Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) was first recorded by Darlene Love for the 1963 compilation A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector. Love also sang White Christmas, Marshmallow World and Winter Wonderland on that album. It has become an annual tradition at the Late Show with David Letterman for Love to perform this song around Christmas time. She has done it every year since 1986 except one year where a writer’s strike prevented it. Her 2011 appearance will be on Friday, so be sure to set the DVR. We’ll showcase a number of these performances at the conclusion of this piece.

The Contestants:

Bruce Springsteen: This performance is of Bruce Springsteen and the Max Weinberg 7 on December 7, 2003 at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park.

Cher w/Rosie O’Donnell: This, err, interesting rendition comes to us off the 1999 release A Rosie Christmas.

Death Cab For Cutie: This version I really like, it’s got that unique Death Cab spin. It comes from the compilation Maybe This Christmas Tree. I bet Ben Gibbard is performing a great duet of this right now with his new wife Zooey Deschanel. Lucky Bastard.

Jon Bon Jovi: What we appear to have here is a cover of a cover as Jon Bon Jovi performs U2′s arrangement complete with the spoken word introduction. This performance takes place at The White House back in 1998 for a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

Mariah Carey: What you would expect from Mariah Carey here from this performance at the 2008 Grammy’s, complete with a few of Carey’s patented squeaks or whatever those things are.

U2: So before my days here at Hidden Track, I was an avid reader and only an occasional contributor. ScottyB recently re-ran a B-List of his from 2006 where he listed his Top 10 favorite Christmas songs. I commented on it at the time, three years ago and this is what I had to say.

Darlene Love’s version of #10 is probably my favorite Christmas track of all time, and I hate Bono…I didn’t know they did a version of this…I think I hate him more now.

Checking in on last Week’s Bohemian Rhapsody Cover Wars, it’s not even close with California Guitar Trio running away with it. Animal is pissed.

Bonus Videos of Darlene Love:

Letterman 1995:

Letterman 2008:

New Year’s Eve Party 1981/1982:

The Contestants:

Artist: Adele
Album: Live At The Royal Albert Hall
The Skinny: 2011 has been quite the year for Adele. Her second album, 21, is enjoying major crossover success (I like it, my sister likes it, my Dad likes it), and this has drawn attention to her first album, 19, which also frequently appears in the Top 10 charts despite being released two years ago. In addition to her studio efforts, her CD/DVD release Live at the Royal Albert Hall is also a major hit. Be sure to check out her cover of Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan as well which is available on both 19 and the live release.

As far as this performance, it’s sung over just piano accompaniment and it is stellar.

Artist: Bon Iver
Album: Calgary
The Skinny: Adele’s having a good year, so is Bon Iver – that’s for sure. On a personal level, his 2011 album sits comfortably at #2 for my top albums of the year and even higher at #1 for best concert I’ve seen this year (Greek Theater in Berkeley, Calif.).

After performing this cover, complete with a snippet of Nick of Time (also by Raitt) on Jimmy Fallon, Bon Iver included a studio recording as the B-side to his single release Calgary. Another entry with just piano as the sole instrumentation and Bon Iver actually sings it in a higher key than Adele.

Now if only he would lay down a studio version of his unreal cover of Your Love by The Outfield.

Artist: Boyz II Men
Album: Love
The Skinny: Did you know that Boyz II Men was still around and releasing cover albums produced by Randy Jackson of American Idol fame? You do now!

Artist: Candy Dulfer
Album: Sax-A-Go-Go
The Skinny: Maybe you’re like me and you first heard the words “Miss Candy Dulfer” on Maceo Parker’s 1992 Life On Planet Groove. Or maybe you like this smooth jazz shit that came out on this 1993 record. Personally, listening to music like this just always makes me think of Pat Metheny’s visceral reaction to the music of Kenny G.

