Rhino’s Got You Covered: Neurotic Outsiders, Shirley Bassey, Aurora, and Marshall Crenshaw
It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to take another dip into the Rhino catalog and trot out a new quartet of cover songs that you may or may not have heard before. Let’s get started, shall we?
• Neurotic Outsiders, “Janie Jones” (1996): This short-lived supergroup might’ve lasted longer if they’d stuck with doing live shows instead of making themselves into a proper band, but when you put together Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, John Taylor of Duran Duran, and Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan of Guns ‘n’ Roses, the results are at the very least going to be interesting. It would’ve felt too obvious to offer up the band’s version of “Planet Earth,” so we opted for their Clash cover, since it’s always nice to kick things off with a “1-2-3-4.”
• Shirley Bassey, “Spinning Wheel” (1970): Dame Shirley has proven herself capable of interpreting songs penned by damned near everyone at this point, from Jim Morrison to Pink (seriously, go check out her take on “Get the Party Started” when you get a chance), but we have a particular fondness for the way she belts out this Blood, Sweat and Tears track.
• Aurora with Naimee Coleman, “Ordinary World” (2002): This British electronic group had a few other successes, including their debut single “Hear You Calling,” which hit #17 in the UK, and “Dreaming” and “The Day It Rained Forever,” both of which cracked the UK top 30, but it was their version of this Duran Duran song that gave them their only top-5 hit. Attempts to duplicate its success with covers of Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read Your Mind” and Tasmin Archer’s “Sleeping Satellite” did not succeed, alas, but at least they managed to hit #5.
• Marshall Crenshaw, “Valerie” (1989): For his ’89 album GOOD EVENING, Crenshaw offered up as many covers as he did originals, and while none of his choices were necessarily surprising to his fans – with the possible exception of “Some Hearts,” by Diane Warren – a couple definitely served to introduce some folks to composers they hadn’t know beforehand, as was possibly the case with this Richard Thompson tune.
