Sunday, January 27, 2013

Cool cover song of the week...

Amy Winehouse's tragic (if not completely unexpected) death at the age of 27 nearly two(!) years ago was a definite loss to the music industry. Winning five Grammys in 2006 for her breakthrough album, Back to Black, one could only imagine to what heights her career might have scaled if she didn't struggle so badly with addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Ronnie Spector is known as the "original bad girl of rock and roll," whose 1960s musical group, The Ronettes, had huge hits with songs like Be My Baby and Baby, I Love You. (Interestingly enough, some not familiar with 1960s music know her as the female voice in Eddie Money's 1986 hit, Take Me Home Tonight.) Spector, too, battled demons that threatened her career, not the least of which was her producer ex-husband, impresario Phil Spector, but although she's never been able to achieve the success of her early career with the Ronettes, Spector continues to record and tour around the world.

In 2011, following Winehouse's death, Spector recorded a version of Back to Black as a tribute and for the benefit of the Daytop Village addiction treatment centers. While Spector's version is different than Winehouse's, it still has some of the melancholy brooding of the original, and Spector's trademark smoky voice gives it an interesting depth.

Watch Spector's version here:


And here is Winehouse's original:


Check out my previous Cool Cover Songs of the Week:

Borderline by The Counting Crows

How Deep Is Your Love by The Bird and The Bee

Life in a Northern Town by Sugarland, Little Big Town, and Jake Owen

I Don't Want to Talk About It by The Indigo Girls

Only You by Joshua Radin

Pure Imagination by Maroon 5

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by Blake Stratton

What a Fool Believes by Neri Per Caso

Poker Face by Daughtry

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