Artist: George Michael
Album: Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael
The Skinny: This cover was originally released on the 1996 Older EP and then included on the more popular 1998 Greatest Hits album Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael. Is it just me or does anyone else immediately think of Dana Carvey on Weekend Update imitating George Michael every time they hear his name? Well, when it’s not Arrested Development related anyway. Oh the cover, cover is good.

Artist: Kenny Rogers
Album: She Rides Wild Horses
The Skinny: I previously had Kenny Rogers and Candy Dulfer back to back, and I’ll tell ‘ya sometimes alphabetical order is pretty cruel. Because Adele and Bon Iver lead off with incredible renditions and then we follow it up with Candy Dulfer and Kenny Rogers. I can make at least make it through this one, I’ll say that. But thankfully we had George Michael to fill in there last minute.

Artist: Nancy Wilson
Album: Love Nancy
The Skinny: Legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson, who has been recording music since 1959, laid down this beautiful cover on this 1994 album which also includes a wonderful rendition of Duke Ellington’s Day Dream.

Artist: Nina
Album: Nina
The Skinny: Before Adele and Bon Iver had put their mark on this cover, Filipino singer Nina had her mark for the most popular global cover, which she recorded in 2007.

Artist: Patti LaBelle
Album: Classic Moments
The Skinny: Great to see both Nancy Wilson and Patti LaBelle, whose careers both predate that of Bonnie Raitt, tackling the tune this week and doing such incredible jobs of putting their own spin on the melody.

Artist: Prince
Album: Emancipation
The Skinny: A guitar that sounds like a sitar, Prince’s vocals and well-placed finger snaps make this cover from this triple-album released in 1996 a winner. Great original harmony in the chorus.

Artist: Tank
Album: Now Or Never
The Skinny: R&B singer Tuck placed this cover as the last track on his 2010 album Now Or Never. Another cover, another music video.

Life During Wartime by The Talking Heads (not to be confused with the Pinhead Gunpowder punk song, or the 2009 movie from Todd Solondz) provides a view of NYC living in the late 1970′s as a metaphor for those who were living in the Big Apple during the Second World War. Lines such as “The sound of gunfire, off in the distance, I’m getting used to it now” and “I got three passports, couple of visas, don’t even know my real name” are near apocalyptic in their emotional provocations.

The refrain is catchy and memorable, sung with enthusiasm by crowds, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around … I ain’t got time for that now.” Seen in Stop Making Sense, the song has joggers in ’80s era wardrobe dancing behind the rubber-legged David Byrne. Life During Wartime is a powerful song and seems to bring out a strong performance from the groups that play it in concert.

The Contestants:

Artist: Widespread Panic
Live Video: 7-28-2008
The Skinny: One of the more well-known covers of Life During Wartime comes from Widespread Panic, a band heavily influenced by Talking Heads. John Bell’s gritty voice, as well as the band’s rocking throughout the song, create a dance frenzy and increases the energy of the crowd when placed in the second set.

Artist: The Motet
Live Video: Jam Cruise 8 (January 4, 2010)
The Skinny: The Motet are incredibly funky and give this version with Kyle Hollingsworth an extra kick. The visuals behind the band increase the crowd’s vitality during the song, as does the continued dancing on the stage, similar to that of the Stop Making Sense version.

Artist: Strangefolk
Live Video: 9-1-2002
The Skinny: Strangefolk keyboardist Don Scott rarely sings, but when he does, it is usually perfect for the selection. Heavy on the keys, and progressively more funky, Strangefolk takes their time with this cover. The group jams out in between verses, letting the five-piece unit pace themselves throughout and explore the potential the song has for improvisation.

Artist: The Drinks
Live Video: 6-27-2010
The Skinny: How would an acoustic version of Life During Wartime sound? Vocal group The Drinks show us in this performance from a small venue in Los Angeles. There’s even a little country twang to this one.

Artist: The Automatic
Live Video: 2-18-2007
The Skinny: Heavy on the keys with a nice intro including cool lighting, you can hear some Devo in the background, an interesting mash-up of sorts. Probably the most intense version of them all, thanks to the singer/keyboardist.

