This thread inspired me to put up an entire playlist for February of showtune covers on my Internet radio station (see below). I added most of the songs discussed here (including the nails-on-a-blackboard Katie Holmes).
I've got covers of songs by artists like Sammy Davis Jr., Barry Manilow, Donny Osmond, Nell Carter, Pia Zadora, Meat Loaf, Cyndi Lauper and Dame Edna. Also included some dance versions, foreign recordings, and other alternate versions.
If anyone has other favorite cover versions, please post. I like collecting these recordings.
Updated On: 2/3/05 at 03:21 PM
bmeonbway2- I totally remember Harajaku. I was browsing in a specialty shop when I saw the On My Own/Phantom cd, and it was cheap, so I bought it. To my horror it was basically a random singer on the vocals, with the vocals sped up and a generic disco beat underneath. Thank God I lost this cd.
Don't forget Frank Sinatra! He covered a lot of show tunes. Specifically, Luck be a Lady, and New York, New York. He did a lot of Cole Porter too.
"This is what I trained to do, and this is what I love about theater. What I love about being an actress is being able to really look into myself and understand another human being. And out my own self, to shape and form and fashion a real human being--and to present that in such a way that people see something of themselves or their own understanding in that human being."
--Phylicia Rashad
they did? hmm that is very very odd i must say. Blink 182 does not = phantom.
"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell
plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!
Yeah, what's up with Katie Holmes? When she was on SNL her monologue was her performing Big Spender...why do people keep giving her showtunes to sing? or anything to sing for that matter?
There defintely was a dance remix to phantom of the opera...and if I'm not mistaken, Jon Secada sang Somewhere on that west side story cd
"Hey Joey McIntyre, is there a balcony in Madison Square Garden? Joey knows his venues a little better than me. That's okay...I have a bigger part on broadway...:)" -Idina Menzel
This isn't a cover cover, but it's totally fun, the Ethel Merman Disco album. It was an actual album that Ethel recorded. I got my copy at Tower Records.
"When you're a Jet, / You're a Jet all the way, / From your first pirouette / To your last grand jete." --Brian Kaman
I've got Ethyl on the playlist, and I just added Blink 182's Phantom. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll try to find a good Sinatra tune to throw in there too.
Oh there are SO many good Frank Sinatra covers. As was said he covered a LOT of Cole Porter. If I remember correctly he did several songs from Anything Goes, but there are so many more out there.
oh! there's also that band, me first and the gimmie gimmies. and they have a cd w/ showtunes that they covered. "tomorrow", "favorite things", "phantom", all the "classics."
it disturbs me when they open the number with: "when the dog bites, when the bee stings, i don't feel so f*ckin bad" and i'm just like: no.
Don't forget Nina Hagen's Big Band Explosion, where she sings Let Me Entertain You and Over the Rainbow, among others. It's crazy. It's only available as a German import but very much worth it.
I think the Me First and the Gimme Gimme's showtune album is actually pretty good. I've got a couple of their songs on my station (see below). I do have some Nina Hagen represented there also on a version of Let the Sunshine In.
Try this link to hear Katie. Katie Holmes SingsUpdated On: 2/4/05 at 12:36 PM
"oh! there's also that band, me first and the gimmie gimmies. and they have a cd w/ showtunes that they covered. "tomorrow", "favorite things", "phantom", all the "classics.""
I have that CD! The best is their cover of "Over the Rainbow"- it's one of my favorite songs of all time.
Do American Idol performances count as covers? If so, that girl singing "WHITE BOYS!!!!!" on Tuesday has got to be one of the worst I've ever heard.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how
Liza Minnelli did a weird disco verion of Sondheim's LOSING MY MIND with the British disco band Pet Shop Boys. The heavy keyboard and synthsizer sounds of PSB on that track makes it... shall we say, interesting!
Menken Fan: I Just the horror of Katie Holms rendition of "On My Own" out of my head from the first time I heard it! (Many years ago.) Now, since I have no impluse control, I was forced to listen again. THE AGONY!
KEEP THIS GIRL AWAY FROM A MIKE.
I want to write music. I want to sit down right now at my piano and write a song that people will listen to and remember and do the same thing every morning...for the rest of my life. - Jonathan Larson. Tick, Tick...BOOM!
Katie's pretty bad, but I think the worst cover version, in both concept and execution has got to be the dance remix of Surrender from Phantom, performed by Helen Reddy. You need to hear it to believe it.
I forgot about the Liza/Pet Shop Boys "Losing My Mind. Adding it to the station today.
ohhh my god. That clip of Katie Holmes singing "On My Own" just made my ears bleed all over again. I knew it was bad but I had forgotten just HOW bad. Ahhh
This is so ironic - I just heard an AWFUL rendition of 'My Strongest Suit' from Aida from the one and only Spice Girls. Needless to say... it was a catastrophe (although I admit in 1997 at the tender age of 10 I did love me some Spice Girls)!