Everybody Wants To Rule The World was a chart-topping single off the 1985 Tears For Fears album Songs From The Big Chair.
According to Roland Orzabal, Everybody Wants To Rule The World was written and recorded in two weeks and was the last cut to make the album. Good thing they got it in there.
The Contestants:
The Bad Plus: The Bad Plus show up a lot on Cover Wars, often leading off (because we use alphabetical order) and easing us in with instrumental renditions. This is the second song to be included in a Cover Wars from their 2007 album Prog (see also Life On Mars Cover Wars) Source: Prog
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Lenny is the tenth and final track on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1983 debut album Texas Flood. The song’s title is a tribute to SRV’s wife Lenora Bailey.
Jeff Kitts sums up this tune very well in the book Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Like any master musician, Vaughan was just as comfortable with slow, delicate ballads as he was with barn burners. Vaughan composed the beautiful ballad, “Lenny,” for his first wife, and recorded it on Texas Flood. “Lenny” is very Hendrix influenced; it’s sort of a cross between “Little Wing” and “Angel,” two of Hendrix’s greatest ballads.
The Contestants:
The Bridge: The Bridge guitarist Cris Jacobs leads the band through this relatively to-the-point rendition. Source: 2-28-2007
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Sweet Virginia is the sixth track off the 1972 Rolling Stones Album Exile On Main St. On the studio cut, Mick Jagger is backed by Keith Richards, Clydie King, Vanetta Fields, Dr. John, Shirley Goodman and Tammi Lynn on vocals. Thanks to Keno’s Rolling Stones Website for all that info.
The nearest the Stones ever got to a round-the-campfire song, through Baden-Powell probably wouldn’t have appreciate the refrain. “Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes” suggested that the song may have been an obscure slant on the old standard ‘Walking Blues’, but the blues (& the reds & the greens, for that matter) referred to the song were in tablet form. If one Stones’ song was written by Keith and Gram Parsons up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ‘Sweet Virginia’ must have been it.
The Contestants:
Camper Van Beethoven: Leading off this week we’ve got this cover from Camper Van Beethoven during their first incarnation as a band. Camper Van Beethoven disappeared for the majority of the 1990’s only to reappear in 1999 and have been touring and recording sporadically ever since. Source: 11-12-1989
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Life On Mars? was originally released on David Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory. Life On Mars? would be released as a single in the U.S. two years later with The Man Who Sold The World as its B-Side. Talk about a killer combo.
The Contestants:
The Bad Plus: In addition to this adventurous take on a Bowie classic, this Bad Plus album from 2007 also features interpretations of Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears) and Tom Sawyer (Rush). Highly recommended listening. Source: Prog
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Baba O’Riley is the first track on the 1971 album Who’s Next by legendary British rockers The Who. Did you know that the song’s title is a reference to both Meher Baba and Terry Riley? I did not until today.
I don’t know about you, but when writing this I kept having memories of a scene in Freaks and Geeks when Seth Rogan’s character scolds Lindsay Weir for referring to this song as Teenage Wasteland. I would wager a number of our readers have had a similar experience.
The Contestants:
Acoustic Syndicate: Leading off this week is this great band formed in 1992 from North Carolina. They disappeared for a little while, but Acoustic Syndicate is back and have two shows scheduled in NC the weekend of Thanksgiving. Source: 5-29-2005
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Video from Asheville 2007:
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ is the last track on the 1970 Velvet Underground album Loaded. Loaded would be the last Velvet Underground album before guitarist/lead singer Lou Reed left the group to start a solo career.
I’ll tell ‘ya, if you do actually listen to all five versions of this tune – and you happen to listen to them all in a row, you’re going to have the overwhelming urge to blast some loud and aggressive tunes as soon as that’s done. 44 minutes of Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ might bring you a little bit down, so have something queued up – I went with a live version of Immigrant Song.
The Contestants:
$10,000 Gold Chain: Not a whole lot of information out there on this band, but I do know it’s led by Mike McCready (the lead guitarist in Pearl Jam). It’s possible the only song this ensemble ever recorded was this cover for a 1996 Jim Carrey movie. Source: The Cable Guy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Will It Go Round In Circles first appeared on the 1972 Billy Preston album Music Is My Life. The track would then be issued as a single the following year and eventually hit #1 on the Billboard Top Singles chart.
The Contestants:
Band From TV: Band From TV makes their second Cover Wars appearance this week, they previously were featured in the You Can’t Always Get What You Want edition back in July. As we mentioned then, this is a group made up of professional actors and all of their proceeds go directly to charity – pretty cool. Source: Hoggin All The Covers
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was released as a single and also appeared on The Four Tops 1966 album On Top. Though he’s never recorded a version of the song, Stevie Wonder gets the songwriting credit for this legendary Motown gem. The composition was a joint effort between Wonder and Ivy Jo Hunter, whose songwriting credits also include another smash hit – Dancing In The Street.
The Contestants:
The Band: It’s gotta be confidence-building for a lead singer tackling this song, in this case Rick Danko, knowing you’ve got a voice like that of Levon Helm to back you up. While poking around looking for information on these covers, I found a great interview that Peter Stone Brown did with Rick Danko in 1977. When asked why Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was never on an official release from The Band, Danko answers that he thought it was on Rock Of Ages. It’s interesting just how little artists can sometimes know about their own releases. The track would make it to the Deluxe Edition release in 2001. Source: Rock Of Ages (Deluxe Edition)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
This song comes off a 1979 album by the Charlie Daniels Band titled Million Mile Reflections. Vassar Clements also deserves some songwriting credit, as he wrote the fiddle hook (basically) in his tune Lonesome Fiddle Blues.
For such a popular song, there are not a whole lot of real covers out there. Because of this, I’ve decided to include two renditions where the artist has made some slight changes to the subject matter of the song. If I had not done this – you would be looking at all jamband versions, and I try to avoid that the best I can.
The Contestants:
Blues Traveler: Leading off this week, we’ve got Blues Traveler who have had this cover as a staple in their repertoire for at least 12 years now (earliest recording on the LMA is 1997). Source: 8-22-1998
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Bonus Video From Wetlands 1998:
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
This great acoustic Zeppelin tune comes off 1971’s Led Zeppelin IV. This is quite possibly the first Cover Wars selection where the original studio take does not feature any drums. Though there is a tambourine in the mix.
Also, this song is supposedly about Joni Mitchell – go figure.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Robert Plant on the band:
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
This is quite possibly the first Cover Wars selection where the original studio take does not feature any drums. Though there is a tambourine in the mix.
