cover versions - HecklerSpray

Unknown Covers: I Put A Spell On You

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

One of the weirdest, wildest performers ever to grace an eardrum is one of the least known, despite penning one of the most iconic songs ever written. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a man with a crazed look in his eye and tusks on his nose.

And it is he who wrote ‘I Put A Spell On You’, and there’s a good chance the many of you have never heard the original (those that have, shut your stupid know-it-all faces and go and sulk in a record shop somewhere).

Of course, the most famous version of the track is the eyewateringly good Nina Simone take. There’s been many, many covers, but none of them have the strange hoodoo energy of the original.

HecklerPlay: Spotify Playlists ? Rock ‘n’ Soul

August 5th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

Here we are, with yet another playlist for you to get your ears around. Not literally of course. Have you ever tried to wrap a bit of your body around a sound wave? It’s impossible – unless you’ve been indulging in especially strong hallucinogenic drugs.

Anyway, this week, we’re looking at soul covers of rock classics. And there’s some very good tunes knocking about – in some cases, the soul versions surpassing the originals.

So let us hop to it and see what we have in store for you.

Unknown Covers: Wild Thing

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

‘Wild Thing’ is, without question, one of the most iconic bits of music ever cut to wax. Pretty much every human born has the opening lyrics imprinted in their DNA. If someone says “Wild thing, you make my heart sing…”, your head fills in “you make everything, groovy”.

And the version that everyone knows the best is the one cut by The Troggs in 1966. But did you know that it was a cover version?

Yup, ‘Wild Thing’ was written by a chap by the name of Chip Taylor and was originally recorded by The Wild Ones in 1965.

Unknown Covers: Bang Bang

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

Without doubt, the stand-out track on the Kill Bill film is Nancy Sinatra’s eerie reading of ‘Bang Bang’. That weird tremelo guitar and super sparse backing, leaving Nancy to emote every single word… it’s a striking and unusual piece of music.

But alas, it wasn’t originally Nancy’s. In fact the song originally belonged to Cher.

Written by Cher’s partner, Sonny Bono, the song isn’t some obscure b-side, but rather, it was Cher’s biggest solo hit of the ’60s, reaching no. 2 in the chart, selling over 3 million copies in the US alone!

Unknown Covers: I Got You (I Feel Good)

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

James Brown is a man who has had his back catalogue plundered like no other. Hip hop producers stole lick after lick, break after break, making JB relevant long after many other soul singers had shuffled off into some musical wilderness.

Not that Brown would’ve minded because he was already in the business of recycling his own hits for pay.

And while this isn’t strictly a cover version, it’s interesting to note that the famous version of the song everyone called ‘I Feel Good’ was by no means the first.

Unknown Covers: ‘Step On’

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

There was a brief period in pop-music history where everyone seemed to want to come from Manchester. With bands like The Stone Roses, New Order and the Happy Mondays (come on now, no-one ever liked James that much) all making waves across the country, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Manchester was alive with bright, young songwriting talent.

However, one of the defining songs of the baggy/Madchester period was actually a cover version of an old hippie glamrock track by a bloke called John Kongos.

Who? Exactly. But you can bet that he enjoyed the surge in royalties when the Happy Mondays covered his track, ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again’, and retitled it a simpler ‘Step On’.

Unknown Covers: God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

It’s time to tell you about a song you didn’t know was a cover, again. Which means of course, facing people who did know so they can roll their eyes and cuh! “I though everyone knew that!” And this time, we’re looking at a stadium rock classic in ‘God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You’.

You probably remember this song from ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ as performed by Kiss. One of the ways that the band attracted attention to themselves around this time was to get out the cotton wool balls and take all their make-up off, leaving everyone to coo about how painfully ordinary they looked.

However, the song was originally released in 1973 by Argent, which had some rather famous people behind the kit themselves.

Unknown Covers – Take That Special

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

The trouble with asking any question with “Did you know…?” is that you’ll always get a smart-arse that says “I did actually, yes,” before you’ve even finished your sentence. Suffice to say, these articles are aimed at those that don’t so they can coo “Oooh! That’s interesting!”

And so, today’s unknown covers special looks at Take That. The boys did a few cover versions in their time – some improving the original, some almost identical… and one in particular, so woeful that you’ll wish humans had never evolved ears.

Even if you have one of Britain’s most talented pop-song writers on board, you can still find time to take someone else’s song… and in the case of Take That, turn them into gigantic hits.

Unknown Covers: Nirvana Special

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

Nirvana, unfathomably, became astonishingly famous. Pull the band to pieces and you can justify it ’til the cows come home… but really, it doesn’t make any sense that a band that noisy and that unwilling should get to such lofty, celebrity heights.

Of course, it did Nirvana no harm at all that they had a good looking singer and a penchant for irresistibly catchy hooks underneath all that fuzz and howling.

And while there’s no denying that, in Kurt Cobain, the group had a prodigiously talented songwriter, Nirvana were a band that loved a good cover version.

Unknown Covers – I Think We’re Alone Now

August 7th, 2012 By Mof Gimmers

The music business is a funny and fickle old tart that can see great songwriters ignored because of their bulbous noses or horrible singing voices. It only takes a prettier and altogether nicer looking human to do a version of your song and you find you have a hit on your hands.

We wrote about a load of songs yesterday, that you may not have known were cover-versions. We did a Top 10, but to be honest, it could’ve been a Top 50!

And so, thanks to a unfamiliarly positive response from you lot, we’re going to make this a weekly feature! Today, we’ll be telling you that the glorious ’80s pop of Tiffany wasn’t the original version at all!