Cry Me a River

Another old jazz standard - written for Ella Fitzgerald but recorded first by Julie London. Once again, there are many excellent versions by big names, from Barbara Streisand to Susan Boyle. Here is an extensive list of covering artists from Wikipedia (although some of them are actually covering the Justin Timberlake song).
I'm posting the ones that pleased or caught my ear for some reason.

Patricia Elena Vlieg, saucy and lively.

My favorite jazz version: Diana Krall with her unsweet voice.

Someone had to do a "naive" version, so here is Swedish singer Lisa Ekdahl.

But there's nobody like Bjork - as always, exquisitely casual and precise, childlike and emotional and slightly mad.

Also works as hard rock - Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen, 1970

And Caetano Veloso always makes my toes tingle...

I'm not in the mood for Ella Fitzgerald, but I'm putting these up for another day maybe:

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass (1975)

Dinah Washington (who saucily acknowledges the existence of Spokane before starting)

And the original, Julie London.

Piping up for November

Voçê Não Entende Nada / Cotidiano - Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque charm and disarm on TV.

Oh! Darling by the Beatles - love the rhythmic squacks of protest from George Harrison's instrument interjected between Paul's cries.

And this sentimental little thing:
Nothing Even Matters - Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo

=)

This song makes me smile: Boys of Summer - Don Henley

Staring into space daydreaming kind of music

Apple Tree - Erykah Badu (from her first album, Baduizm)
Erykah Badu is Something Else. That inimitable dreamy delivery, vague enunciation, irresistibly groovy instrumental backing. Something conceived in a creative haze... there's no way that kind of music could have been thought up, in a clear mind.

Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy.

Last October songs

Wednesday's: Nobody's Fault But Mine - Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in their 1994 live album "No Quarter (Unledded)".
This is an old blues standard, first recorded by Blind Willie Nelson in 1927 or so. In 1976 Led Zeppelin tore it up and put it back together as metal. Then in 1994 Page and Plant backed off and gave it another chance, and that is the version above.

Thursday the weather shifted, and Leonard Cohen poked a first tender song through, like all those green things that pop out of the earth after the first rain:
Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

Later on rainy Thursday I heard this on the radio:
From Hank to Hendrix - Neil Young (unplugged)

Two new songs and another look at an old one.

Rent by the Pet Shop Boys - odd that I've never heard it before. It's also covered by Liza Minnelli and is supposedly a drag queen staple.

Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan (thanks Iza)

And
Playing on and on and on in my head, I can't stop it.

Caetano Veloso, Mora Na Filosofia (Monsueto / Arnaldo Passos)

Don't bother with other covers. Right now I think this is the most perfect music.


Eu vou lhe dar a decisão
Botei na balança, e você não pesou
Botei na peneira, e você não passou.
Mora na filosofia
Pra quê rimar amor e dor.

Se seu corpo ficasse marcado
Por lábios ou mãos carinhosas,
Eu saberia, ora vai mulher
A quantos você pertencia.
Não vou me preocupar em ver,
Seu caso não é de ver pra crer
Tá na cara!

My best translation of the first three lines (with every possible disclaimer - it's just a small improvement on the Google translation).

"I'll give you the decision.
I weighed it in balance, and you carried no weight.
I put it through the sieve, and you did not pass."

Heard It Through the Grapevine

My conclusion from this search is that nobody can touch Marvin Gaye's performance. No other cover comes close to his intensity, his urgency, no one else's "...and I'm just about to lose my mind" is so thrilling. Supposedly Gaye's hard-driving producer brought out that urgent tone by pushing him to record the song on a scale higher than his comfortable vocal range.

If you are only interested in the ultimate version, read no farther than this:
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye (1967)



Nevertheless, some of the other versions out there have redeeming qualities. Here are my picks - the historic, the original, and Amy Winehouse:

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The historic - best known versions:

Gladys Knight & the Pips - ther first version to be released as a single, before Marvin Gaye's.

Credence Clearwater Revival

Claymation commercial for California raisins

Michael Jackson also wanted to be a raisin...

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My favorites - the artists interpreting in their own character:

Elton John live

Fantasia Barrino on American Idol

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Some well-made versions and sung with lots of feeling, just not original:

Fairport Convention

Funk Brothers & Ben Harper

Michael McDonald

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And Amy Winehouse... well, she just can't be ignored.

Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller on the Jools Holland show

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For those who read this far, here is Marvin Gaye jamming in Japan.