Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Dolly Parton was one of the great singers in popular music, a fact that was long overshadowed by that image and, perhaps, prejudice against country music.

She had a lovely voice and wonderful phrasing, but what I think made her such a great singer was that, in her singing, she revealed herself. By every account, Dolly was the loveliest person, and her voice projects all that goodness, warmth, love and a big heart. And honesty. She was all country, but she had soul.

These qualities are there in the covers Dolly sang. She was a gifted songwriter — if Coat Of Many Colors doesn’t make you choke up, you need a transplant of emotions — but she recorded loads of covers. Many of them told her story, like Merle Haggard’s In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).

But You Know I Love You was written by Mike Settle and first recorded by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, but it might just as well be about her artistic separation from her mentor, Porter Wagoner. Of course, she wrote I Will Always Love You about Wagoner.

Some covers here could have turned out badly in the wrong hands. It takes guts to cover Stairway To Heaven, a song so tied to Led Zeppelin that an attempt at a cover might well turn out to be bad karaoke or terribly mannered. Dolly’s 2002 version deconstructs the song and becomes Dolly’s own. It is magnificent, even if it closes with that unfortunate cliché, the gospel choir.

Likewise, Dolly’s covers of The Great Pretender and I Get A Kick Out Of You are nothing like one might have expected, or feared.

Dolly Parton and her mentor, Porter Wagoner

Dolly recorded many covers with others; I’ve tried to keep away from them. That ruled out anything from those great Trio records she made with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, and the many duets with Porter Wagoner. I do include her collaboration with Lynyrd Skynyrd because who doesn’t want to hear Dolly do Free Bird? It features the now-late Gary Rossington, and archival vocals by Ronnie van Zandt. Ronnie’s gave special permission to use his original vocal tracks for this version, saying she wouldn’t allow it for the band itself, but “did it for Dolly”.

It comes from her Rockstar double CD in 2023, on which she collaborated with some very big names, including Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr, Debbie Harry and Elton John. I wonder if Prince would have agreed to collaborate on Purple Rain; in the event, it’s one of only two tracks on the set that has no featured artist. Her Purple Rain is overproduced and features the dreaded gospel choir, but the guitar work of session musicians Jerry McPherson and Rob McNelley is impressive, and Dolly’s vocals soar after a shaky start.

The only other credited collaboration here is with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, on Cat Stevens’ Peace Train. But that is not a duet; it incorporates the South African vocal group’s song Isitimela Sokuthula.

So Dolly Parton has had two tributes this year: the Dolly Parton Songbook on her 80^th birthday in January, and this one to mark her passing (a bit delayed; the In Memoriam – August 2026 took precedence) — so one mix of artists singing Dolly sings, and then Dolly singing other people’s songs. Previous Sings Covers mixes are listed below.

Rest in perfect peace, Dolly Parton.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R (that is, everything till the bonus tracks), includes home-manycolourscoated covers, and the text here in PDF. PW in Comments.

1. Here You Come Again (1977 – B.J. Thomas)
2. But You Know I Love You (1980 – The First Edition)
3. In The Ghetto (1969 – Elvis Presley)
4. Elusive Butterfly (1984 – Bob Lind)
5. After The Goldrush (1996 – Neil Young)
6. Stairway To Heaven (2002 – Led Zeppelin)
7. Don’t Think Twice (2014 – Bob Dylan)
8. Something’s Burning (1996 – The First Edition)
9. The Story (2017 – Brandi Carlile)
10. Shine (2001 – Collective Soul)
11. Peace Train (feat. Ladysmith Black Mambazo) (1996 – Cat Stevens)
12. If (2002 – Bread)
13. Boulder To Birmingham (1976 – Emmylou Harris)
14. Dark As A Dungeon (1980 – Merle Travis)
15. Comes And Goes (1972 – Porter Wagoner)
16. In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (1969 – Merle Haggard)
17. As Soon As I Touched Him (1977 – Randy Crawford)
18. The Tracks Of My Tears (2008 – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles)
19. The Great Pretender (1984 – The Platters)
20. I Get A Kick Out Of You (2001 – Frank Sinatra a.o.)
21. When They Ring Those Golden Bells (2015 – The Imperial Quartet)
BONUS TRACKS:
22. Once In A Very Blue Moon (1985 – Nanci Griffith)
23. Just When I Needed You Most (1996 – Randy Vanwarmer)
24. Purple Rain (2023 – Prince)
25. Free Bird (feat. Lynyrd Skynyrd) (2023 – Lynyrd Skynyrd)

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Previously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Bruce Springsteen Sings Covers
Diana Ross Sings Covers
Gladys Knight Sings Covers
Luther Vandross Sings Covers
Roberta Flack Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs
More Covers Mixes
More Sings Covers

On July 1 it will be 20 years since Luther Vandross died, aged only 54. His career had ended two years earlier, halted by a severe stroke soon after his final album, Dance With My Father, was recorded (it was released while Luther was still in hospital).

