[QUOTE]I thought Warlow played Valjean once. [/QUOTE]
Not that I'm aware of, he recorded Enjolras on the Complete Symphonic Recording though - is this what you're thinking of?
I have heard Aaron Lazar do a version of Bring Him Home that I fell in love with right then and there.
Believe it or not, The rock band OK GO does the confrontation song from Les Miserables as something to entertain the crowds if a guitar string breaks and they need time to fix it.
Swing Joined: 11/15/05
I can't believe I forgot "I Feel Pretty" by Little Richard.
Bernadette Peters doing "Johanna."
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/23/08
A Change In Me (from Beauty and the Beast) done by Susan Egan.
Can't believe no one has mentioned Norm Lewis' cover of Before the Parade Passes By from his new album - it totally rocks!
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/1/05
Screwdriver did an awesome cover of "Tomarrow Belongs to Me"
Marianne Faithfull singing selections from Threepenny Opera, with the Frank MacGuinness lyrics. I particularly love her "Mack the Knife".
Also, Nina Simone's "Pirate Jenny".
Swing Joined: 3/23/09
Swing Joined: 12/31/69
This category seems kinda loose--unlike pop or rock songs, every Broadway song is kinda a cover at least sung by anyone but the original cast...
But some pop/jazz/rock covers that come first to mind...
The Zombies "swinging" version of Summertime
Nancy Wilson's covers of I've Got Your Number and Loving You (the first is on a 60s album the later on a 90s one)
I do love some of Dionne Warwick's Bacharach produced Broadway covers from the 60s--her Somewhere is awesome (it somehow cleverly uses Cool as coutnerpoint to the verses and give sit a jazzy feel), also a fan of her My Ship, As Long as He Needs Me and Where Can I Turn To.
I know people love or hate them but the Pet Shop Boys are avowed Sondheim fanatics and I think their covers have all been done with taste--Losing My Mind produced by them for Liza (she claimed she didn't know the song before they presented it to her! how odd), Somewhere, they've done some obscure bside covers of Weill (What Keeps Manking Alive), If Love Were All and Sail Away by Noel Coward, etc.
I adore Boris Midney's Disco Evita album (aka Festival!) and am so glad i have it on CD. Yes I love eurodisco and Boris Midney (who's one of the few disco producers who could be called Avant Garde) toned down his eccentricities for this album that Stigwood commisioned from him when Evita came to Broadway, but it's shockingly good. If you like disco... (unlike say the disco Sweeney Todd which is only good as a curio)
If we're talking musical theatre stars who didn't do the songs on stage I love Debbie Shapiro Gravitte's Water under the Bridge (but that's hardly a Sondheim standard--still so much better than Liza's earlier recording) and Judy Kuhn's What can You Lose ****s all over Madonna/Mandy's.
Ah! I forgot about Simone's Pirate Jenny! I listened to it on the Watchmen soundtrack in a record shop (yeah, they still exist...for now) and it's the kinda performance that paralyzes you for the entire number. It's just so intense and perfect.
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" covered by Ingrid Michaelson :) this cover really makes me happy :) Love her :)
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Check out Michael Ball's latest album ( MICHAEL BALL - PAST AND PRESENT), a retrospective of his 25 year career, spanning his years in musical theatre ( at the West End and on Broadway), on the concert stage, and in the recording studio.
The track list includes The Impossible Dream, Being Alive, Stranger in Paradise/And This is My Beloved, Gethsemane, The Boy from Nowhere ( Matador), Loving You ( Passion), Sunset Boulevard, This is The Moment, Tell Me It's Not True ( Blood Brothers), Not While I'm Around, and The Winner Takes It All. The others were sung by him when he appeared on the shows themselves ( Love Changes Everything, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, All I Ask Of You, and You Can't Stop the Beat).
Michael also released two other musical theatre albums in the past ( The Musicals and Centre Stage).
EponineThenardier, you beat me to it! I love Laura Michelle Kelly's "Losing My Mind."
I also like Peabo Bryson's "Pretty Women."
~Steven
Believe it or not, The rock band OK GO does the confrontation song from Les Miserables as something to entertain the crowds if a guitar string breaks and they need time to fix
I looked up OK GO and Les Miserables, thus finding this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UHRYScJK0Y
And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSxq-JCrLag
I'm glad someone else mentioned Simone's "Pirate Jenny", my other favorite cover is by a German indie band called Slut.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=texPM67ue40
They also cover Die Moritat von Mackie Messer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdaGpJNVODQ
I can't forget Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covers of "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Science Fiction Double Feature". :)
Also, Amanda Palmer's rendition of "I Don't Care Much" from Cabaret. Some may say her voice isn't that great, but I think it shines on a song like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpvLW_EOe9s
And I don't know if it counts (it probably doesn't) but might as well throw it in - Raul Esparza's "Defying Gravity".
"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, men recognize that the human race has been harshly treated but it has moved forward." - Les Miserables
Leading Actor Joined: 2/22/05
Blondie's "Follow Me" from CAMELOT.
Broadway Star Joined: 7/17/08
Janis Joplin's version of "Summertime."
I cannot get enough of Jason Danieley's As Long As She Needs Me, based on As Long As He Needs Me from Oliver. It's my favorite song on his solo album.
I also love I Know Him So Well by John Barrowman & Daniel Boys as well as Barrowman's I'd Rather Be Sailing. And last but not least: There's A Sucker Born Every Minute from Barnum by Raúl Esparza (check the YT link) and Lucky To Be Me from On The Town by Howard McGillin.
Raúl goes Barnum
Ella Fitzgerald's "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered."
Truth be told, her rendition of "Mack the Knife" from her Berlin concert (in which she botches the lyrics and turns the number into a brilliant scat display) may be my favorite recorded piece of anything ever.
Liz Callaway singing ?
I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair (South Pacific)
Sleepy Man (Robber Bridegroom)
Our Time (w/ Ann Hampton Callaway ~ Merrily We Roll Along)
I Got the Sun In the Morning (Annie Get Your Gun)
One Boy (Bye, Bye Birdie)
Marry Me A Little (Company)
Videos