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Same But Different

#creative

*CONTENT WARNING* JUST A HEADS UP THAT THIS POST INCLUDES EMBEDS OF A SONG THAT IS INCREDIBLY CATCHY AND MAY END UP STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOR DAYS.

One of the best ways you can learn how to do something new is by copying someone who knows actually what they’re doing. This isn’t a fresh idea, but it is important to remember. What if you already know how to do something well, though? Maybe you’re also ambitious and confident enough to think you can do it better, too…

The first time I heard “Tonight you belong to me” was around 2010 while watching the incredible movie (that I was also experiencing for the first time) The Jerk. Here’s the scene, clear your calendar for the next few minutes 👇

So if you’re me, the song originates here. Why would I think otherwise? This movie isn’t a musical, and the leads are both singing, clearly this is the beginning! Wrong. I’m off. Way off (by half a century, actually). It was written in 1926 and recorded a year later!

But I didn’t learn any of that until recently. A few years after watching The Jerk, I heard a cover that is just as charming and wonderful, performed by Gavin Castleton (who you probably don’t know but should) and Lex Land (who now goes by Holly Frost). They, however, put their own twist on the end (I won’t give it away, just listen).

That’s Gavin’s second most streamed song on Spotify with over 1 million listens. Just before that release however (and you may have heard this) Eddie Vedder and Cat Power also covered it (26 million listens on Spotify, but not nearly as interesting to me). Smash that play button, if you’re not sick of it yet.

Perhaps you’re older than me, an elder millennial. In that case your first exposure to this song could be from the 1962 version by Nancy Sinatra. Or maybe you remember the 1956 version by Patience and Prudence. And there’s the 2008 version by The Bird and The Bee (who would go on to make an entire album of Hall and Oats covers, which is incredible.

Where am I going with this? I could probably find another 100 halfway decent variations of this song on YouTube/Spotify/Soundcloud. I won’t go looking. My guess is that they’d also be slight variations of the original, never straying too far from the simple harmonies. Even some of the solos are the same because it is is a well written song. That’s the wonderful thing about any piece of music, really, it hits different with someone else’s voice. Or in a slightly shifted tempo. Or with a piano instead of a ukulele. I think covering a song you didn’t write comes from with a huge appreciation for the original.

Which is very different from Hollywood, where rehashing something that’s been done before (recently, even) is a clear cash grab, not artistic inspiration. Because there have been eight Spider-Man films since the year 2000, with three different actors portrayed as the protagonist. Oh, and one more is scheduled for 2026.

Using this image over and over for different purposes is so meta

But recording and releasing your own version of someone else’s song seems like a high risk and high reward scenario. It worked out for Sinéad O’Connor who turned Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” into a hit far bigger hit than the original. And while I don’t think Alien Ant Farm’s version of “Smooth Criminal is better than Michael Jackson’s original, I’m sure there are plenty of people who would argue otherwise. And that’s kind of cool, since art should be subjective (and definitely not judged on financial success). We don’t yuck someone’s yum, right?

There’s something about musical covers that’s always entertaining, even if the new version isn’t as “good” as the old one. They’ll almost always get a reaction, too, for better or for worse. Try to listen to a track or two from Mark Ronson’s 2007 album “Version” without smiling. I could write a blog post about this whole thing👇

And Surely Postmodern Jukebox has covered one of your favorite songs. That might make you cringe or overjoyed. It’s unlikely you’ll feel indifferent while listening to a song you know but not the way you’re used to. In this era of AI-generated slop, I’ll take a human’s heartfelt version of another human’s art over a computer’s attempt to “create”, any day of the week. This post is a love letter to all musical covers. Keep them coming, please, and I’ll keep listening.