Next week will mark the one-year anniversary of Cover Freak. I’ll have a special best-of post then. If there’s something from the past year that you would like me to repost, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.

In the meantime let’s listen to some maudlin tunes where the singer looks back longingly on misspent youth.

William Shatner “It Was A Very Good Year” (Frank Sinatra)
It was also a very good year for bad actors who don’t pretend to be able to sing and just recite lyrics over musical beds. When this song hit the shuffle play on my iPod I knew that I had to do a post of similar songs for Cover Freak’s anniversary.

Nirvana “Seasons In The Sun” (Terry Jacks)
Kurt Cobain sounds so… weary. I don’t know when this was recorded but it’s pretty creepy when you realize that he ended up killing himself.

En Vogue “Yesterday” (The Beatles)
I don’t like the Beatles all that much and I’ve never liked this song. So I was prepared to hate this version of it. I was shocked. I kind of dig it. The trilling diva vocals serve the song well.

Tursias “Those Were The Days” (Mary Hopkins)
Death-metal cossacks remember how back in the day they rode their steeds over the steppes and trampled everybody in their way. Good times.

Marc Almond “Yesterday When I Was Young” (Charles Aznavour)
I just love Soft Cell, especially their song “Sex Dwarf.” Here we have their singer delivering a spendidly overwrought reading of the French favorite. It’s from a CD of French songs that Mr. Almond (no relation to Mr. Peanut) put out called Absinthe: The French Album. He also recorded an album of Jacques Brel songs that I need to track down someday.

This is another of those songs that has really annoying lyrics. “Life was sweet like rain upon my tongue?” Honey, sure. Sugar, of course. But rain? Maybe it’s a French metaphor that doesn’t translate well.