Covers

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):

  1. Tavarius Polk – Crazy You
  2. Banditas – When You Were Mine
  3. LCD Soundsystem – Controversy
  4. Yacht – Annie Christian
  5. Stone Gossard – 1999
  6. AutreNV – Little Red Corvette
  7. Dump [James McNew] – How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore
  8. Janelle Monae – Let’s Go Crazy
  9. Fanatic feat. Deborah Cox – Take Me With U
  10. Beyonc̩ РThe Beautiful Ones
  11. Foo Fighters – Darling Nikki
  12. Barenaked Ladies – When Doves Cry
  13. Chvrches – I Would Die 4 U
  14. Kelly Clarkson – Purple Rain
  15. Living Colour – 17 Days
  16. Beck – Raspberry Beret
  17. Local H – Pop Life
  18. Dixie Chicks – Nothing Compares 2 U
  19. B-Town Soul Cats – Kiss
  20. D’Angelo – Sometimes It Snows In April (with Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum)
  21. Muse – Sign O’ The Times
  22. Matt Nathanson – Starfish And Coffee
  23. Gary Numan – U Got The Look
  24. Hot Chip – If I Was Your Girlfriend
  25. Pamela Means – Strange Relationship
  26. The Afghan Whigs – I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (feat. Steve Myers)
  27. Erykah Badu – The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (with The Roots)
  28. The Smashing Pumpkins – The Cross (Sierra Swan vox)
  29. Alicia Keys – Adore
  30. John Wesley Harding – Cream
  31. Dave Matthews Band – Sexy MF
  32. Deverano – 7
  33. 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):

  1. Billy Joel, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen & The Rock Hall Jam Band – I Saw Her Standing There
  2. Redd Kross – It Won’t Be Long
  3. Semisonic – Till There Was You
  4. Sheryl Crow – A Hard Day’s Night
  5. Nanci Griffith – Things We Said Today
  6. Glen Phillips – I’ll Follow The Sun
  7. Extreme – Help!
  8. Elvis Costello – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
  9. The Webb Sisters – I Need You
  10. Eddie From Ohio – Ticket To Ride
  11. Brandi Carlile – I’ve Just Seen A Face
  12. Elvis Presley – Yesterday
  13. Crooked Still – We Can Work It Out
  14. Electric Light Orchestra – Day Tripper
  15. The Donnas – Drive My Car
  16. Heather Nova – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  17. Dar Williams – You Won’t See Me
  18. Natalie Merchant – Nowhere Man
  19. Jim Boggia – Girl
  20. Lucy Kaplansky – I’m Looking Through You
  21. Dave Matthews – In My Life
  22. Eric Clapton – If I Needed Someone
  23. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – Taxman
  24. Vertical Horizon – Eleanor Rigby
  25. Laurie MacAllister – I’m Only Sleeping
  26. David & Joe Gilmour – Here, There And Everywhere
  27. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs – And Your Bird Can Sing
  28. Peter Mulvey – For No One (with Anita Suhanin)
  29. Jerry Garcia Band – I Want To Tell You
  30. Chicago – Got To Get You Into My Life
  31. Peter Gabriel – Strawberry Fields Forever
  32. Tori Amos – Penny Lane
  33. Steven Page with the Art of Time Ensemble – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  34. Train – With A Little Help From My Friends (with Sammy Hagar & Matt Nathanson)
  35. Jeff Beck – A Day In The Life
  36. Thea Gilmore – All You Need Is Love
  37. Alanis Morissette – Dear Prudence
  38. No Doubt – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
  39. Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison And Prince – While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  40. Phish – Rocky Raccoon
  41. Tony Furtado – I Will (with Alison Krauss)
  42. Soundgarden – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
  43. Winterpills – Cry Baby Cry
  44. Pretenders – Don’t Let Me Down
  45. Prince – Come Together
  46. Brian May & Kerry Ellis – Something
  47. Billy Joel and Elton John – Here Comes The Sun
  48. Urban Voices Collective – Because
  49. Cheap Trick – Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
  50. The Low Anthem – Her Majesty
  51. Bill Withers – Let It Be
  52. Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon and Moby – Across The Universe
  53. Elliott Smith – I Me Mine
  54. Pearl Jam – I’ve Got A Feeling