It’s hard to believe that I’ve been doing this for a year. I appreciate everyone who reads what I post and enjoys the songs. I also appreciate the kind words and cool covers I’ve gotten from readers over the past year. Cover Freak has turned into a very fun hobby.

Since a fair number of readers subscribe to the RSS feed and probably don’t visit the actual website I want to call your attention to the Make A Donation button on the right side of the page. If you would like to contribute to the care and feeding of this site I’d sure appreciate it. If not, that’s cool too. I promise not to mention it again for at least another year. I don’t want this to turn into an NPR-style begathon.

So here are some of my favorite songs that I’ve posted during Cover Freak’s first year.

The Blues Magoos “Heartbreak Hotel” (Elvis Presley)
This is not the Blues Magoos of “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” fame. The only original member in this lineup is the singer, Peppy Castro. Peppy really gives this song everything he has, spitting out the line about the desk clerk wearing black. This song also features one of the great vibe solos in rock history.

Wendy O. Williams and Lemmy “Stand By Your Man” (Tammy Wynette)
It’s sad that Wendy O. Williams is not as well known today as she was in her heyday. She was one of the few notable women in the punk/metal scene. The Plasmatics’ “Masterplan” is one of the hardest-rocking songs ever. I find it very sad that she ultimately took her own life.

Albert Kuvezin and Yat-Kha “When The Levee Breaks” (Led Zeppelin)
This is still one of the weirdest songs I’ve ever heard. Mr. Kuvezin is a throat singer from the tiny Asian country of Tuva. Throat singing is a technique that allows a person to sing multiple notes at the same time.

Mr. Kuvezin has done a great job of combining traditional Tuvan music and Western rock and roll into something electrifying and new. If you ever get the chance to see him perform live, do it. He’s albsolutely mesmerizing.

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme “Black Hole Sun” (Soundgarden)
This song was released around the beginning of the ironic-hipster lounge revival. I’m not quite sure what Steve and Eydie were after here. Were they trying to appeal to a younger audience? Was it all a big fuck you to the grunge scene? Were they trying to show what two pros could do with any material? If you ever see them ask them for me.

The Blacks “Goin’ Out West” (Tom Waits)
There are lots of Tom Waits covers out there, but this is my all-time favorite. The music is absolutely fierce and I love to hear Gina Black sing “I’ve got hair on my chest, I look good without a shirt on.” I bet she does, too.

David Byrne “Don’t Fence Me In” (comp. Cole Porter)
A joyous, rhythm-crazed version of a very well-crafted pop song. This orginally appeared in my well-received Cole Porter tribute post.

The Beat Farmers “Karma Chameleon” (Culture Club)
When I was a college radio disk jockey I was the guy who played weird music on Sunday night. I got very few phone calls when I was on the air, sometimes I’d go weeks between calls. It made me wonder if anybody was listening.

But when anybody else covered my air shift for me they would always tell me after the fact that they got dozens of calls from people wondering where I was. I came to the conclusion that people were listening to my radio show just to hear what I was going to play next. Which I guess made my show a success.

I bring this up because this is the only song that anybody asked me to repost. Hopefully there’s more than just this one guy reading my blog. I’m pretty sure there is. I first posted this song in my very first Cover Freak post, a tribute to the musical genius of Country Dick Montana.

Little Richard “I Feel Pretty” (From West Side Story)
He should feel pretty. He is pretty. He’s also probably the only man who could sing this song and make it convincing. This apparently comes from a tribute to West Side Story compilation that I haven’t been able to track down.

Cake “I Will Survive” (Gloria Gaynor)
I never really thought much about the original version of this song. It was disco and disco sucked, at least to a young rocker in the disco era. Cake really made me hear the heartbreak turn to strength in the lyrics. And it’s got a killer trumpet solo.

Anthony Newley “Within You, Without You” (The Beatles)
I really think that this is the Worst Beatles Cover Ever. The mewling, over-emoting singing style makes my brain hurt. This is taken from a television special entitled “Beatles Forever.”