PJH Studios

Tag: cover songs

  • Cover roundup: Fields of Athenry

    Fields of Athenry, a traditional Irish folk song from 1979 by Pete St. John, serves as an unofficial national anthem for Ireland.

    Perhaps the most recognized version is by the Dublinners, sticking to the songs folk origins.

    The Drop Kick Murphys channel fury into the lyrics and guitars.

    The Ohio St. marching band gave a good rendition

    The vocal harmony of Sina Theil & Caitríona O’Sullivan brings a resonance to the lyrics.

    With the Ireland national team about to be eliminated from the 2012 Euro soccer tournament, the Irish fans began singing.

  • Cover Roundup: Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan

    One of the most infectious pop songs in recent memory, Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, is already creating a cottage industry of covers.

    Rick Astley takes an earnest and genteel approach.

    Orville Peck’s baritone brings a soothing quality.

    Of course there’s a reliable Kelly Clarkson rendition.

    What about an all women’s chorus, The Virginia Belles, hitting those harmonies?

    Medieval bardcore?

    Tinges of roots rock?

  • Those Were the Days – Dolly Parton

    Those Were the Days by Dolly Parton is a trubute/cover album of Dolly performing other artists’ songs. At 12 tracks, all have countrified, Dolly arrangements that play well with her style toe tapping music. Me and Bobby McGee (with Kris Kristofferson), Crimson and Clover (with Tommy Jones) and Turn, Turn, Turn are stand outs.

  • Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back

    Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back continues the trend of cover albums. However, Gabriel covers both his peers and those who may have been inspired by him.

    The album begins softly with David Bowie’s Heroes that builds into an aching crescendo. All the songs have a lush, symphonic, orchestral arrangements–strings, pianos, horns–and often to a repetitive degree. Sometimes this works, in covering the Magnetic Fields’ Book of Love, it becomes a tender ballad despite the odd lyrics. Paul Simon’s The Boy in The Bubble and Arcade Fire’s My Body is a Cage become soulless. He closes with Radiohead’s Street Spirit which goes out in a baritone drone.

    Covering songs is always risky, and there are risks on Scratch My Back. They’re interesting choices, but none will reach the level of Johnny Cash remaking Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt.