Under The Covers

“Great Things Are Covered” – Anonymous

I’ve been slacking with the music posts recently but I’m gonna try to make up for it with three quality covers today.

Eels – I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (Live Prince Cover) [Bonus Track] from “With Strings – Live At Town Hall.”

I’m not a huge Prince fan and so I can’t say that I was familiar with this track before I listened to this cover but, if you’re like me, that won’t keep you from enjoying it.

Geri Halliwell – Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney Cover)* from “Lift Me Up.”

This is a somewhat straight-forward interpretation (unlike Duffy’s) but it’s fun nonetheless thanks to the quality of the source material. *Thanks, Sean!

Martha Wainwright – Stormy Weather (Live Judy Garland Cover) from “Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall.”

Stormy Weather is perhaps most famously done by Etta James but Judy Garland also performed it, including during her celebrated one-night-only performance at Carnegie Hall AKA “the greatest night in show business history.” When Rufus Wainwright recreated the night in 2006 (someone’s got cajones!), he had his sister Martha take the stage for one song – and she almost stole the show. As always, Martha’s voice in any given second has more emotion than I experience in an entire year and while I’ll concede that her voice might be an acquired taste, I’d still have to recommend this track.

Enjoy!

Jackson To Play 50 Shows At London’s O2

The BBC is reporting that Michael Jackson has committed to playing 50 shows at London’s O2 – five times what was originally announced last week and twice what was rumored would be the maximum number of shows.

Some 360,000 pre-sale tickets have been sold so far and if all 50 dates sell out, Jackson will have sold a million seats for the run of shows.

In just the pre-sale phase, Jackson has already beat the previous record-holder for ticket sales at O2: Prince’s 21-night sold-out stint that sold over 350,000 tickets.

The rate of ticket sales has also set a new record: 33 tickets per minute.

More at the BBC and MichaelJacksonLive.

Under The Covers

“Great Things Are Covered” – Anonymous

The Boy Least Likely To – Faith (George Michael Cover). I’m sorry, is that a banjo?  Oh yeah.

Ane Brun – True Colors (Cyndi Lauper Cover). Norwegian songstress’s achingly-beautiful piano-ballad version of the gay icon’s mega-hit.

Damien Rice – When Doves Cry (Prince Cover). Brilliant song, brilliantly covered with a lyrical interpolation from Led Zepplin’s “Baby I’m Gonna Leave You.”