Spine-tingling isolated vocals from the five best covers ever recorded
Regardless of whether you’re talking about rock, pop, soul or another genre entirely, there are a few different approaches artists take in the face of playing covers.
The first is to be entirely loyal to the original, which means not a thing is changed; instead, you just perform the track as it was done and try to do it as much justice as possible. The second is to put your own spin on it, as you try to take what is already a loved song and present it in a different light.
There is no wrong option, and when we consider some of the best covers ever recorded, there are a handful which are completely faithful adaptations, while others are hardly recognisable. The thing that ties these differing approaches together is the amazing vocal performances; the lyrics of a song are what people connect with the most, and these covers come with exceptional interpretations of the original track’s words.
Let’s shine a light on these exceptional vocal performances and listen to completely isolated renditions of what are some of the best covers ever recorded.
Isolated vocals from the five best covers of all time:
Johnny Cash – ‘Hurt’
It’s perhaps one of the most unexpected covers of all time, and that only adds to the beauty of it. ‘Hurt’ was originally released by Nine Inch Nails, and it subscribes to their usual efforts, which centre around electronic music, noise, and a general sense of dread. Johnny Cash’s interpretation was much more vulnerable, bordering on heartbreaking, as he looked back at his life with what sounded like a sense of regret.
Rick Rubin convinced Cash to record a cover of the song, and he said that it’s this sense of regret which really elevates the song. It tugs on the heartstrings of all those who listen to it. “When you’re 20 years old talking about regret, it’s heartbreaking, but it’s heartbreaking in a different way because you have a whole life to figure it out,” said Rubin, “When you’re looking back at the end of your life with regret, it’s brutal.”
Jeff Buckley – ‘Hallelujah’
During his lifetime, Jeff Buckley only released one album, and every single song on it was a work of beauty, but his most famous work is probably his cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. His vocals on this track are simple, stripped back, but packed with emotion, delivering an incredibly heartfelt rendition of what was already a classic and taking it to another level.
The song didn’t gain much recognition until after Buckley passed away, but when it did find its way to the spotlight, people everywhere made a note of how effectively the song could be covered. It wasn’t a track that many people had attempted their own rendition of previously, but Buckley’s beautiful vocals changed that forever.
Whitney Houston – ‘I Will Always Love You’
It may well be the most famous cover song of all time, and rightly so. Dolly Parton did an amazing job with this track, writing something that sang like such sweet sorrow. When describing the meaning behind the track, she said it was one of melancholy goodbyes: “I wrote that song to say, ‘Here’s how I feel. I will always love you, but I have to go’”.
You wouldn’t have thought that Parton’s rendition could be bested, but then along came Whitney Houston. The song came into the public consciousness when it appeared on The Bodyguard, and Kevin Costner knew as soon as he heard not only that it was a hit, but that it would take the film from being good to great.
“I said, ‘This is a very important song in this movie’,” he said, “I didn’t care if it was ever on the radio. I didn’t care. I said, ‘We’re also going to do this a cappella at the beginning. I need it to be a cappella because it shows a measure of how much she digs this guy, that she sings without music’.”
Sinéad O’Connor – ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’
You always know that a cover song is special when people are surprised to learn that it’s actually a cover. Sinéad O’Connor made this track so quintessentially hers that we often overlook the fact that she wasn’t the first artist to record it. It was originally written by Prince and then recorded by a band called The Family, who were signed to Paisley Park Records.
When O’Connor released her cover five years later, it was an instant hit. There are a number of factors that contribute towards the track’s success, but one of the biggest is her stunning vocals. She puts every bit of emotion she has into those words, which is perfectly reflected in the music video when O’Connor cried for real while recording the track.
She said: “I didn’t intend for that moment to happen, but when it did, I thought, ‘I should let this happen’”.
Jimi Hendrix – ‘All Along the Watchtower’
Jimi Hendrix once said that he felt as though he and Bob Dylan were of the same mind, and the reason he connected so much with the song ‘All Along The Watchtower’ was because he felt as though he wrote it himself. “I am as Dylan,” said Hendrix, “None of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan’s songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that ‘Watchtower’ is a song I could have come up with, but I’m sure I would never have finished it.”
You can hear his connection with the song perfectly. As is the case with so many Hendrix songs, we have a tendency to focus immediately on the guitar, but the grit and the power in his vocals are also absolutely stellar. For someone who was famed for his guitar playing, his isolated vocals on this track are pretty damn perfect.
