Lana Del Rey’s 10 best covers
As a singer and as a songwriter, Lana Del Rey has established herself as a true great and a leader of this generation. The second she broke out back in 2012, she solidified her space in the history books as an artist who is not only beloved by her fans but is beloved by other artists, too, inspiring both her peers and the new names coming up after her. But part of that is all down to the world she weaves and the aesthetic brand she’s committed to. And in that world, sometimes she takes to the stage, picks up the mic and sings a song by someone else.
Lana Del Rey’s covers feel essential to her world as an artist for two reasons. The first is that they feel expansive. Sitting amongst her own words on her own albums, her decision to include covers of certain classic songs uses the legacy of the old track to add to her own story. Often picking rich and deeply romantic old songs, they perfectly suit the energy and aura of Del Rey as a pop culture figure and as a kind of character she embodies in her work.
They also feel explanatory. As she often references other songs, books and artists in her work, it’s clear that her scope of influence is incredibly wide. From hip-hop to jazz, grunge to folk, she’s clearly inspired by a broad range of other work, with her covers allowing her a chance to honour all these influences while giving them her own unique spin.
One thing that is certain is that Del Rey loves to do a cover. It’s rare for her to do a live set without one; most of her records feature one; there are even clips of her online doing karaoke, as she simply loves to sing the songs she loves. But out of the countless cover versions she’s shared over time, these ten are the finest.
The 10 best covers Lana Del Rey has done:
‘Unchained Melody’ – Elvis Presley / the Righteous Brothers
Lana Del Rey at Graceland covering a song made famous by Elvis Presley – it doesn’t get more Americana than that. There is perhaps no cover that encapsulates the energy and aura that the singer has embodied from the very beginning, from those early music videos of her draped in an American flag or dressed up like Priscilla Presley, quite like this one.
She sings it so easily, giving off the impression that this is a song she’s been singing her entire life. It’s not really anything that special beyond being another stunning vocal performance from the singer. But as she takes on a song that suits her brand so perfectly and performs it perfectly in the most iconic of venues, it has to be honoured as a truly special moment.
‘Summertime’ – George Gershwin
This is another cover that seems to come as easily as breathing to Del Rey. It’s another track that perfectly captures her own brand and aesthetic and another song that she can put her gorgeously nostalgic, crooning vocals to and make something so special sound so easy. It feels like she could get up at any karaoke bar and deliver this on-demand, needing to put no effort at all into honouring this iconic track in the way it deserves, giving it all the seduction and soul it demands.
It’s also another track that feels like it exists in the Lana Del Rey essential songbook. If someone were to curate a playlist of the most important musical influences in the mix to make an artist like Del Rey, a jazz standard like ‘Summertime’ would have to be in there. Covered by singers throughout history, her version places her in the lineage she undeniably belongs in, sitting alongside acts like Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin, all encompassing the same energy of power, seductive and beauty mixed.
‘Blue Velvet’ – Bobby Vinton
In another universe somewhere, Lana Del Rey exists in a David Lynch film. Replacing Isabella Rossellini, the singer has exactly the kind of mysterious power that the director was always enamoured with. As her version goes heavy on the musical melodrama, it could certainly be described as Lynchian as it exists as the most cinematic, theatrical moment on the deluxe version of her debut.
Presented alongside the first offering of her own songs, it’s clear that Del Rey herself sees this track as essential. To her, it’s important enough to exist amongst her introductory remarks, existing as a song that is inseparable from her early makeup and identity as an artist. It’s another one that she can sing like it’s no bother at all, putting her full range on show, all while remaining so nonchalant in her coolness and talent. It’s another song that feels made for her, released as a perfect display of the type of artist and the type of star she is – an otherworldly, Lynchian starlet with a penchant for nostalgic glamour.
‘Heart-Shaped Box’ – Nirvana
But Lana Del Rey’s scope of influence is wide.“You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip-hop,” she sang on her breakout hit ‘Blue Jeans’, but in reality, Del Rey was a rocker too. On her debut album alone, the songs she references span all genres and artists, from Snoop Dogg through to classic rock and roll, with inspiration taken from Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. That breadth is part of what has made Del Rey so great, allowing her to pull inspiration from her seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of music to create her own unique recipe.
In 2012, right when she was just breaking out, she made that clear at her earliest shows as she performed ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ as part of her setlist. Covering the Nirvana classic, Del Rey’s version is emotive and desperate, putting the theatre of her voice on full display as well as her vocal range, belting some high notes and then sinking straight into the velvet depths it can reach. It’s the sort of cover that surely left her crowds with goosebumps, as even the low-quality YouTube captures of it are staggering.
‘Buddy’s Rendezvous’ – Father John Misty
Father John Misty and Lana Del Rey often feel like two sides of the same musical coin. It sometimes feels like their songs are in dialogue, as Del Rey could be the leading lady in his crooning tunes and him the romantic lead in hers, even casting him to be just that in one of her music videos. When the pair later came together on ‘Let The Light In’, that was made evidently clear as their voices and energies merged so naturally. But before that, Del Rey essentially stole one of his songs as her version of ‘Buddy’s Rendezvous’ utterly usurps the original.
