6) Big Star. Oof, this one triggers my Inner Beavis. "This sucks, change it."
5) REM. Marginally less suck than Big Star, I guess?
4) Sharon Van Etten. +Points for having the arrangement that's most faithful to the original. And I think the song works better with a female vocalist, generally. But I just can never get into her sound, and I've tried. It's not you, Sharon, it's me.
3) Duran Duran. I liked this one more than I expected. (Did someone else say that already?) It would have been a great soundtrack for an 80s style teen romcom. Dorky Guy unexpectedly starts getting attention from Hot Cheerleader. Nerdy Female Friend From The AV Club warns that she is only using him because she is failing trigonometry and doesn't want to have to take it in summer school. Dorky Guy remains blindly smitten, until the inevitable letdown at the prom when Hot Cheerleader ditches him for Jocko. Crestfallen, Dorky Guy sees Nerdy Female Friend From The AV Club across the room. She takes off her glasses, tosses her hair and is magically transformed into Hot Girl Who Aced Trigonometry. Cue Duran Duran. They dance the night away.
2) Girl In A Coma. I really like where they go here, rocking the song up. Its the only one that doesn't sound like an obvious knockoff. The vocalist sounds like she's snarking about another girl from the lunch table. You can almost hear "That bitch" in the subtext. This version is Nerdy Girl From the AV Club's theme song. It's on the movie soundtrack too, right after the obligatory Kenny Loggins track.
1) Velvet Undergound.
Pssst. Nico is the Femme Fatale. She sings it so convincingly because she lives it. I know this going in, and yet she lures me in every time anyway. My only nitpick is Lou Reed's terrible backing vocals on the chorus.
I like the spare arrangement and stark emotional delivery of the Big Star version, too. We all get to like what we like, with no fear of any smack talk here.
I didn’t realize there were so many versions of this! I liked the Duran Duran version more than I thought I would, but if I had to pick would go with R.E.M.’s version.
I lOVE this song! The original is excellent but the first exposure was the REM version on Dead Letter Office and that will always be my favourite. It manages to stay pretty faithful to the original whilst remaining undeniably REM. I really enjoyed the Girl In A Coma version too which brings a little more energy. The other three just felt a bit unnecessary to me in all honesty. What a great exercise though. I had no idea this song had been recorded so many times.
6) Big Star. Oof, this one triggers my Inner Beavis. "This sucks, change it."
5) REM. Marginally less suck than Big Star, I guess?
4) Sharon Van Etten. +Points for having the arrangement that's most faithful to the original. And I think the song works better with a female vocalist, generally. But I just can never get into her sound, and I've tried. It's not you, Sharon, it's me.
3) Duran Duran. I liked this one more than I expected. (Did someone else say that already?) It would have been a great soundtrack for an 80s style teen romcom. Dorky Guy unexpectedly starts getting attention from Hot Cheerleader. Nerdy Female Friend From The AV Club warns that she is only using him because she is failing trigonometry and doesn't want to have to take it in summer school. Dorky Guy remains blindly smitten, until the inevitable letdown at the prom when Hot Cheerleader ditches him for Jocko. Crestfallen, Dorky Guy sees Nerdy Female Friend From The AV Club across the room. She takes off her glasses, tosses her hair and is magically transformed into Hot Girl Who Aced Trigonometry. Cue Duran Duran. They dance the night away.
2) Girl In A Coma. I really like where they go here, rocking the song up. Its the only one that doesn't sound like an obvious knockoff. The vocalist sounds like she's snarking about another girl from the lunch table. You can almost hear "That bitch" in the subtext. This version is Nerdy Girl From the AV Club's theme song. It's on the movie soundtrack too, right after the obligatory Kenny Loggins track.
1) Velvet Undergound.
Pssst. Nico is the Femme Fatale. She sings it so convincingly because she lives it. I know this going in, and yet she lures me in every time anyway. My only nitpick is Lou Reed's terrible backing vocals on the chorus.
I like the Big Star version, but I was really into Big Star for a while.
If nothing else, the way that Alex Chilton sings, "She's going to smile to make you frown / What a clown" carries such emotional weight.
I like the spare arrangement and stark emotional delivery of the Big Star version, too. We all get to like what we like, with no fear of any smack talk here.
Thanks for sharing!
Re #3--Great minds think alike. :)
I didn’t realize there were so many versions of this! I liked the Duran Duran version more than I thought I would, but if I had to pick would go with R.E.M.’s version.
I lOVE this song! The original is excellent but the first exposure was the REM version on Dead Letter Office and that will always be my favourite. It manages to stay pretty faithful to the original whilst remaining undeniably REM. I really enjoyed the Girl In A Coma version too which brings a little more energy. The other three just felt a bit unnecessary to me in all honesty. What a great exercise though. I had no idea this song had been recorded so many times.
Thanks, as always, Lou, for your willingness to listen and share your thoughts. It certainly fuels me to share more!
Pleasure! I love these multiple versions. This has definitely been my favourite so far
Yeah, I could have made the list a bit longer, but decided to quit while I was ahead. LOL.
Thanks for sharing!