I decided to do a mix of covers of a single artist, and went with my biggest collection first: The Beatles. I started with 842 songs, took out duplicates (studio/live) absurdly short or long ones and got down to a much more manageable 420 songs (for a playlist of just under 24 hours).
And then Prince passed away.
I became obsessed and spent several weeks assembling that mix first. This is my playlist of the best Prince covers (easy way out on order was chronological):
- Tavarius Polk – Crazy You
- Banditas – When You Were Mine
- LCD Soundsystem – Controversy
- Yacht – Annie Christian
- Stone Gossard – 1999
- AutreNV – Little Red Corvette
- Dump [James McNew] – How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore
- Janelle Monae – Let’s Go Crazy
- Fanatic feat. Deborah Cox – Take Me With U
- Beyoncé – The Beautiful Ones
- Foo Fighters – Darling Nikki
- Barenaked Ladies – When Doves Cry
- Chvrches – I Would Die 4 U
- Kelly Clarkson – Purple Rain
- Living Colour – 17 Days
- Beck – Raspberry Beret
- Local H – Pop Life
- Dixie Chicks – Nothing Compares 2 U
- B-Town Soul Cats – Kiss
- D’Angelo – Sometimes It Snows In April (with Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum)
- Muse – Sign O’ The Times
- Matt Nathanson – Starfish And Coffee
- Gary Numan – U Got The Look
- Hot Chip – If I Was Your Girlfriend
- Pamela Means – Strange Relationship
- The Afghan Whigs – I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (feat. Steve Myers)
- Erykah Badu – The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (with The Roots)
- The Smashing Pumpkins – The Cross (Sierra Swan vox)
- Alicia Keys – Adore
- John Wesley Harding – Cream
- Dave Matthews Band – Sexy MF
- Deverano – 7
- Sofian – The Truth (ft. Ole Staveteig)
And then I managed to whittle The Beatles covers down to 54 (one for each year since 1962). I also took out well known ones (like Aerosmith’s “Come Together” or Elton John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” or all of the I Am Sam soundtrack):
- Billy Joel, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen & The Rock Hall Jam Band – I Saw Her Standing There
- Redd Kross – It Won’t Be Long
- Semisonic – Till There Was You
- Sheryl Crow – A Hard Day’s Night
- Nanci Griffith – Things We Said Today
- Glen Phillips – I’ll Follow The Sun
- Extreme – Help!
- Elvis Costello – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
- The Webb Sisters – I Need You
- Eddie From Ohio – Ticket To Ride
- Brandi Carlile – I’ve Just Seen A Face
- Elvis Presley – Yesterday
- Crooked Still – We Can Work It Out
- Electric Light Orchestra – Day Tripper
- The Donnas – Drive My Car
- Heather Nova – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
- Dar Williams – You Won’t See Me
- Natalie Merchant – Nowhere Man
- Jim Boggia – Girl
- Lucy Kaplansky – I’m Looking Through You
- Dave Matthews – In My Life
- Eric Clapton – If I Needed Someone
- Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – Taxman
- Vertical Horizon – Eleanor Rigby
- Laurie MacAllister – I’m Only Sleeping
- David & Joe Gilmour – Here, There And Everywhere
- Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs – And Your Bird Can Sing
- Peter Mulvey – For No One (with Anita Suhanin)
- Jerry Garcia Band – I Want To Tell You
- Chicago – Got To Get You Into My Life
- Peter Gabriel – Strawberry Fields Forever
- Tori Amos – Penny Lane
- Steven Page with the Art of Time Ensemble – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Train – With A Little Help From My Friends (with Sammy Hagar & Matt Nathanson)
- Jeff Beck – A Day In The Life
- Thea Gilmore – All You Need Is Love
- Alanis Morissette – Dear Prudence
- No Doubt – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison And Prince – While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Phish – Rocky Raccoon
- Tony Furtado – I Will (with Alison Krauss)
- Soundgarden – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
- Winterpills – Cry Baby Cry
- Pretenders – Don’t Let Me Down
- Prince – Come Together
- Brian May & Kerry Ellis – Something
- Billy Joel and Elton John – Here Comes The Sun
- Urban Voices Collective – Because
- Cheap Trick – Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
- The Low Anthem – Her Majesty
- Bill Withers – Let It Be
- Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon and Moby – Across The Universe
- Elliott Smith – I Me Mine
- Pearl Jam – I’ve Got A Feeling