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I suppose it's a little bit surprising that we don't get the two novelty cover versions right next to each other. Wheatus only ever had three Top 40 hits in the UK, but they managed to spread them out at roughly six-monthly intervals, and the second was this attempt on the Erasure hit (the original can be found on Now 13).
Whilst I could give the Alien Ant Farm record some credit for enthusiasm, this is just awful. It's completely unimaginative, and suffers from the typical karaoke mistake of odd phrasing because the singer didn't seem to know the words to the later verses until the last minute. And since the semi-falsetto voice is so deeply irritating to start with it was something of a struggle for me to get through the whole thing. At least it's given me new admiration for the voice of Andy Bell. In fact, I'd even rather have heard Andy Bell from Ride/Oasis/Beady Eye singing it than this terrible effort.
Also appearing on: Now 49
Available on: Wheatus
I disagree completely, this is one of my favourite cover versions ever (although I have a tendency to entrench a position on cover versions)
ReplyDeleteI did hear this version first, which does tend to colour discussions on which is better, but compared to the inherent sing-a-long-ability of this, the original always seemed turgid and joyless to me.
I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of the original either (that probably wouldn't surprise you if you've seen my other Erasure posts) but I did hear that one first, which probably matters.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, it's really the vocal that annoys me, the rest of the perfomance is OK - but that is much more of a significant factor for me in a cover of a song that I already know than in a new one. Coincidentally I heard 'Teenage Dirtbag' on the radio earlier today and he was annoying on that too.