the whole of Brixton Academy bounce up and down to the opening chords of "Smells like Teen Spirit" only to find it was The Credit to the Nation rap version

There's a really good Missy Elliot version of that too - as is the remix that has her "Get your Freak On" over the music from George Michael's "Faith". That always gets a good reaction.

There's a rather fun remix of Madonna's "Don't Tell Me" to the music of the Prodigy's "Slap My Bitch Up" - retitled "Don't Tell Me, Bitch!"

:-o

Jimster

2002 will go into pop history as covers yr
anoyingly unimagnative covers

heard about a pub singer doing "Angels" but the lyric was "I'm s****ing donkeys instead"

Soooo much better than the original

CH

you might be thinking of the shirehorses cover of angels on 'our kid eh? - called arsholes - definately a love song written from a women's perspective. in fact anything by the might horse is an improvement on the original. i can't listen to no surprises without thinking about their 'no big sizes'

*ducks*

There is no danger that i can 'out-peel' any of the folk on this thread but i heard a hysterical version of anarchy in the uk by the Ukranians, last night. i think it was in norwegian (or possible ukranian - wouldn't that be strange ) it kinda turned into a close harmony choir at the end, very, very funny

Ah yes, the Ukranians - Wedding Present spin-off band, they've done quite a few covers, all in Ukranian, funnily enough. Their EP of Smiths covers is worth seeking out.

As for the Shirehorses, their Status Quo medley always makes me laugh until I've followed through.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the most excellent C.4 show a few years ago which covered eurovision songs.

Sinead O'conners and some blokes all kinds of everything was magnificant as was Kinke's (speeling?) version of "Save all you kisses" with a de-tuning and an implied ? at the end with the lyric "because your only 3"

Also a re-formed Bananarama's version of Waterloo was a jolly jape - anyone know if these were every released? (the songs not the artists)

CH

The more I post here, the sadder it makes me look, but yes, the show was Eurotrash and the songs were released on an album, "A Song For Eurotrash".

My favourite remains Edwyn Collins' version of the overlooked classic "Ding A Dong".