Originally sitting on Chloe and the Next 20th Century, the album already had exactly the kind of lonely jazz singer vibes that Del Rey owns. The song already felt like Father John Misty was singing alone in a derelict ballroom as he croons on the track about performing to “the losers and old timers”, so when translated into Del Rey’s own emotive and nostalgic voice, it’s a match made in heaven.
‘For Free’ – Joni Mitchell
Lana Del Rey, Weyes Blood and Zella Day – three of the most beautiful singers of this generation on one track was always going to be great. But when the track they’re on together is a cover of a Joni Mitchell song, it stepped up into something truly special.
By the time Chemtrails Over The Country Club was released, following Norman Fucking Rockwell, Del Rey had already written a lot about the impacts and loneliness of fame. ‘For Free’ sits as Mitchell’s own contemplation as the topic as she ponders the strangeness of music and artistry now feeling like a job rather than a calling. So, as Del Rey turned her voice to the lyrics written back in the 1970s, it felt like a unifying moment connecting the strife of not only these two artists but artists throughout history. Musically maintaining the simplicity of the origin, this cover is one of her most pared-back pieces, but with those three incredible voices on it, it needed nothing more.
‘Goodbye Kiss’ – Kasabian
Another display of Del Rey’s broad musical tastes is this unexpected cover of a Kasabian song. They’re in no way two artists that anyone would ever club together, but as she turned her voice to their 2011 track, her crooning vocals highlight the poetry to be found in the often-forgotten song from the band.
“Doomed from the start, we met with a goodbye kiss,” she begins in her stripped-back take. With nothing more than her voice, piano and acoustic guitar, she peels back the clutter of the original indie number to turn it into a plain and simple heartbreak tune, somehow making it feel totally timeless in the process.
‘Chelsea Hotel No.2’ – Lana Del Rey
Another cover that feels like a match made in heaven for Del Rey’s energy and the legacy of a song is her take on Leonard Cohen’s ‘Chelsea Hotel No.2’. Beyond it taking a gorgeous take on heartache and loss, two topics Del Rey has covered extensively, the song also serves as a kind of archival timepiece and historic document for a period that deeply inspires her. Capturing a moment in time in the 1960s at the Chelsea Hotel where a number of artists that influenced Del Rey all lived together, the track is a remembrance of a period close to her artistic heart.
Her cover was made even better though when she performed it live alongside Adam Cohen, Leonard Cohen’s son. Coming together at the Bell Centre in Montreal, they performed it together at Tower Of Song, a musical tribute to Cohen hosted after his passing to celebrate his work. Accompanied by his son on guitar, the way the two look at each other during the track alone is a beautifully moving tribute to the timeless impact of the song.
‘Doin Time’ – Sublime
Wait, you didn’t know this was a cover? It’s understandable. As one of the lead singles released for her 2019 record Norman Fucking Rockwell, which marked a kind of creative rebirth for the star, her take on ‘Doin’ Time’ feels so her own that it’s surprising to be reminded that it’s not.
But ‘Doin Time’ is a cover of a 1996 track from trip-hop trio Sublime. It’s a niche pick as the song only ever reached number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100. But it’s another sign of Del Rey’s encyclopedic musical knowledge and her dedication to her own realm of influence. Originally recorded as part of a documentary on the band, Del Rey revealed that there’s “not a day goes by that [she does not] listen to at least one Sublime song”. Her take on the track is so great, so reinventive, and so beloved by fans of both the singer herself and the original band’s fans alike that even the widow of Sublime’s original frontman commented it was “an honour to have [Del Rey’s] talent complement the Sublime legacy.”
‘The Other Woman’ – Nina Simone
Written by Jessie Mae Robinson but first recorded by Nina Simone, ‘The Other Woman’ feels like the epitome of a standard. In the great tradition of jazz standards, it feels like a rite of passage of a song, as if a singer must first prove they can do a powerful rendition of it in order to prove their power. Simone more than proved hers; Jeff Buckley even proved his with a cover of it, and then Lana Del Rey made her status as a great more than known with her take on the song, sitting on her sophomore album, Ultraviolence.
Similar to all of her covers of classic songs, Del Rey delivers these timeless tracks like they’re easy when, in fact, ‘The Other Woman’, or at least the version of the song she shares, is difficult. From soaring high notes to rich low moments, finishing with a final, staggering vocal riff that rockets her range up to the sky, this cover feels like a masterclass in her vocal talent, but yet not an ounce of effort is detected. Beyond even being her best cover, this take feels like one of the best displays of Del Rey’s energy and legacy, being the finest example of her cinematic style, nostalgic influences, love for musical melodrama and her existence outside of the realm of typical modern musicians as she transforms fully into a 1950s starlet.
