Friday, February 4, 2011

Radio KBwD is on the air: the covers edition




First Friday of every month we'll put the song's original artist against someone whom we feel has covered the same tune in worthy fashion and let you decide which is better.




Given the 3 or 4 options we were mulling, our buddy Jerry prevailed upon us to choose this match-up.*

It's a classic and in our mind, depite some other huge hits, this remains he and his band's signature tune.

Ladies and Gentlemen, from Asbury Park, New Jersey, it's Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing "Born to Run"








And now, the cover. These guys had their 15 minutes back in the mid-80s with a handful of hits and a certain, errr, flamboyance.



Ladies and Gentelmen, from England, it's Frankie Goes to Hollywood...






* To even things out a bit we went with live cuts for both tunes as we couldn't locate the superior studio version of Frankie's cover.

3 comments:

Road Dawg said...

Not bad as covers go, makes me appreciate the original a little more. I was overplayed in its day.

SarahB said...

While enjoyable enough, Franky does not put enough of his own spin on the classic, so my nod goes to Bruce (who has redeemed himself in my heart with the recent release of Radio Nowhere...after an overly political dry spell).

B-Daddy said...

Dean, not fair. I think there are some other covers of Bruce where his lack of vocal range is made apparent by the cover. In this case, I have to go with Bruce, agreeing with Sarah's reasoning.