Who Sang it Better?

Joy
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True, but the other band has Paul Barker… AND Bill Rieflin!

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/09/29/140921003/talking-shop-with-bill-rieflin-journeyman-musician

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124

@mindysan33’s post reminded me of another that i really like:

0 voters

125

I’ll see your Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin, and raise you Bill Ward (used to good effect in this song).

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126

The so-called Ministry version came to me on a two-song mini-disk inside NIN’s remix album Further Down the Spiral. The other song is called Suck.

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127

That’s a Pigface song… 1000 Homo DJs ep was done around the time that Reznor was hanging out with the Ministry/Wax Trax/Pigface crews… Pigface is touring this fall and Ruby is opening, which means that Leslie Rankin will be performing with, which means she’ll likely do Chikasaw, Ten Ground and Down, and Hips, Tits, and Lips, power… but sadly it doesn’t look like Chris Connelly will tour with them, so those last 2 songs will be done with someone else…

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128

This particular song that came up in the Earworms thread reminded me of another hit from this band that was in regular seasonal rotation on the radio stations for at least two decades after its initial release…

  • The Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Joe Cocker
  • Butthole Surfers
  • Quincy Jones

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129
  • Velvet Underground
  • Cowboy Junkies
  • Two Nice Girls

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130

i honestly cannot choose. the Velvet’s original is just so iconic and perfect, but i have loved the Cowboy Junkies version since the moment i first heard it. i had the Trinity Sessions on repeat in my dorm room for ages… i call it a tie.

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131

Original version: check
First version I heard: check
Objectively the best: check

So it’s The Lovin’ Spoonful by a landslide. (I had this on a vinyl LP until my sister left it on a hot radiator. She still hasn’t replaced it. :frowning_face:)

I wonder how well remembered the Spoonful are today. Probably their relatively short career, with most of their big hits in a two-year period, works against it.

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132

Summer in the City will get rolled out on all the retro stations where there is a heat wave.

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133

Along with this one. Who sang it better?

  • The Drifters
  • The Rolling Stones
  • Bette Midler
  • Tom Tom Club

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134
  • Beth Orton
  • Beth Orton Orbit
  • Beth Orton Then Again
  • Beth Orton Spiritual Life
  • Beth Orton Deep Dish

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135

To me, both versions are perfect.

  • Cannon’s Jug Stompers
  • The Rooftop Singers

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136

I can’t believe we haven’t done this yet:

  • Kate Bush
  • Maxwell

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137

This will be an interesting contest. I think the Weird Al version is fun, but I find the original version absurdly hilarious.

  • Michael Jackson
  • Weird Al

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This is a supposition on my part: in Michael Jackson’s original concept for this project the question Wesley Snipes was supposed to ask was, “Are you black or what?” To which Michael Jackson would assure the world in song that he was indeed “black, you know it!” And then someone at the record label talked him out of it.

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138





  • Miles Davis
  • Tuck and Patti
  • Everything But The Girl
  • Eva Cassidy
  • Iron And Wine
  • Sugar Ray

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139

Are we excluding the original for some reason?

And for an cool, if disorienting, cover:

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140

Yes, because in these polls, we always choose the original. If not, we choose the one we’re most familiar with.

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141

Nuh-uh.

Look at my poll for “Bad.” Sometimes the original is better, sometimes not.

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142

I think there’s a strong pro-Weird Al bias on this board… I mean, he also beat out Coolio and Stevie Wonder!

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