Artist: The Subscribers
Live Video: Roktoberfest 2007
The Skinny: Again a nice build up intro, this one borrows from the studio version of Life During Wartime, complete with Byrne-esque showmanship. While the tambourine player seems to be mailing it, the growing band on stage and dancers make this cover stand out.

It’s hard to beat the original. The percussion in the background is deep and bassy, induces fear and gives the sound of gunfire and bombs with the percussion.

A more staid version of the song shows Byrne has mellowed with age, but still has intensity in his voice.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want is the closing track on the 1969 Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed. There are some very interesting quotes regarding the drumming on this track included in the book According to the Rolling Stones, you can see the page in question over at Google Books.

The Contestants:

Artist: Aretha Franklin
Album: Love All The Hurt Away
The Skinny:

This cover comes off a 1981 Aretha Franklin album that universally gets bad to lukewarm reviews. The arrangement is very 80′s. Still, it’s worth a couple minutes to hear the Queen Of Soul sing lead on this tune.

Artist: Assembly Of Dust
Live Show: 12-30-2004
The Skinny: Reid Genauer & Assembly Of Dust debuted this cover the night before New Year’s Eve 2004.

Artist: Band From TV
Band From TV: House M.D. Original Television Soundtrack
The Skinny: Band From TV is a group made up of television stars including the likes of Hugh Laurie (from House M.D.) and Greg Grunberg (from Alias & Heroes). All of the bands proceeds, both live and studio, get donated to a number of different charities. I’m actually a little unclear on who sings lead on this reggae take on this song, cruising a number of YouTube’s including this audio, the comments section seems quite divided on the topic.

Artist: Def Leppard
Album: Adrenalize [Deluxe Edition]
The Skinny: This track originally appeared as a B-Side for the single Have You Ever Wanted Someone So Bad? and later appeared on the Deluxe Edition of Adrenalize. The artist on the track is actually credited as Acoustic Hippies From Hell, which is the members of Def Leppard with The Hothouse Flowers, an Irish Band. Thanks to the Def Leppard FAQ for that info.

Artist: the Disco Biscuits
Live Show: 10-31-2006
The Skinny: For Halloween 2006, the Disco Biscuits hired a few members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Choir to supplement their already beautiful vocals. In addition to singing on this song, the choir was also used for Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh, Carl Orff’s Oh Fortuna and a number of tDB originals. The song wasn’t long for the repertoire, being played just one additional time (two days later) without the choir.

Artist: Glee
Album: Glee: The Music, Volume 2
The Skinny: This performance from the cast of Glee is our first of two covers appearing that did not participate in the original Cover Wars.

Artist: Max Creek
Live Show: 3-12-1988
The Skinny: It’s easy to forget that jambands like Max Creek have been at it since the 1970′s. By the time of this recording in 1988, Creek was already in its 17th year of existence. This was also right around the time Mike Gordon was lying to Trey about the origin of Max Creek tune Back Porch Boogie Blues (he passed it off as one of his originals, so it could make it to the Phish stage).

Artist: The Radiators
Live Show: 10-23-2004
The Skinny: The Radiators, who have recently become Cover Wars regulars, supply a slow and gospel-like arrangement to this week’s edition.

Artist: Rusted Root
Album: Rusted Root
The Skinny: For Rusted Root’s fourth studio effort (which was their self-titled), they included this cover. Be on the lookout for a lyric change in this cover. Hint: Michael Glabicki’s favorite flavor is NOT Cherry Red.

Artist: Umphrey’s McGee
Live Video: 11-26-2011
The Skinny: Umphrey’s McGee first performed with the Chicago Mass Choir on 12-31-2008 for a jaw-dropping combination of Amazing Grace and UM instrumental Glory, U2′s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and cover of Joe Cocker’s cover of With A Little Help From My Friends. It to date stands as one of my most memorable concerte experiences of all time – and the choir was an unannounced surprise.

