Wednesday, August 22, 2007

BBC Covers!

Just read about this and I had to share the news:

According to Pitchfork,

BBC Radio 1 is turning 40 and to celebrate they've assembled 40 bands to do a cover song, each representing a year of the station's existence. Pure bliss! Check out this line-up:

01 Kaiser Chiefs: "Flowers in the Rain" [The Move; 1967]
02 The Fratellis: "All Along the Watchtower" [The Jimi Hendrix Experience; 1968]
03 Amy Winehouse: "Cupid" [Johnny Nash; 1969]
04 Robbie Williams: "Lola" [The Kinks; 1970]
05 The Streets: "Your Song" [Elton John; 1971]
06 Sugababes: "Betcha by Golly Wow" [The Stylistics; 1972]
07 The Feeling: "You're So Vain" [Carly Simon; 1973]
08 Foo Fighters: "Band on the Run" [Wings; 1974]
09 Kylie: "Love Is the Drug" [Roxy Music; 1975]
10 KT Tunstall: "Let's Stick Together" [Bryan Ferry; 1976]
11 Franz Ferdinand: "Sound and Vision" [David Bowie; 1977]
12 The Raconteurs: "Teenage Kicks" [The Undertones; 1978]
13 Mika: "Can't Stand Losing You" [The Police; 1979]
14 Kasabian: "Too Much Too Young" [The Specials; 1980]
15 Keane: "Under Pressure" [Queen & David Bowie; 1981]
16 McFly: "Town Called Malice" [The Jam; 1982]
17 James Morrison: "Come Back and Stay" [Paul Young; 1983]
18 The Gossip: "Careless Whisper" [George Michael; 1984]
19 The Pigeon Detectives: "The Power of Love" [Huey Lewis & the News; 1985]
20 Lily Allen: "Don't Get Me Wrong" [The Pretenders; 1986]
21 Stereophonics: "You Sexy Thing" [Hot Chocolate; 1987]
22 Mutya Buena: "Fast Car" [Tracy Chapman; 1988]
23 Editors: "Lullaby" [The Cure; 1989]
24 Razorlight: "Englishman in New York" [Sting; 1990]
25 Groove Armada: "Crazy for You" [Madonna; 1991]
26 Paolo Nutini: "It Must Be Love" [Madness; 1992]
27 The Kooks: "All That She Wants" [Ace of Base; 1993]
28 Mark Ronson: "You're All I Need to Get By" [Mary J. Blige; 1994]
29 Calvin Harris: "Stillness in Time" [Jamiroquai; 1995]
30 Klaxons: "No Diggity" [Blackstreet; 1996]
31 Just Jack: "Lovefool" [The Cardigans; 1997]
32 Natasha Bedingfield: "Ray of Light" [Madonna; 1998]
33 The Twang: "Drinking in L.A." [Bran Van 3000; 1999]
34 The Fray: "The Great Beyond" [R.E.M.; 2000]
35 Girls Aloud: "Teenage Dirtbag" [Wheatus; 2001]
36 Maxïmo Park: "Like I Love You" [Justin Timberlake; 2002]
37 The View: "Don't Look Back Into the Sun" [The Libertines; 2003]
38 Hard-Fi: "Toxic" [Britney Spears; 2004]
39 The Enemy: "Father & Son" [Yusuf & Ronan Keating; 2005]
40 Corinne Bailey Rae: "Steady, As She Goes" [The Raconteurs; 2006]

So many on there I'm looking forward to. Some will undoubtedly be trash, but I applaud the effort anyway. The Raconteurs seem to be the only band both covering and being covered... sweetness, and by Corinne Bailey Rae!

The songs are still in the process of being recorded so the tracklist is not set in stone. I heard a rumour this would be out in October.

5 comments:

Kurtis Findlay said...

That sounds great! I await your review in October!

Jason T. Carter said...

They should change the song being covered for 1968...I love Hendrix, but that's not his song! It's a Bob Dylan song, covered by Jimi. I know you already know this, but I would have expected the BBC to be a bit more careful. Silly brits.

Fongolia said...

I was thinking about that and presumably it's a cover of a cover, so to speak. Their probably using Jimi's version as the basis of the cover and maybe being a bit cheeky since it's often considered one of the foremost covers of all-time. I thought for a sec maybe the Bob Dylan version was written before Radio 1 existed, but (according to wikipedia) the original came out in 1967, so if anything it should come first on that list AND be credited to Bob.

Anonymous said...

The 2005 cover (Father and Son) is also a cover-of-a-cover (kind of)...since Cat Stevens (Yusuf) originally wrote and released the song in 1970 on "Tea for the Tillerman".

Anonymous said...

The artists were given the choice of any song that made the top 20 for the year they received - that's why they were able to choose Jimi Hendrix and Yusuf/Ronan, etc

It's got nothing to do with who did it originally, it has to be the version released in whatever year they were allocated