Wrap your arms around me, cover me!

So, whaddya think about cover songs? You know, when the work of one artist - often a well-known piece of music - gets covered by someone else. My brother and I debate the merits of covers. Some bands are so good at it that their covers meet or beat the originals, while others leave you yawning or scratching your head.

I am thinking about covers today because, while sitting at my desk, I am enjoying Cheap Trick's live recording that recreates The Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." I have to confess, the liner notes are confusing me: it states that the band performed two sold-out show in LA as the guests of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, yet the recording features the New York Philharmonic Orchestra - so is the recording from those LA shows or...? Anyway, hardly matters, it's cool stuff. I thought maybe I'd make it through the rest of 2010 without mentioning ROBIN ZANDER again, but, hey, you know, it's my blog. (Sometimes) I don't know any other singer that could have pulled off this performance. He somehow manages to sound like all the Beatles - no mean feat. And LIVE! Crazy good. He looks right in the Pepper uniform, too. There are other featured singers as well: Ian Ball from Gomez, Rob Laufer who acquits himself admirably on sitar-tinged "Within You Without You" - confession time, when I was very little, this was my favorite song on "Sergeant Pepper." I have no explanation for that. Ian Ball brings a sort of Rufus Wainwrighty quality to "When I'm Sixty-Four." Joan Osborne, a singer comfortable in my styles, appears on "Lovely Rita" - it's good but I don't get having a female lead on this one.

Cheap Trick is so good at covers I have longed for them to make an all-covers album and I guess this fits the bill. Another band that grabbed that concept and ran with it all the way for a touchdown is Def Leppard. DL's 2006 covers album "Yeah!" is, with all due respect, the coolest thing they've done since "Hysteria." I know some fans didn't like it - boo to you. They covered a variety of rock tunes from the 1970s, the bands that clearly influenced the English lads that would grow up to be the Leps. I loved this album because I grew up on the same music: Bowie, Roxy Music, ELO and The Kinks. "Yeah!" also gave Joe Elliott a chance to really sing and his heartfelt interpretations of these songs clue you in to how much the music means, even to wealthy, famous rock stars who are supposed to be too jaded to care.

Yet another all-covers jamboree was Duran Duran's "Thank You" album. Being quite the Duranie in the day, I was iffy about this one when it was released in 1995 - rap songs by some well-bred white Brits? Now I'm tempted to give it another listen: Duran Duran taking on Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Sly & The Family Stone? It has potential!

All three of the bands I've mentioned here have done outstanding covers as one-off projects: Cheap Trick with "Day Tripper," "Magical Mystery Tour," "Speak Now And Forever Hold Your Peace," "California Man," and countless others; Def Leppard with "Action" and, believe it or not, Englebert Humperdinck's "Please Release Me" (okay, that one was kind of a joke); and Duran Duran with "Instant Karma," "Femme Fatale" and a few others. Do you like when a band covers someone else's songs? Who has a particular knack for it? Use the links below to check out "Sergeant Pepper Live" and "Yeah!" - we don't own Duran Duran's "Thank You" but we can try ordering it for you from another library, if you're interested. Just ask at the third floor Readers' Services desk - it's not just for readers. :)

Sergeant Pepper Live by Cheap Trick
Yeah! by Def Leppard