This past weekend, the Chicago Mass Choir made its return to the UM stage, this time as announced special guests. The Amazing Grace/Glory performance was reprised and also played were rarity Bullhead City (last played 2-15-2006) and the debut cover of You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Artist: Vince Guaraldi
Album: Oaxaca
The Skinny: This album (Oaxaca) was released in 2005 and included a lot of unreleased material from Guaraldi. In addition to this 16+ minute rendition, there’s also a beautiful take on The Beatles You Never Give Me Your Money.

The Contestants:

Artist: Anders Osborne & Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
Album: Bury the Hatchet
The Skinny: HT favorite Anders Osborne leads off this week’s Cover Wars with this studio acoustic rendition and a little help form Big Chief Monk Boudreaux.

A live electric version from Osborne and his band:

Artist: Ben Harper
Album: MusiCares Tribute to Neil Young
The Skinny: On to another fantastic take, Ben Harper contributed this track to a 2011 cover album honoring Neil Young. It’s a brilliant and sparse arrangement relying on just Ben’s voice, female backing and lap steel guitar.

Video of the same performance as the audio above:

Artist: The Black Crowes
Live Show: 12-18-2010
The Skinny: The Black Crowes love encoring with multiple songs by the same artist and on this night in 2010 they treated the crowd at The Fillmore in San Francisco to a triple dose of Neil Young with performances of Pardon My Heart, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Ohio.

Artist: The Dandy Warhols
Album: The Black Album / Come On Feel the Dandy Warhols
The Skinny: The Dandy Warhols released this cover on their compilation The Black Album / Come On Feel the Dandy Warhols. Droning synthesizers provide the type of alt/psychedelia sound that you would expect from these guys.

Artist: Devo
Album: When Pigs Fly
The Skinny: Learn something new every day, two of the members of Devo attended Kent State and one of them knew the victims and witnessed the horrific event. This cover, complete with lyrics not present in the original, appears on the bizarre covers compilation When Pigs Fly alongside such cuts as Billy Preston covering Girls On Film and The Fixx’s performance of These Boots Are Made For Walkin’. Jerry Casale, the member of Devo present at the horrible event had harsh words for the song saying that it was, “rich hippies…making money off of something horrible…that they didn’t get.” Young did not have as harsh a review for his own work but did remark a few years later that, “It’s ironic that I capitalized on the death of those American students.” Both quotes courtesy of Wikipedia that cites McDonough, Jimmy (2002). Shakey. New York: Anchor Books.

Artist: The Isley Brothers
Live Show: Givin It Back
The Skinny: The Isley Brothers, on their 1971 album filled with covers, arrange Ohio and Jimi Hendrix’s Machine Gun together for what Bruce Eder on allmusic.com calls a, “slap-in-your-face reminder of just how angry the times and the people were”.

Artist: Mott The Hoople
Live Show: Mott The Hoole
The Skinny: This live cut was issued as a bonus track to Mott The Hoople’s self-titled 1969 debut album.

Artist: Tim Reynolds
Live Show: 4-4-2007
The Skinny: Guitarist Tim Reynolds has covered Ohio both as a solo acoustic instrumental and also with an electric in TR3. Audio is of the acoustic rendition and we have video of both.

Artist: Ween
Live Show: 8-2-2003
The Skinny: In the Ween repertoire since at least 2000 (the earliest recording I could find with it), Ohio is still in the cover rotation as it was played at least three times in 2010.

Artist: Zegota
Album: Namaste
The Skinny: Well apparently it’s not just jambands that can throw down 10+ minute covers as this punk band’s cover clocks in at almost 11 minutes.

The Contestants:

Artist: Tori Amos
Album: Crucify
The Skinny: Tori Amos was one of the first major artists to record this cover back in 1992 for an EP where she also covered Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. Cobain once said that this cover was, “a great breakfast cereal version”.