That final album showed that Luther was still a master of his craft, one who could even save a mediocre song by the power of his vocals.

Luther Vandross was a gifted songwriter in his own right, of course, but what set him truly apart was the artistry he brought to his covers. There were not that many of them; he was not a covers singers. His discography includes only one album of covers, the Grammy-nominated Songs (1994), from which three other tracks were also nominated. Aside from that, each album featured one cover, maybe two. On almost every album, they constituted a highlight, sometimes even the highlight.

That was certainly the case on 1982’s Forever, For Always, For Love, with the astonishing cover of The Temptations’ Since I Lost My Baby, and on 1983’s Busy Body, which closed with the nine-minute version of Superstar.

Both of these instances hint at Luther’s astute discernment in choosing songs to covers. Few of them had been over-covered, and some were quite obscure, such as Brenda Russell’s If Only For One Njght and Stevie Wonder’s deep cut Creepin’ (both on 1985’s The Night I Fell In Love). The latter featured on the Any Major Stevie Wonder Songbook Vol. 1 , which I posted last month, so the version featured here is a live recording from 2003 (just two months before that stroke), with superb backing vocals.

Talking of which, Luther Vandross had been a prolific backing singer before he became a recording artist in his own right (he features on Any Major Backing Singers, supporting David Bowie), so he knew well how to arrange his backing singers to fullest effect, sometimes letting them step into the limelight. The backing on Since I Lost My Baby and, as mentioned, Creepin’ are good examples of that.

I think Since I Lost My Baby is my favourite cover by Vandross, though many others might go for A House Is Not A Home from 1981’s Never Too Much album (and those many others may well be correct). The Bacharach/David song was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick, and Barbra Streisand created a wonderful cover of it as part of a medley with One Less Bell To Answer. Luther eclipses Babs (as he would later with her Evergreen) giving a masterclass in control, phrasing and restrained devastation.

He’d repeat these masterclasses over the next two decades. Shortly before the stroke, he recorded a cover of Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway’s The Closer I Get To You with Beyoncé. I’d not go as far as to say that their version is better than the original, which is pretty much perfect. Luther and Beyoncé honour that perfection by avoiding the pitfall of over-singing. Instead of trying too hard with the fireworks, as one might have feared, they give the song a restrained and even intimate treatment. It won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals; one of eight Grammy Luther won (out of 33 nominations).

So here are 20 Luther Vandross covers, listed with the performers of the song’s best-known versions in parentheses. Tracks 12-14 are timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and the lot includes home-warbled covers and the above text in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. Love The One You’re With (1994, Stephen Stills)
2. Since I Lost My Baby (1982, The Temptations)
3. A House Is Not A Home (1981, Dionne Warwick)
4. If This World Were Mine (1982, with Cheryl Lynn) (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
5. If Only For One Night (1985, Brenda Russell)
6. Creepin’ (live) (2003, Stevie Wonder)
7. So Amazing (1986, Dionne Warwick)
8. Knocks Me Off My Feet (1996, Stevie Wonder)
9. Evergreen (1994, Barbra Streisand)
10. Superstar (1983, Carpenters)
11. Going Out Of My Head (1996, Little Anthony and the Imperials)
12. Anyone Who Had A Heart (1986, Dionne Warwick)
13. Always And Forever (1994, Heatwave)
14. The Closer I Get To You (2003, with Beyoncé) (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway)
BONUS TRACKS
15. Love Won’t Let Me Wait (1988, Major Harris)
16. Going In Circles (1994, Friends of Distinction)
17. I Who Have Nothing (1991, with Martha Wash) (Tom Jones; Sylvester)
18. When I Need You (1998, Leo Sayer)
19. Any Day Now (2001, Chuck Jackson)
20. The Lady Is A Tramp (1993, with Frank Sinatra) (Frank Sinatra a.o.)

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Previously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Bruce Springsteen Sings Covers
Diana Ross Sings Covers
Gladys Knight Sings Covers
Roberta Flack Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs

In the In Memoriam for February, I mentioned that I might have compiled a Sings Covers mix to mark the death of Roberta Flack, but for lack of time. I have still lacked time, but due to popular demand (by one commenter), I have put together this collection of songs covered by Flack.

Other than a couple of LPs in her 1970s prime which included several interpretations of other people’s songs, and a few covers albums later in her career, Flack was not much of a covers artist — but when she took on a song, she often made it her own.

The obvious examples of that are the two big hits: Killing Me Softly (With His Song) and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Flack invested such intimacy into these songs that hers are the definitive versions, no matter how many times radio DJs play the annoying Fugees cover (no time, please!). Both songs feature here in live versions recorded in Edmonton, Canada, in 1975.

