Fong Songs 101 All-Time Covers: #71 to 66

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Just joining us?
I'm counting down 101 of my all-time favourite covers before packing this blog away in the attic.
Read my countdown preamble here.
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Just Duet
71. Tom Jones & Stereophonics - Mama Told Me Not to Come [originally written by Randy Newman]
Clearly taking a cue from Three Dog Night's famous cover, this is my favourite cut from Tom Jones' 1999 (nearly) all-covers album Reload, which more or less resurrected his career.

70. Daryl Hall & KT Tunstall - Something to Talk About [originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt]
Speaking of career resurrections, Daryl Hall seems to have undergone a revival of his own in the past 5 years with his excellent Live at Daryl's House webcast-- free and cover -friendly! A couple Hall & Oates tribute albums have recently popped up, Daryl randomly showed up on an episode of Flight of the Conchords, and their You Make My Dreams provided the soundtrack to a great fantasy dance sequence in last year's (500) Days of Summer. This loose and fun cover is from the KT Tunstall episode of Live at Daryl's House. If you've never watched it, it's a lot of fun and he has one of the most talented backing bands I've ever heard. For the record, this song was written by Canadian Shirley Eikhard who would later record her own version on her album Country.

69. William Shatner - Common People (feat. Joe Jackson) [originally by Pulp]
A surprising cover that takes the spoken word magic of William Shatner, complements it with an inspired guest vocals from Joe Jackson, and throws in a choir and almost the kitchen sink. It's audacious, it's irreverent, but not a joke (well, not entirely) and this can be said of Shatner's entire solo album Has Been. It helps to have a producer like Ben Folds who frequently straddles the line between irreverence and genuine pathos. And yes I know I have a Ben Folds bias.

Instrumentals
I'll let these ones speak for themselves. It's late and I'm lazy.

68. The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer [originally by Rush]
67. Speak Low - Thriller [originally by Michael Jackson]
66. Dorothy Ashby - The Windmills of Your Mind [originally performed by Noel Harrison]

Tomorrow the Fong Songs 101 countdown continues with some U2, Frankie Valli, and the cover that bridges them both.