And a live take:

Artist: The Bad Plus
Album: These Are the Vistas
The Skinny: In addition to being a talented trio that writes great original material, The Bad Plus also regularly turn a pop song into a fantastic jazz interpretation as they do here on their album These Are the Vistas.

Live on NPR:

Artist: ELEW
Live Video: 11-3-2011
The Skinny: Piano phenom ELEW played a party for our friends over at HyperVocal last week and we are lucky enough to have this great video footage.

Artist: The Melvins
Album: Crybaby
The Skinny: The Melvins were a great influence on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana – and the bands were also good friends. For this 2000 LP, The Melvins opened the record with their straight-ahead cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Artist: Miley Cyrus
Live Video: May 2011 – Chile
The Skinny: And now for something completely different, I present to you – Miley Cyrus. Hey Miley, where is the second verse?

Artist: The Moog Cookbook
Album: Moog Cookbook
The Skinny: You could find The Moog Cookbook’s formula to make these covers to be a bit gimmicky, but I think it’s pretty cool. The rest of the album has some great alt/grunge covers too.

Artist: The Muppets Barbershop Quartet
Album: The Muppets
The Skinny: And now for the cover that inspired this edition of Cover Wars, on the upcoming The Muppets Barbershop Quartet! I’m not sure what they sing for the first line, but I’m pretty sure it is not, “Load up on guns and bring your friends.”

Artist: Patti Smith
Album: Twelve
The Skinny: The Godmother of Punk seems to always make her way into Cover Wars, a lot of the time from this same album of covers entitled Twelve. Listen as Smith sneaks one of her poems into this cover.

The music video:

Artist: Phish
Live Show: 11-2-1998
The Skinny: Alright. I know to a large degree Cover Wars is basically just a popularity contest and I realize that a lot of readers simply cast their votes for their favorite band without listening to all of the covers – and that’s OK. But voting for Phish here is not OK. But you know, we wanted to include it because we are Hidden Track, we know where we come from. And we know that a lot of our readers already know that Phish encored their sparsely attended November 2nd, 1998 show in Utah (a show where they covered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon in the second set) with Smells Like Teen Spirit. Just, don’t vote for them – please.

Artist: Robert Glasper Trio
Live Video: 10-15-2011
The Skinny: What’s great about all the jazz interpretations is that they are all different enough that I could include all of them. Robert Glasper hasn’t recorded this on an album yet – maybe on his next one.

You can also check out a completely different take from Glasper here:

The Original:

The Contestants:

Artist: Atlanta Rhythm Section
The Skinny: Atlanta Rhythm Section features some of the original members of Classics IV, including guitarist James Cobb who is credited with co-writing the original version of Spooky with lyrics.

Artist: Dusty Springfield
The Skinny: Dusty Springifleld’s smooth recording features a few lyric changes, notably – no reference to proposing on Halloween in the third verse. A number of other covers include the lyrics that Springifeld sings, I *think* she is the origin of the version.

Artist: The Golden Cups
The Skinny: Great cover here coming from a Japanese band popular in the late 1960′s.

Artist: Imogen Heap
The Skinny: This smooth take by Imogen Heap appears on the soundtrack for Just Like Heaven. Some cool female harmonies in this one.

Artist: Phish
The Skinny: On Phish’s tour during Spring ’93, the band wound two versions of You Enjoy Myself, exactly one month apart (3/14 and 4/14), into jams on Spooky. While the March 14 Spooky Jam didn’t contain lyrics, Page sang a verse on April 14. Phish went on to soundcheck Spooky later in the ’90s, most notably at Deer Creek in 1996. While Spooky was long thought to be forgotten by the quartet, a version of Ghost on Halloween 2010 in Atlantic City took a groovy turn into the cover tune. That night, Phish played their most complete version yet and even jammed on it for a bit.

