Administrative Note: Since Cover Freak has picked up some new readers recently I’ve been having a lot of people asking me the same question. So to clarify: the mp3 files that I post are available for four weeks and then they are removed. The only time I’ve ever reposted anything was for the Anniversary Special last October. So come back regularly to make sure you get to hear all the music.

And since many of the new readers are from Australia I wanted to make a personal appeal. If anybody can help me get a copy of Vol. 3 of the Andrew Denton Musical Challenge CDs you would be my favorite person in the whole world for at least a couple of weeks. If you can help me out please let me know.

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I had a couple of duets lined up for the Valentine’s Day post, but there were so many good non-duets that I decided to save the harmonies for this week.

UB40 “I Got You Babe” (Sonny And Cher)
I really wanted to post the David Bowie/Marianne Faithfull version of this song, but it’s just not as good as you would expect. It’s pretty much the Sonny and Cher arrangement. Ms. Faithfull does sound like she smoked a pack of cigarettes before recording the song, but it’s just not unique enough to post.

And once again we prove that any song can be a reggae song.

The Beautiful South “You’re The One That I Want” (from the musical Grease)
I’ve had this song hanging around on my hard drive for awhile. I had sort of forgotten about it until Kiwi Sue reminded me about it. This a very stately version of the song. It sounds a lot like something Elejandro Escovedo would write.

Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop “Well Did You Evah!” (Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra)
What an odd pair to be engaging in witty repartee. I find the thought of Iggy Pop hanging out at Pia Zadora’s house highly amusing.

Moonshine Willy “Don’t You Want Me” (Human League)
There are boatloads of useless synthesizer covers of this song. Thank goodness Moonshine Willy provides a bracing alternative to that stuff. Bloodshot Records, their record label, describes Moonshine Willy’s sound as “mutant aggro-hillbilly punk.” That’s a great line.

Slowdive “Some Velvet Morning” (Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood)
The original version of this song is so weird that it never would have been released if Nancy’s dad hadn’t threatened to have somebody killed. Slowdive makes it an eerie, swooning delight.

I’m taking a week off from theme-mongering to bring you many different things, all ground up together.

Glass Eye “Minnie The Moocher” (Cab Calloway)
Whoever these Glass Eye people are, they bring a definite rock attitude to the jazz standard.

Diodes “Red Rubber Ball” (Cyrcle)
I’ve heard that the Diodes recorded this song after learning that Paul Simon (who wrote it) hated punk rock. But try as they might the song’s sunny pop nature shines through. I’ve often thought it would be really fun if Motorhead covered this one.

Petra Hayden “Don’t Stop Believin'” (Journey)
Journey is one of the bands that made me start hating commercial radio when I was in high school. I thought that there was nothing redeeming about any of their songs until I heard this charming a capella version. It’s from the very excellent Guilt By Association CD.

Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel “The Box It Came In” (Wanda Jackson)
For the uninitiated, Wanda Jackson is a longtime rockabilly/country performer who is still performing and inspiring woman musicians to this day. Anna Fermin is simply one of the most talented singers on the planet.

Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra “You Oughta Know” (Alanis Morissette)
No, it’s not an Avril Levigne song, it’s an Alanis Morissette song. I gotta stop writing this stuff when I’m sleep-deprived. And while I appreciate readers writing to point out when I make a mistake, there’s no need to be hostile about it. This is just my hobby, after all.

Anyway, it’s still a fun, goofy song on a miserable February day.

Thanks to Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson for the nice mention in the Courier-Mail. And welcome Aussies!

Well kids, here we are approaching once again that Hallmark holiday that cynically makes people feel the need to express their affection through the purchase of cards, flowers and chocolates. Since Valentine’s Day can make the dateless feel bad about themselves, I present songs to make you feel better about love.

The Impossibles “Ben” (Michael Jackson)
The warning signs are always so easy to see in retrospect. Why did nobody try to help Michael Jackson when he was singing love songs to rats?

Special thanks to Dylan for letting me know about this song.

Pansy Division “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other” (Willie Nelson)
This song should have been on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack but it wasn’t. Willie Nelson released it to cash in on the popularity of the movie. The song was written by somebody else years before the movie came out.

The Motels “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” (Crystals)
My wife is very disturbed that I’m posting a cover of this song on Valentine’s Day two years in a row.

The Holmes Brothers “I Want You To Want Me” (Cheap Trick)
This has to be one of the most soulful covers of a pop tune ever. It’s beautiful and mines emotion that Cheap Trick never even hinted at.

Special thanks to Dan G for sending me this one.

Poi Dog Pondering “Lay My Love” (Brian Eno and John Cale)
Brian Eno has said that he hates songs that are written in the first person. So as a joke he wrote this song that starts every verse with the word “I.”

The singer describes himself as the “termite of temptation” and the “crow of desperation.” Would you really want a guy like that to lay his love around you?

Administrative note: Coverfreak moved to a new home on Tuesday. Seems that after the writeup in the Guardian I started getting so many visitors and using so much bandwdith that my former web host decided to cancel my account. As far as I can tell everything is working as it should, but if there are any problems drop me a line.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and Thursday marks the start of the Chinese Year of the Rat. So it seems an opportune time for songs by and about rodents.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t find a decent cover of Michael Jackson’s “Ben.” If you have a good cover of that tune let me know and I’ll include it in next week’s Valentine’s Day post.

Dolapdere Big Gang “Hell” (Squirrel Nut Zippers)
I’m really digging this Turkish Romany band. Thanks to Steve Wiles for hipping me to this album.

The Squirrels “Seasons In The Sun/The Hustle” (Terry Jacks/Van McCoy)
I wonder if the kid they got to sing this knew what he was getting into. I also wonder what on earth made them combine these two songs.

Tori Amos “I Don’t Like Mondays” (Boomtown Rats)
Pretty much what you’d expect from Tori Amos. Breathy, closely miked vocals and down tempo piano. It makes me long for the Boomtown Rats version, which I never liked in the first place.

Split Lip Rayfield “Pop Goes The Weasel” (Traditional)
I was afraid that SLR would break up after the death of Kirk Rundstrom but they’re not only still together they’re on tour, making the world safe for speed-metal bluegrass.

Screeching Weasel “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash)
I’ve always thought that Screeching Weasel is just about the perfect name for a punk band. It just puts everything right on the table.