BAD COVER VERSION 022: AND THERE AIN'T NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT

[defrog]

As we've seen so far in this series, one chief criteria for determining the success of a cover is whether or not the cover artist can make a hit out of it. In which case, the most bankable strategy would be to cover a song that was already a hit for someone else. And as we'll see this week, there's more than one way to remake a hit into another hit.

THE SONG: “You Keep Me Hanging On”

THE ORIGINAL: The Supremes

COMMENTS: Well, it's the Supremes, and it's one of my favorite Supremes songs. It's classic Holland-Dozier-Holland material, and one of their most covered songs. Looking at the lyrics - which tell that universal tale of trying to break it off with someone who can't let it go - it's not hard to see why this is a timeless classic that many others have tackled. But only two have had managed to come close in duplicating its success.

COVER #1: Vanilla Fudge

COMMENTS: Vanilla Fudge approached most of their covers in similar fashion - slowing them down and adding lots of psychedelica. This was their first single and their first big hit (and just two years after The Supremes charted with it), but apart from Carmen Appice's drumming, there's not much to recommend it, for my money.

COVER #2: Kim Wilde

COMMENTS: Twenty years later, British pop singer Kim Wilde tackled the song, and is actually pretty good. The bad-break-up story suits her, and the song's arrangements are interesting in that she and her producer/brother Ricky Wilde didn't know the song that well, so they just took a fresh approach to it. Personally, I like it a lot, although I'm admittedly a Kim Wilde fan. That said, the sound and the look could only have happened in the 80s. This is both good and bad.

WINNER: The Supremes, with Kim Wilde a close second (her version is great 80s power pop, but she's no Diana Ross) and Vanilla Fudge an also-ran (as I never really liked them much to start with).

Next week: the season finale and possibly the greatest cover song ever!

Let me find somebody else,

This is dF

Comments

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

I like this song so much. I like it no matter who sings it (and yes, that include Mark Ronson, thank you very much).

I'm going to write in madness from the excellent Dangermen Sessions lp.