Category: come on baby cover me

You’re going to have to bear with me here, I’m thinking it’s going to be a hair metal heavy week here on AtomicNed.com. I’ve found a few Firehouse CDs in dollar bins in the last year or so and have been working them into rotation on the morning commute. This week it’s been the self-titled debut featuring the hit “Don’t Treat Me Bad.” Singer-songwriter Terra Naomi has been using YouTube for all it’s worth to promote her music and last year, at Christmas time, Terra posted a video series called “12 Days of Hair Metal”. It’s definitely worth watching/listening to all the songs and even though I LOVE Warrant and the song “Heaven” (which Terra covered), due to my Firehouse obsession as of late, I had to pick “Don’t Treat Me Bad” for this week’s cover contest.

Firehouse – “Don’t Treat Me Bad”

Terra Naomi – “Don’t Treat Me Bad”

Threw “Hits of ’83” onto the iPod for the trip to Chicago this weekend and was happy to hear Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” featuring backing vocals by Michael Jackson. Rockwell is Berry Gordy’s son (given name: Kennedy Gordy) and “Somebody’s Watching Me” was his only hit single (a number one hit single at that).

The Danish metal band Raunchy recorded a cover of the song for their 2008 release Wasteland Discotheque and it’s surprisingly similar to the original.

Rockwell’s version

Raunchy’s version (audio only)

Dinosaur Jr’s new CD, Farm, arrives in stores on June 23. J Mascis and crew recorded a cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” back in 1989 for a compilation but decided they liked the song too much so released it on their own.

Robert Smith of The Cure told Blender magazine: “J. Mascis sent me a cassette, and it was so passionate. It was fantastic. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a cover version before or since.”

Dinosaur Jr’s version of “Just Like Heaven”

The Cure’s version of “Just Like Heaven”

(Thanks Doug for the suggestion)

I caught some Black Sabbath biography while flipping around the cable channels this weekend and consequently spent some time with Sabbath’s Vol.4 CD in the aftermath. “Changes” seems so out of line for band like Sabbath but it’s a fantastic song and I pictured it being covered a number of different ways – alt.country, with a big choir, etc. Did a quick search on YouTube and discovered that The Cardigans did a really great version of the song that I’m going to have to see if I can track down as an MP3. Also found out that Sabbath supposedly only played the song live once while Ozzy was in the band so there is no video footage of it. I settled on a more recent version of Ozzy doing the song.

Ozzy Osbourne – “Changes”

The Cardigans – “Changes”

This is going to be a tough one. Let me know which one you vote for by leaving a comment.

Journey’s original version of “Separate Ways”

Recess’s cover version of “Separate Ways”