Mixtape: Young Americans
Soul and soul-adjacent acts doing unexpected covers (and a few completely unsurprising covers really well).
That moment when you realize a band you love loves a song you love. That moment when you learn a song you love has a history and that band you love just gave you a little gift. That moment when you discover a new song to love because of a band you love.
That’s a good cover for you.
Durand Jones & the Indications cover David Bowie. “One damn song that can make me break down and cry,” only moreso.
JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound cover Wilco. When the almost 13yo was a barely 4yo, she loved this one. (And Ray Charles doing “Halleluja, I love her so,” but Ray originated that one, so I can’t include it here.) h/t Joanna, who doesn’t have a twitter handle that I’m aware of.
Otis Redding covers The Beatles. The quintessence of the genre?
Bobby Womack covers the Mamas and the Papas.
Ben E. King covers Van Morrison. h/t Steve, who doesn’t have a twitter handle that I’m aware of.
Al Green covers The Beatles. The Black artists covering White artists who were doing Black music nexus is well repped in this list, but Al Green making The Beatles in a near panic into a mid-tempo hip-swinger is something special.
Bill Withers covers Harry Nilsson. Sounds completely natural, but it’s also a complete revelation from the original. Also, has one of those classic Bill Withers’ moments where he takes a single phrase and makes it a whole song. h/t @thenose
Joe Cocker and John Belushi cover Traffic. A love letter to the guy who also covered “The Letter.” No embed I could find for this one.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ryce5
Leon Bridges, Ruby Amanfu, and Brittni Jessie cover Neil Young.
Bettye LaVette covers Bob Dylan. Ms. LaVette gives you plenty of covers to choose from. Entire albums. This song captures *her* as much as she captures the song, imo.
Amy Winehouse covers The Zutons. Our “There’s another version of this?” entry for the day. The 16yo puts together a pretty good mixtape, though the kids call them playlists these days. Learned about this one from one of those playlists.
Lake Street Dive covers Hall & Oates. Blue-eyed soul meets blue-eyed soul.
Sam Cooke covers Pete Seeger. Two of the best at their respective deals.
Aretha Franklin covers Simon and Garfunkel.
Nina Simone covers The Band.
Prince covers Bonnie Raitt. Yes, Prince can always make your sexy song sexier.
Brandon T. Washington covers Prince. Mr. Washington at Krannert, a couple of absolute Champaign-Urbana treasures.
Jess Baldwin covers Weezer. h/t @jeskuhBS
Ike & Tina Turner cover The Rolling Stones. The amount of business they manage to work into this is astounding. Ike’s blues guitar, Tina’s churchy alto, horns, an announcement of “Let me tell ya one more time!,” soul sounds from the background singers. All in three minutes. Just perfect.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings cover Janet Jackson.
The Isley Brothers cover CSN.
Sly and the Family Stone cover Doris Day.
The Staple Singers cover “traditional.”
The War and Treaty cover John Prine and Nanci Griffith. You know they just kinda threw this together as a tribute, and, yet, it completely understands Prine and lands firmly on its feet. If you take one thing from this list, take The War and Treaty.