Here is video of Spooky from Atlantic City 2010:

And why not, here’s the whole money shot:

And for good measure, the original version from Classics IV:

And the original instrumental rendition from Mike Sharpe:

The Contestants:

Artist: Gas Huffer
Live Show: Twisted Willie: A Tribute To Willie Nelson
The Skinny: First up is this odd arrangement by Gas Huffer from a compilation of Willie Nelson covers that includes contributions from such artists as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Artist: The Little Willies
Live Show: The Little Willies
The Skinny: I had not heard of this group featuring Norah Jones on piano and vocals before a couple weeks ago as I prepared to attend my first Bridge School Benefit Concert (which by the way is an incredible event that I encourage everyone to attend if you have the means). The Little Willies first recorded an album in 2006 filled with old-timey covers and the occasional original (about catching Lou Reed cow tipping of all things) and have a new disc coming out later this year. If it’s anything like the first one, it’ll be a great record worthy of repeated spins.

Some great live video of the band performing I Gotta Get Drunk:

Artist: Phosphorescent
Live Show: To Willie
The Skinny: With three LP’s of original material under their belts, Phosphorescent filled this 2009 album with Willie Nelson originals or songs The Red Headed Stranger made famous like Merle Haggard’s Reasons To Quit.

Some video of Phosphorescent performing the cover, not the greatest performance – he appears to be having gear issues, confuses lyrics etc.

Artist: Tim Palmieri
Live Show: 5-21-2011
The Skinny: Closing out this week’s brief Cover Wars is HT favorite Tim Palmieri and a great recording of his solo performance of the cover. Well, sort of solo – he sets a loop so he can take a guitar solo witha accompaniment – I think.

We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that’s all we’ve got

The Contestants:

Artist: Arcade Fire
Live Show: .2 Contamination: a Tribute to David Bowie
The Skinny: Arcade Fire contributed this cover to a 2008 David Bowie tribute album which features covers from The Dresden Dolls and many other artists. A great cover that Arcade Fire has also had the pleasure of playing with Bowie.

Video from Austin City Limits 2005:

Artist: Mike Ford of Moxy Fruvous
Live Show: 6-15-1999
The Skinny: This show, which is available for download from the Live Music Archive, starts off with the members of Moxy Fruvous playing solo tunes and Mike Ford plays this as his selection.

Artist: Old 97′s
Album: Mimeograph EP
The Skinny: Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Old 97′s recorded this cover on this 2010 EP and we’ve also got some live video of the band playing it on July 4th in New York City.

Artist: The Polyphonic Spree
Album: Hanging Around 1
The Skinny: The Polyphonic Spree released this cover on their 2003 single Hanging Around. Of this week’s covers, it certainly is the performance that most channels the glam-rock of David Bowie. The ensemble have also had the honor of performing with David Bowie as they opened his 2004 tour and regularly guested for Bowie’s Slip Away. Video from the Jones Beach performance of Slip Away from 2004 is below the audio.

Artist: Seu Jorge
Album: Life Aquatic Studio Sessions
The Skinny: As you might remember, though probably not because I did not remember until I looked it up, Seu Jorge also appeared in the Life On Mars? Cover Wars. Jorge’s collection of Bowie covers that he sings in Portuguese is featured in the movie Life Aquatic and he then issued this LP with even more material. Fun fact, the translations are far from exact as Jorge takes some liberty in what it is he’s actually sing to us.

This Cover Wars has been a long-time coming as I have started compiling it at least once in the past but did not complete it as there is such a large number of exceptional covers of the tune. But today, I present to you these 14 covers of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

The Contestants:

Artist: Jake Shimabukuro
Album: Gently Weeps
The Skinny: Leading off this week is ukelele extraordinaire Jake Shimabukuro who consistently wows audiences everywhere he plays. Shimabukuro’s cover is well known and is the inspiration for his 2006 album Gently Weeps.

There are no shortages of live performances from Shimabukuro of this song on YouTube with multiple clips having 1,000,000+ YouTube views. This one is the most popular, shot in New York City’s Central Park:

Artist: The Jeff Healey Band
Album: Master Hits
The Skinny: Released as a single and available on compilations, this cover by The Jeff Healey band features both George Harrison and Jeff Lynne as backing musicians.

