“Smells Like Teen Spirit”
by Tori Amos (originally by Nirvana)
from the album Crucify
1992
Buy the album on Amazon
I had something else totally in mind and was working through what to write, and then I got busy and forgot to post until Lance just reminded me. I’m late for EST and probably Central, but I’m going to make it in Mountain Time. Even though I had already thought through my other choice, this pick just came to me in a flash and seemed like the better choice.
“Song 2”
by Blur
from the album Blur
1997
Buy the album on Amazon
Oh man, “Song 2.” How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I tossed this one into the mix one night after I had gone through all my regular songs and the house was practically empty. So. Much. Fun.
For me, anyway.
“Add It Up”
by Violent Femmes
from the album Violent Femmes
1983
Buy the album on Amazon
I wasn’t sure what to post today, and then, no lie, all three versions that I have of this song came up in a row on shuffle on the way home, so I’d better post it or the universe is going to have me get hit by a bus tomorrow or something. How have I not posted any Femmes yet? I love #KaraokeTuesday and #CoverFriday, but Lance is right that we need some other day for everything else (and yes, next month I will try to post another monthly theme, though even that may not be open-ended enough).
“Undone (The Sweater Song)”
by Weezer
from the album Weezer
1994
Buy the album on Amazon
I started to write a post about “The Middle” when I had the suspicion I already had. I was correct. Oh well, time to pick another artist. Out of curiosity, I decided to see how many times we had written about Weezer, particularly the blue album since that’s one of the geeky loves Chris and I share.
Once. We’ve written about Weezer, exactly once. What the fuck is wrong with us? Let’s correct this travesty right now. I’ll go for the long-hanging fruit and pick the song that Chrance is best known for performing (with “Summer of ’69” and “ITEOTWAIKI” coming in close behind). Ladies and gentlemen, I present the perfect karaoke song: Continue reading Karaoke Tuesday: “Undone (The Sweater Song)”
“The Chauffeur”
by Deftones (originally by Duran Duran)
from the album The Duran Duran Tribute Album
1997
Buy the album on Amazon
It’s completely rare to have one of my favorite bands covering one of my other favorite bands, particularly in this case when the genres they occupy are so far apart. The Deftones could probably best be described as alternative metal whereas Duran Duran best epitomize the 80s dance pop/new wave sound. That kind of sounds like mixing bacon and ice cream. But you know what? I’ve had bacon ice cream and it’s delicious.
“Talk About the Passion”
by Samson & The Philistines (originally by R.E.M.)
from the album Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M.
1992
Buy the album on Amazon
Continuing with the R.E.M. week, here’s one from a tribute album from way back (pre-Out of Time). I was a big R.E.M. fan for quite a while (I started waning with Automatic for the People), so when this came out I had to have it. As I’ve mentioned before, like with most albums of this sort, the results are very hit or miss, and mostly miss, but I liked a couple of them. The album is comprised of generally obscure bands (at least to me), but I did appreciate that most of the bands gave a unique spin to their versions. I probably still have a copy of the album somewhere, but this song is for some reason the only one currently in my iTunes library. This particular cover isn’t amazing, but it does become interesting to hear it in a different language (errr..spanish?). It certainly doesn’t trump the original, but is worth a listen.
“Losing My Religion”
by R.E.M.
from the album Out of Time
1991
Buy the album on Amazon
Sure, this was a big hit off of a big album that really brought R.E.M. into the mainstream, but the only really important thing is that this is the song that represents Brenda losing her virginity to Dylan. I’m pretty positive they played parts of this song somewhere around 87 times during that episode of 90210.
“Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)”
by Cracker
from the album Cracker
1992
Buy the album on Amazon
Lately I’ve been posting a lot about songs that I desperately want to perform at karaoke but couldn’t because the man didn’t deem them worthy of inclusion. However, this entry falls more in line with the thought, “Wow, this would be a great song to sing at karaoke.”
I remember generally dismissing Cracker for years based on the video for this song, which has the guys in a field prancing around like dandy rednecks, with dirt bikes and half-collapsed barns littering the background. When you’re trying to escape your shitty hometown you don’t want to be reminded of the situation everytime you turn on MTV.
“Everything Zen”
by Bush
from the album Sixteen Stone
1994
Buy the album on Amazon
I posted another Bush karaoke song (“Glycerine“) almost 3 months ago to the day from today. How the hell have we been doing this blog for 3+ months? I won’t rehash my thoughts on Bush, other than to say that if I remember right this was their first single, and what got me into them.
“I Want U 2 Want Me”
by Propagandhi (originally by Cheap Trick)
from the album How to Clean Everything
1993
Buy the album on Amazon
I grew up not really knowing about Cheap Trick at all. Maybe in a peripheral way, but that’s it. Some time in the past 5 years I picked up their Greatest Hits album, but it was a combination of the That 70’s Show opening + hearing some people sing their songs at karaoke + seeing a guy from a company we used to work with (hello Hothead!) sing this song at a live karaoke night for our former coworker Jen that drove me to it.