Several tracks here are covers recorded with Donny Hathaway. They are very good, and their You’ve Got A Friend is a contender for the best version of the song. But only one of them eclipses any other interpretation: I (Who Have Nothing). It’s not a song that evokes much emotion in me in any other version. Flack and Hathaway’s invest in the song just the right measure of desperation and intensity.

The most comprehensive reworking here may be the Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody. Flack slows down the song, which by 1971 had already been covered many times, and turns it into an epic soul ballad. I have a hunch singers like Al Green might have taken note — Green went on to turn another Bee Gees song, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, into an epic soul ballad.

There are two Leonard Cohen covers. Flack’s cover of Suzanne is a nine-minute journey, building up to marvellous swirling strings and Flack injecting an African vibe into the proceedings. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, from Flack’s 1969 debut First Take, features a rather lovely piano solo over a quiet but pretty funky bassline.

Flack’s stab at Bob Dylan’s Just Like A Woman — in the gender-switch, Flack is the woman who is “just like” — is exquisitely phrased and sung, which is not something one would necessarily say of Dylan.

One song here was originally an instrumental, Grover Washington Jr’s Mister Magic, to which Flack sang the lyrics of William Salter to the great tune of Ralph MacDonald. Washington had recorded his nine-minute fusion classic in November 1974 and released it on his Mister Magic LP in February 1975; Flack released her version in March 1975. But (and you just knew there was a “but” coming!), much of Flack’s album had been recorded before November 1974. I’m not sure whose version is the original and which is the cover.

Credits give no clue. MacDonald played on both versions, and Salter wrote a lot for both Flack and Washington (often with MacDonald). For the latter, there were tracks like Just The Two Of Us and Be Mine Tonight; for Flack, songs like Trade Winds, Where Is the Love, I’m The One, and Here’s To Love (her lovely collaboration with Sadao Watanabe).

For fans of the “Sings Covers”, I have two in the works, including one that will feature a song featured here.

As always, the pre-“bonus tracks” playlist is timed to fit on a standard CD-R. The lot includes home-softly-killed covers and the above in a PDF. PW in comments.

Names in brackets are either the acts who first recorded the particular song, or had a hit with it. The years are, obviously, the release dates of the cover by Roberta Flack.

1. Compared To What (1969, Les McCann)
2. You’ve Got A Friend (with Donny Hathaway) (1972, Carole King)
3. Mr. Magic (1975, Grover Washington Jr.)
4. You Are Everything (1978, The Stylistics)
5. To Love Somebody (1971, Bee Gees)
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (live) (1975, Bonnie Dobson)
7. If Only For One Night (with Peabo Bryson) (1980, Brenda Russell)
8. I Who Have Nothing (with Donny Hathaway) (1972, Ben E. King)
9. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye (1969, Leonard Cohen)
10. Just Like A Woman (1970, Bob Dylan)
11. Killing Me Softly (With His Song) (live) (1975, Lori Lieberman)
12. Do What You Gotta Do (1970, Johnny Rivers)
13. This Time I’ll Be Sweeter (1977, Martha Reeves)
14. Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971, Simon & Garfunkel)
15. Will You Love Me Tomorrow (1971, The Shirelles)
16. Baby I Love You (with Donny Hathaway) (1972, Aretha Franklin)
Bonus Tracks:
17. The Impossible Dream (1970, Jack Jones)
18. Let It Be Me (1970, Everly Brothers)
19. You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (with Donny Hathaway) (1972, Righteous Brothers)
20. Suzanne (1973, Leonard Cohen)
21. It Might Be You (1994, Stephen Bishop)
22. Thrill Is Gone (1994, B.B. King)

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Previously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Bruce Springsteen Sings Covers
Diana Ross Sings Covers
Gladys Knight Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs

Today, September 23, Bruce Springsteen turns 75. Even by today’s standards, when the age of 75 doesn’t indicate inevitable decrepitude, Springsteen clearly is in extraordinary shape. He’s still touring at full power, with three-hour concerts. Those years of working out — that man had guns! —  are clearly paying off now.

No doubt Bruce, like any ageing person, has his health issue. But it seems he is The Boss of enlarged prostates, or whatever physical deterioration may afflict him! Even the peptic ulcer thing he had earlier this year quickly fucked off when it saw that The Boss has things to do.

When I reviewed Springsteen’s autobiography Born To Run in 2017, to go with the Bruce Springsteen Songbook,  I noted: “Here is a man who knows his strengths and his limitations, and how to balance them. He knows his value and has no need for false modesty, even when he explains why he took the decision to be the boss of his backing band, the E Street Band.” That self-awareness has assured that Springsteen’s career has been reasonably free of embarrassing moments and misjudgments.