Late Night with David Letterman, 1990:

Artist: Marc Ribot
Album: Rootless Cosmopolitans
The Skinny: Marc Ribot’s cover is at times completely unrecognizeable, but it is a cover nonetheless – perhaps not for the musically faint of heart.

This live performance from Ribot is a lot more true to the original:

Artist: Michael Hedges
Live Show 9/24/1997
The Skinny: Forgive the slight buzz on this recording as it is an absolutely amazing performance from solo performer virtuoso Michael Hedges. I mean, the guy even goes down to the stage floor to confirm it does indeed need sweeping.

Artist: Montreal Guitar Trio + California Guitar Trio
Album: Montreal Guitar Trio + California Guitar Trio + Live
The Skinny: This live album released by the six guitarists that makeup these two highly talented ensembles features this tasteful reading.

Artist: Peter Frampton
Album: Now
The Skinny:Recorded for a 2003 album, this cover has stuck around in Peter Frampton’s repertoire and when performed live opens with a solo guitar performance by Frampton before being joined by his band.

Artist: Phil Lesh & Friends
Live Show 11/30/2001
The Skinny: The night of November 30, 2001 saw a number of live music tributes to George Harrison as he had passed away just the night before. I was seeing The Slip (who also covered While My Guitar Gently Weeps) at Bates College in Maine though sadly a recording of that show does not circulate, or I can’t find it anyway. ScottyB was also seeing music that night and he saw moe. perform the tune. In New York City, Phil Lesh & Friends were playing the Beacon Theatre and snuck this cover in the middle of Dark Star with Warren Haynes on lead vocals. There’s a great crowd reaction as the concertgoers realize what is being played.

Artist: Phish
Live Show 10-31-1994
The Skinny: Phish generally keeps at least one cover in the rotation after covering an album in its entirety on Halloween and this tradition began in 1994 with Phish’s cover of The White Album in Glens Falls, New York. With the exception of an over 100 show gap between 2-26-1997 and 8-16-1998, Phish has never gone over 50 shows without performing this cover, generally as a set closer or in the encore slot. Of the 30 performances, the debut and the 12-11-1995 performance at Cumberland County Civic Center with guest Warren Haynes are the most memorable. Video from the first performance from Glens Falls:

Artist: Rick Wakeman
Album: Tribute to the Beatles
The Skinny: Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman put together a collection of Beatles covers and released it as an album simply titled Tribute in 1998.

Artist: Santana featuring india.arie and Yo-Yo Ma
Album: Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time
The Skinny: Carlos Santana brought in a lot of outside talent to record this all-covers record. On this track, he welcomes vocalist india.arie on vocals and cello master Yo-Yo Ma.

Artist: Soulive
Album: Rubber Soulive
The Skinny: This superb instrumental interpretation appears on Soulive’s Beatles cover album Rubber Soulive.

If you like what you’re hearing in the audio above, have a look at this pro-shot video of Soulive tackling Eleanor Rigby and I Want You (She’s So Heavy):

Artist: Todd Rundgren
Album Songs From The Material World – A Tribute To George Harrison
The Skinny: Singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren contributed this track to a George Harrison tribute album released in 2003.

Rundgren performing the tune at The Hollywood Bowl with strings:

Artist: Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Ferrone, Dhani Harrison and Prince.
Live Show: 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Induction Ceremony
The Skinny: Though Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne trade vocal duties for this performance, it’s Prince (who was being inducted into the Rock Hall along with George Harrison posthumously) that steals the show here. Big time.

Artist: Toto
Album: Through the Looking Glass
The Skinny: In addition to appearing on this 2002 Toto studio release, it is also included on the Toto Live In Amsterdam 25th anniversary live album and DVD. Some ripping guitar.

From the DVD: