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.