With a huge treasury of his own songs, Bruce has little need to resort to the work of others. When he does, it is either for charity or tributes, or they are performed for the sheer fun of it at concerts. So this mix of Springsteen singing covers comprises mostly live recordings. Springsteen is eclectic in his choices, covering all sorts of things, from soul classics and protest folk to hard rock and even punk anthems.

Two covers here are of his own songs, so they’re strictly speaking not really covers. Because The Night was inexplicably rejected for inclusion on the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album, and was instead released by Patti Smith, who had a massive hit with it in 1978. Fire was written and first recorded by Bruce’s pal Robert Gordon in 1977, but became a hit the following year for The Pointer Sisters.

There are a couple of highlights on this mix. The version of Purple Rain was recorded at a concert in Brooklyn two days after Prince’s death in April 2016. It opened the concert and it’s magnificent, with a superb guitar solo by Nils Lofgren.

I really like the version of Highway To Hell recorded in 2014 in — of course —, Australia. Again, there’s some fine guitar work. I’ve loved the cover of Jimmy Cliff’s Trapped ever since I heard it performed in concert in 1985. I was delighted when it appeared later that year on the b-side of Springsteen’s Santa Claus Is Coming To Town single. The version here is from a 1985 concert in LA.

The version of Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell, recorded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2013, is improvised, as the lead-in shows. It is thoroughly enjoyable, and clearly the band is having royal fun.

The playlist ends with Twist And Shout, a snappy number in the hands of The Isley Brothers or The Beatles, but in Bruce’s rendering it’s a sweat-drenched eight-minute-plus workout that was a staple of E Street Band gigs for a long while.

As always, the playlist is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-bossed covers and the above text in a handy PDF. PW in comments.

1. Because The Night (1985, Patti Smith Band)
2. Trapped (1985, Jimmy Cliff)
3. Chimes Of Freedom (1988, Bob Dylan)
4. Who’ll Stop The Rain? (1980, Creedence Clearwater Revival)
5. Fire (1978, Pointer Sisters)
6. Jersey Girl (1981, Tom Waits)
7. Bring ‘Em Home (2016, Pete Seeger)
8. Give My Love To Rose (2002, Johnny Cash)
9. This Land Is Your Land (1980, Woody Guthrie)
10. Rhinestone Cowboy (2019, Glen Campbell)
11. I Wish It Would Rain (2022, The Temptations)
12. Gypsy Woman (1994, The Impressions)
13. Purple Rain (2016, Prince)
14. Highway To Hell (2014, AC/DC)
15. London Calling (2009, The Clash)
16. Good Lovin’ (2009, The Rascals)
17. Summertime Blues (1978, Edie Cochran)
18. Turn Back The Hands Of Time (2022, Tyrone Davis)
19. War (1988, Edwin Starr)
Bonus Tracks
20. Nightshift (2023, The Commodores)
21. Stayin’ Alive (2014, The Bee Gees)
22. You Never Can Tell (2013, Chuck Berry)
23. Twist And Shout (1978, Isley Brothers/The Beatles)

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Previously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Diana Ross Sings Covers
Gladys Knight Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs

Gladys Knight, who is turning 80 next week, on May 28, apparently is known as “The Empress of Soul”. If this is indeed her title, that makes the Queen of Soul her subordinate. I wouldn’t hazard to make a judgment about which singer is the greater.

As we saw on the Aretha Sings Covers mix, the Queen was a tremendous interpreter — and reworker — of songs. Certainly, no woman soul singer ever exercised as much influence on her genre as Aretha did. But ask me whose voice I’d prefer to hear on my deathbed, I’d vote for Gladys Knight’s over Aretha’s.

Where Aretha was assertive, even strident, and in her later years even shrill, Gladys exercised restrained. She needed no resort to melisma or bellowing to convey emotion. She could (and probably still can) do so through a little drop or rise in tone, and through her flawless phrasing — much like Randy Crawford, who one day ought to be the subject of a covers mix too.

Aretha had female backing singers, often including her sisters. Gladys had one not-at-all-secret weapon: The Pips. These three guys — her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten — are among the greatest backing singers ever. If there should be a Backing Singers Hall of Fame, only ignorance would exclude The Pips from immediate induction.

Of course, Gladys would have been a star even without The Pips, but her interplay with the guys was an principal ingredient in her soul stew. Just consider the exquisite commentary The Pips deliver on Midnight Train To Georgia. (A track which, like other covers which Knight and Pips turned into hits, doesn’t feature here.)

Gladys had some history with the previous singer featured in this series, Diana Ross. It goes back to the 1960s, when Gladys was with Motown. She and The Pips were supporting Dana Ross and The Supremes on tour — and they stole the show. Berry Gordy was unhappy about that, and, according to Knight, Diana had her act dumped from the tour.

Gladys Knight went on to have a prolific career after Motown, with a string of big hits, some covers and others originals. (See  and The Originals: Soul Vol. 2)

This collection of songs here shows Knight to be a magnificent interpreter of songs, often taking ownership of them. Some of these songs were recorded in their hit versions by some of the greatest singers in pop; Gladys matches or even eclipses them.As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-pipped covers, and the text above on PDF format.

1. (I Know) I’m Losing You (1970, The Temptations)
2. Who Is She (And What Is She To You) (1973, Bill Withers)
3. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (1968, Righteous Brothers)
4. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother/Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971, Hollies/S&G)
5. Fire And Rain (1971, James Taylor)
6. One Less Bell To Answer (1971, The 5th Dimension)
7. Goin’ Out Of My Head (1968, Little Anthony and the Imperials)
8. Help Me Make It Through The Night (1971, Kris Kristofferson)
9. Feel Like Makin’ Love (1975, Roberta Flack)
10. The Way We Were/Try To Remember (1974, Barbra Streisand/Ed Ames)
11. The Makings Of You (1974, Curtis Mayfield)
12. Look Of Love (1968, Dusty Springfield)
13. Groovin’ (1968, The Young Rascals)
14. Sugar Sugar (1975, The Archies)
15. Cloud Nine (1970, The Temptations)
16. Grandma’s Hands (2001, Bill Withers)
17. End Of The Road Medley (live) (1994, Boyz II Men a.o.)
18. Since I Fell For You (2005, Lenny Welch)

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Previously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Diana Ross Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs
Covered With Soul
1970s Soul

Today, March 26, Diana Ross turns 80. To mark that milestone, here’s a collection of La Ross doing cover versions, drawing from the 1970s and early 1980s.

It is claimed by some that Ross wasn’t even the second-best singer in The Supremes. That may or may not be so, but what she had over her two fellow Supremes was an excess of charisma, which found expression in her physical appearance and also in her vocal interpretation of the songs she performed.

This collection highlights the interpretative attributes of Ross, her charisma and her confidence in delivery. Her best, and best-known, cover is that of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, featured here in its full length from Diana’s self-titled debut album in 1970.

That cover is lightning in a bottle. Produced by Ashford & Simpson, also the song’s writers, the Ross version was arranged by Paul Riser, who had also arranged tracks like Gaye’s version I Heard It Through The Grapevine, My Girl, The Tears Of A Clown, What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, Ross’ own Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand), and, later, The Temptations’ Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone. The Ross version completely reinvents the original, with Ross’ spoken intro barely hinting at the impending musical tsunami. The best vocal bit: when Diana goes “A-OW!”

Diana’s 1971 reworking of the Four Tops’ glorious Reach Out, I’ll Be There slows down the song — not in the pretentious ways of whispy-voiced-girls-with-guitars that blight TV ads these days, but a total reinvention, also produced by Ashford & Simpson, that builds up as it goes along.

On this collection, that track is followed by a straight, though renamed, cover of Aretha Franklin’s Call Me. Aretha, of course, was the subject of a previous … Sings Covers mix (available here). As was Al Green, though I know of no covers of his songs by Ross. I can imagine her covering Let’s Stay Together, and nailing it.

Some of the originals of songs featured here appeared on The Originals – Motown Edition, specifically the two Stylistics tracks, and Thelma Houston‘s Do You Know Where You‘re Going To, which in Ross‘ hands became the Theme of Mahogany. That mix also includes a couple of originals of Supremes tracks.

Marvin Gaye looms large in this collection. On two tracks, Diana duets with him, three are covers of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell originals, and half a track covers Marvin from his What’s Going On album (which was Recovered in 2021. On that collection, Dizzy Gillespie covers Save The Children). On April 2, we will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s murder. Of course, Diana Ross later recorded a song in tribute to Marvin, titled Missing You.

The tracklisting provides the year of Ross’ version and the name of the act that recorded the song’s best-known version, not necessarily the original artist.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes self-covered covers. PW in comments.

1. What You Gave Me (1978 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
2. Baby, I Love Your Way (1983 – Peter Frampton)
3. I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You (1971 – Syreeta)
4. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (1970 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
5. You Are Everything (with Marvin Gaye) (1973 – The Stylistics)
6. Stop, Look, Listen To Your Heart (with Marvin Gaye) (1973 – The Stylistics)
7. You’re All I Need To Get By (1970 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
8. Reach Out, I’ll Be There (1971 – The Four Tops)
9. I Love You (Call Me) (1970 – Aretha Franklin)
10. Brown Baby/Save The Children (1973 – Nina Simone/Marvin Gaye)
11. Something (1970 – The Beatles)
12. Theme From Mahogany (1976 – Thelma Houston)
13. Too Shy To Say (1977 – Stevie Wonder)
14. (They Long To Be) Close To You (1970 – Carpenters)
15. I Won’t Last A Day Without You (1973 – Carpenters)
16. Where Did We Go Wrong (1978 – Maureen McGovern)
17. Imagine (1973 – John Lennon)
18. Smile (1976 – Charlie Chaplin)
19. All Of Me (1972 – Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra a.o.)
20. I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl (1977 – Bessie Smith)

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Peviously in Sings Covers:
Al Green Sings Covers
Aretha Franklin Sings Covers
Tina Turner Sings Covers

More Mix CD-Rs
Covered With Soul
1970s Soul

The death of Tina Turner yesterday brought to a close one of the great stories in pop music. It’s a well-known story, and it requires no rehashing here (in any case, if you didn’t know it and missed the movie, you’ll read it in the obituaries). Still, it is a triumph of the human spirit that Tina left her abusive husband at the risk of everything she had and knew, and came back, eventually, a bigger star than she was with him.

I don’t have much love for Tina’s output after the Private Dancer album, her big comeback in 1984, but I love her success, which was a permanent fuck-you to her erstwhile abuser, who lived out huis days as a public fool. I hope Tina’s story inspired many abused women to leave their abusive partners (and before anyone objects, “Men are abused, too”, yeah, sure. But that is a different story).

It is remarkable that Tina Turner was seen as a bit of a rock granny when she made her comeback at the age of 44. It seemed so unlikely, and it was unprecedented that a woman of that age might have a second stab at superstardom (and here we might remember the role the members of Heaven 17 played in returning Tina to the big stage). If you were a woman, you were considered past-it once you had crossed the threshold of 30. That comeback helped change things for women in popular music. Beyoncé is only three years younger than Tina was in 1984; nobody would even think of calling her a granny, or even an aunty. At 43, Pink is topping the album charts around the world; try calling her “old”…

Poster of Tina Turner in Germany’s Bravo magazine in February 1974.

As performers, Ike and Tina were dynamite, especially when they were backed by The Ikettes. Ike’s arrangements were of such genius that the covers he produced often turned out to be new songs (check out what he and Tina did to the hoary old standard You Are My Sunshine as an example), or improved on the original, even when the initial version seemed pretty much perfect (Proud Mary is a good example).

Tina’s vocals might have lacked in elegant beauty, but Tina inserted so much character in their delivery — and when required also explosive energy. She sang with authority, even when she lacked that in her private life. Few vocalists have ever been both soul and rock singers simultaneously, and nobody in the way Tina Turner was. She was unique.

This mix of covers by Tina Turner demonstrates that duality in music sensibility; and a couple of tracks here — Kris Kristofferson’s Lovin’ Him Was Easier and Brenda Lee’s If This Is Our Last Time — are from her foray into country in 1974 , though they were released only in 1979.

By then she had already released her cover of Dan Hill’s Sometimes When We Touch, the original of which features on the Any Major Power Ballads Vol. 2 mix, which I posted only a day before Tina Turner’s death.

Some of Turner’s biggest post-comeback hits were covers, though they don’t feature here. The comeback started with her fine version of Al Greens Let’s Stay Together and took pace with What’s Love Got To Do With It, a much superior cover of a song by Bucks Fizz. Her signature tune probably is (Simply) The Best, a terrible song first recorded by Bonnie Tyler, which was included in The Originals: 1980s Vol. 2. None of them feature here, but I close the mix with her slowed-down interpretation of Help, from Private Dancer, which was in contention for the Beatles 1962-66 Recovered mix I posted in March.

As always, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-doopdoopdooped covers and the above text in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. Ike & Tina Turner – Proud Mary (1971)
2. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Gimme Some Lovin’/Sweet Soul Music (1969)
3. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Respect (1969)
4. Ike & Tina Turner – Honky Tonk Woman (1973)
5. Tina Turner – The Bitch Is Back (1978)
6. Tina Turner – Whole Lotta Love (1975)
7. Ike & Tina Turner – Higher Ground (1974)
8. Tina Turner – Back Stabbers (1979)
9. Ike & Tina Turner – You Are My Sunshine (1973)
10. Ike & Tina Turner and The Ikettes – Son Of A Preacher Man (1969)
11. Ike & Tina Turner – With A Little Help From My Friends (1973)
12. Tina Turner – Let’s Spend The Night Together (1975)
14. Ike & Tina Turner – I Wish It Would Rain (1969)
15. Ike & Tina Turner – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (1969)
16. Ike & Tina Turner – Save The Last Dance For Me (1966)
17. Tina Turner – If This Is Our Last Time (1974)
18. Ike & Tina Turner – Drift Away (1973)
19. Tina Turner – Lovin’ Him Was Easier (1974)
20. Tina Turner – Sometimes When We Touch (1978)
21. Tina Turner – Help (1984)

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What needs to be said about the genius of Aretha Franklin and her influence has been said. One part of that genius was her ability to take possession of other people’s songs. Mention songs like Respect or Say A Little Prayer or Spanish Harlem, and few will say Otis Redding or Dionne Warwick or Ben. E. King. When Aretha took those songs, they became hers.

Many others she re-interpreted in such a way that her version would become virtually a different song, not infrequently eclipsing the almost ineclipsable. Consider what she did with the Beatles ballad The Long And Winding Road or Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water — both fine ballads beloved of crooner types — by giving them a bit of gospel. The Beatles track acquires a depth neither the composition nor Phil Spector’s production suggested in The Beatles hands. The S&G track acquires a spiritual dimension that was hinted at in the original but not quite realised

So by way of tribute, here is a mix of Aretha Franklin singing other people’s songs. In the parentheses I cite the respective song’s original performer.

As always, the mix is timed to fit in a standard CD-R length, includes home-shouted covers. PW in comments.

1. Soulville (1968 – Dinah Washington)
2. Groovin’ (1968 – The Young Rascals)
3. Until You Come Back To Me (1973 – Stevie Wonder)
4. You’re All I Need To Get By (1971 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
5. Long And Winding Road (1972 – The Beatles)
6. Young, Gifted And Black (1972 – Nina Simone)
7. People Get Ready (1968 – The Impressions)
8. A Change Is Gonna Come (1967 – Sam Cooke)
9. Drown In My Own Tears (1967 – Sonny Thompson)
10. Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971 – Simon & Garfunkel)
11. Don’t Play That Song (1970 – Ben. E. King)
12. A Brand New Me (1972 – Jerry Butler)
13. Tracks Of My Tears (1968 – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles)
14. The Weight (1969 – The Band)
15. Dark End Of The Street (1970 – James Carr)
16. Eleanor Rigby (1970 – The Beatles)
17. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (1974 – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)
18. Something He Can Feel (1976 – Irene Cara)
19. Oh Happy Day (with Mavis Staples) (1987 – Edwin Hawkins Singers)
20. Ever Changing Times (with Michael McDonald) (1991)
21. I Dreamed A Dream (1991 – from “Les Misérables”)

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Covered With Soul
1970s Soul

Sometimes the less you know about your favourite singers, the better. Who knew that Al Green, the soul legend, is not an all-round good egg, nor, indeed, an all-round bad egg. The good Reverend is one hell of a conflicted cat. And that conflicted soul makes for intriguing reading in Jimmy’s McDonough new, authoritative biography of Al Green, Soul Survivor (Da Capo Press, 2017). For fans of popular music, and especially of soul, the book is a treasure.

Obviously the focus is on Green, but to understand Green — in as far as the man can be even remotely understood — one must also know the context in which he has existed and recorded. So McDonough introduces a cast of co-stars and supporting actors along the way. There is, naturally, Albert Leorn Greene’s family, including his pimp brothers.

The cover of Jimmy McDonough’s absorbing Al Green bio Soul Survivor, published in August 2017 by Da Capo Press.

A substantial portion of Soul Survivor is devoted to Willie Mitchell and his Hi Records. As Green’s producer and his musical home in the singer’s pomp, Mitchell and Hi are key to the Green story. So are backing musicians like the Hodges brothers — Charles on organ, Leroy on bass, and, perhaps most importantly, Mabon “Teenie” on guitar — as well drummers Howard Grimes and Al Jackson Jr and the Memphis Horns (mainly Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love), and later people like Reuben Fairfax.

It’s fascinating to learn how Mitchell turned Green, who fancied himself as a soul growler, into that quiet singer into whose vocals you can disappear, as McDonough eloquently puts it. Mitchell and Al Jackson Jr wrote the melody for Let’s Stay Together; Al Green’s task was to write the lyrics. So he locked himself up in a studio room and wrote them in 15 minutes — starting one of the great love songs as a reflection on black politics. Green then wanted to sing the song in shouty southern soul style. Mitchell insisted he sing it all mellow. Green was very unhappy with that idea and sped off in his car, wheels all a-screeching. When he returned, he deliberately sang the song as relaxed and with as little emotion he could muster, just to spite Mitchell — who in turn said that this was exactly the sound he wanted. No more takes were needed; a new kind of soul singer was born that day. The Hi Records part of the Al Green story is a most welcome bonus in this book.

Along the way we also encounter people like Laura Lee, a great soul singer in her own right and Green’s on-off girlfriend. It’s Lee about whom Green wrote Tired Of Being Alone. That song also introduced the backing vocals of the Rhodes sisters, who surprisingly were country singers, with sax player Charles Chalmers (Sandra Rhodes also played rhythm guitar on How Do You Mend A Broken Heart). If you are surprised to learn that Al Green’s soulful backing singers on those great Hi records were white, you surely are not alone.

