Remakes that are better than the orginal song..
Hoosier_Daddy
141 Posts
Jimi Hendrix-All Along The WatchtowerJimi Hendrix-Hey JoeIsley Brothers-Summer Breeze (especially the live versions i've heard)Isaac Hayes-Walk On By
Comments
Aretha:
SatisfactionRespect > Otis Reddinglulz
FAIL
Marvin's vocals/execution kill Gladys Knight's paint by numbers steez.
Wrong on so many levels, including the fact that no matter how great Marvin's version is, the drums on the Gladys 45 (hugely underrated) eat it ALIVE.
Typical "Funky Blackman Soul" perspective.
Norman's smoothed out version does a better job at hightlighting the story and lyrics. Gladys and them's version is cookie cutter to me.
but plaese to stop calling Gladys Knight "cookie cutter"
No doubt.
But id like to know if their version was THAT SHIT when it dropped.
If it was THAT single how could Motown and them even think about tinkering.
Yeah I know they let the roster cover each others songs, but Marvin's more POP freindly version pretty much made Gladys and them strike it from their repertoire.
Even if that doesnt determine the better version.
This Motown classic about a man who finds out his woman is cheating on him was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Strong came up with the idea, and asked Motown writers Holland/Dozier/Holland to work on it with him. They refused to credit another writer, so Strong took it to Whitfield, who helped put it together.
Whitfield and Strong recorded this with Gaye in 1967, but could not convince Motown head Berry Gordy to release it. He chose Holland/Dozier/Holland's "Your Unchanging Love" over this as Gaye's next single.
When Gordy refused to release Gaye's version, Whitfield recorded it with a new Motown singer, Gladys Knight. He got her version released, and it became a #2 hit in the US, which led Gordy to reconsider and release Gaye's version.
Whitfield and Strong wrote several other Motown hits, including "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "Just My Imagination," and "Money (That's What I Want)."
This is the longest running Motown #1 hit. It topped the US chart for 7 weeks.
This was Gaye's first #1 hit. He had another 5 years later with "Let's Get It On."
Creedence Clearwater Revival released an 11-minute version in 1970. It was one of the few songs CCR recorded that they didn't write.
In 1987, this got new life when it was used in commercials for California Raisins, with claymation raisins performing the song. In addition to boosting raisin sales, The California Raisins became an '80s fad, and were the most popular Halloween costume that year.
The version by Gladys Knight and The Pips was released first, but they were the fourth act to record it, after Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (who later released it on their Special Occasion LP), The Isley Brothers (their version is still unreleased) and Marvin Gaye. Gladys Knight & The Pips were surprised that Gaye's version was released so soon after theirs. They viewed it as Motown promoting Gaye over them and relegating them to second-tier status. (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)
Gaye sang this slightly higher than his normal range, which created the strained vocal. Whitfield, who produced this, made him do it over and over until he got it right.
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Pips is the remake.
marvin's version came out before gladys knights. the miracles were the first to record the song so...
marvin>gladys>miracles
FAIL.
Marvin's version was recorded first, but Gladys Knight's came out first.
it comes down to which you think is better. I am fully down with Marvin,
but I play and listen to the Gladys Knight jammie more.
See, I don't look at it as a dramatic reading. It's a record, and while Marvin's is way sexy, and has a grip on the 'Big Chill' groupthink consciousness, the Gladys version is by far the superior record. It's positively explosive, instrumentally, vocally (I'd put Gladys up as one of the two or three finest female voices on Motown) and as a total package.
Nothing "funky blackman soul" about it, especially when you consider the newjack funky blackman soul revisionism behind the Marvin is king schtick.
George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set On You" sons the shit out of James Ray's
The Human Beinz did "Nobody But Me" better than the Isleys
The Swamp Rats took the Sonics'"Psycho" to the next phase
and who needs Etta's old-timey "At Last" when you got Beyonce? (KIDDING!!)[/b]
I'm just being funny, but that remake is kind of hot.
The Big Chill did hurt its luster, but The Pips version being "explosive" sounds very "Blackmansoul" to me. More "explosive" than Wilson Picket's Funky Broadway?
Of the first four versions produced by Norman Whitfield, only the Gaye version makes pain and confusion a clear part of the texture: [/b]
So soul records aren't allowed to be exciting anymore because it implies some kind of negative racial subtext (unless your implying something else that I'm not picking up)?
B/W
I didn't know we were comparing Gladys Knight & the Pip's version of 'Grapevine' to Pickett's version of 'Funky Broadway'.
I'm sure the Cream fans are gonna come falling out the f*cking closet, but I'll be damned if Spanky's cover doesn't shit all over the original.
Same subtext right?
and we'll have to just disagree on the "explosive" idea.
Tamlins > Nina Simone > Randy Newman