Who’s a pretty pimp? Al Green makes his Soul Train debut in 1971, singing Tired Of Being Alone while wearing gold boxer boots, black vinyl hot pants, magenta vinyl vest, a gold chain, a pink pimp hat at a jaunty angle, and a man-bag on his shoulders. Give him a cane and he could fit into a scene from The Deuce.

McDonough is insightful in examining Al Greens records. Obviously a devoted fan, he speaks with authority even as he expresses strong opinions. One wants to play the songs he is writing about just to hear what he hears. But at other times his opinions can be intrusive, such as the reference to the “dreaded Chicago”. And much as I agree with McDonough on the Talking Heads’ awful cover of Take Me To The River — “Fuck the Talking Heads”, he rudely opines — in a book like this it’s better to not to try and force the reader’s mind. And only the good Lord knows how McDonough arrives at his churlishly-expressed opinion that “clown-haired” Lyle Lovett lacks talent.

But that is a minor criticism. McDonough marshals his widely collated resources well, even if it becomes difficult at some points to keep track of who is who. The author hopes that his book will be the definitive biography on Al Green, and he wasn’t going to leave many gaps.

Soul Survivor has a few moments of great trivia. We learn that Take Me To The River co-writer Teeny Hodges reported that his biggest payday had come not from the Green or Talking Heads recordings of the song but from royalties earned via the song’s “performance” by the animatronic fish Big Mouth Billy Bass in The Sopranos. And among the more startling revelation is that Green apparently is a freemason, in an African-American wing of the secret society that has also included such luminaries as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Richard Pryor.

Take Me To The River payday: the animatronic fish Big Mouth Billy Bass in The Sopranos.

There is an alarming story about how a goon gangster broke Al’s arm when the singer didn’t want to perform. But don’t feel too bad for Green, who allegedly felt quite entitled to assault women. Which takes us to the 1974 suicide of Mary Woodson and her attack on him with boiling grits (Green tends to insist it was Cream of Wheat) that preceded it. McDonough cites a lot of research on the incident; all it shows is that the official verdict of suicide should be seen as inconclusive. While a lot points to Woodson’s death having been self-inflicted, there are some questions that likely will never be answered.

Woodson’s death might or might not have played a role in Green’s religious conversion — which took place, of all places, after a gig at Disneyland, the result of a bargain he said he had made with God in 1969. A substantial section of the book covers Green’s career as a pastor (he’s now a bishop, whatever that means in non-hierarchical church). As with everything, Green is a walking contradiction in that role. One moment given to evangelical zeal and Christian charity, the next driven by that nasty underside that always seems to reside beneath his surface. Green’s style of ministry seems to be always a bit or a lot unhinged.

The man who emerges in the pages of Soul Survivor is alone and lonely, one who attracts people easily with charm and kindness, and then always finds ways to repel them with appalling behaviour. His outsized ego perhaps makes Al Green the only suitable companion for Albert Leorn Greene. It ain’t easy being Green.

And so to the mix. Whoopie Goldberg, in a rare moment of lucidity, said: “No one can cover Al Green.” It’s true: how many good covers of Al Green originals do you know? But Green is a superb interpreter of other people”s songs, most famously perhaps of The Bee Gee’s How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (an mind-blowing vocal performance, but don’t disregard Mitchell’s fine arrangement that sets the scene for those vocals). So here is a mix of Al Green singing other people’s songs. In the parentheses I cite the respective song’s most famous performer.

As always, the mix is timed to fit in a standard CD-R length, includes home-lurved covers. PW in comments.

1. I’ve Never Found A Girl (1972 – Eddie Floyd)
2. I Can’t Get Next To You (1971 – The Temptations)
3. Drivin’ Wheel (1971 – Roosevelt Sykes/Junior Parker)
4. The Letter (1969 – The Box Tops)
5. Summertime (1969 – from “Porgy And Bess”)
6. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (1972 – The Bee Gees)
7. For The Good Times (1972 – Kris Kristofferson)
8. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (1973 – Hank Williams)
9. Funny How Time Slips Away (1973 – Jimmy Elledge/Joe Hinton)
10. I Stand Accused (1969 – Jerry Butler)
11. Unchained Melody (1973 – Righteous Brothers)
12. I Want To Hold Your Hand (1969 – The Beatles)
13. Oh, Pretty Woman (1972 – Roy Orbison)
14. Light My Fire (1971 – The Doors)
15. Together Again (1976 – Buck Owens)
16. Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home (1984 – Joe South)
17. People Get Ready (feat. Margie Joseph, 1981 – The Impressions)
18. A Change Is Gonna Come (live, 1994 – Sam Cooke)

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Covered With Soul
1970s Soul