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Morning Song – Cross Cut Saw Like lots of blues songs, Albert King’s “Cross Cut Saw” starts with a simple metaphor and lets your imagination run wild. Evan Nicole Bell’s cover lets your imagination run …

Morning Song - Crosscut Saw by @evannicolebell.bsky.social

"...just drag me across your log..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs #blues

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Morning Song – Got To Give It Up Among the many losses of Aaliyah’s death-by-plane-crash at 22 is she didn’t get to spend the past quarter-century remaking the Great American Soul Songbook in her own image as she did w…

Morning Song - Got to Give It Up by Aaliyah ft. Slick Rick

"As long as you're grooving there's always a chance..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More) Fontella Bass’ singing on her 1966 cover of “I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)” is yet more evidence (if more were needed) that it takes more than a great voice to be a big…

Morning Song - I Know (You Don't Love Me No More) by Fontella Bass

"Since you don't want me no more, baby;
Ain't no use in you hanging around..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Route 66 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ live 1977 version of “Route 66” is all thundering drums, crashing cymbals, and screaming Gibson Flying V guitars thrashing together with all the…

Morning Song - Route 66 by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

"...all the disciplined-yet-slightly-disheveled energy you’d expect from a young (and great) band..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – I Can’t Stand The Rain Here at MassCommons World Headquarters we woke to a gray sky and a steady rainfall expected to continue throughout the day. That’s all right because we’ve got a latter-day incarnation o…

Morning Song - I Can't Stand the Rain by Booker T & the MGs

"...bringing back sweet memories..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Route 66 “Route 66” is a seemingly endlessly versatile song, lending itself to great interpretations by everyone from Nat King Cole to Billy Bragg to Nancy Sinatra to Depeche Mode to the Thad Jo…

Morning Song - Route 66 by Buckwheat Zydeco ft. David Hidalgo

#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Whammer Jammer Through the modern miracle of multi-tracking, Memphis harpist extraordinaire Brandon O. Bailey takes The J. Geils Band’s “Whammer Jammer” to its logical conclusion with this all-h…

Morning Song - Whammer Jammer by Brandon O. Bailey

#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs #harmonica #instrumental

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Morning Song – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean Miss Mavis Staples is the last of her kind—the last of her siblings still alive, the last great gospel singer who rode down dusty roads in rattletrap cars past Jim Crow towns, the last great …

Morning Song - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean by Mavis Staples

"They say those streets are paved with gold,
Well they say those streets are paved with gold,
Oh Lord have mercy on my soul"
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Little Drummer Girl One of the confounding things about “Little Drummer Boy/Girl” is how boring the drum part usually is. It turns out there’s a simple solution to that problem: just let Sheila E. cu…

Morning Song - Little Drummer Girl by @christinaaguilera.bsky.social ft. Sheila E.

"Pah-rum pum pum pum" indeed.
#christmas #FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – White Christmas We get questions. As, recently, when a longtime correspondent asked “Blog Cover Worthy?” and included a link to Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings’ blistering, note-perfect, 2015 ne…

Morning Song - White #Christmas by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

"May all your dreams be merry & bright...."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs
h/t: JHD

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Morning Song – Badlands Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands” is one of the great “angry young man” songs of its era, but the longer I listen to it, the more I gravitate toward this line in the fina…

Morning Song - Badlands by The Dropkick Murphys

"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer When it comes to fulfilling this little blog’s First Rule Of Cover Songs* on “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, The Temptations not only brought an exquisite five lead vocalist arr…

Morning Song - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by The Temptations

"Santa's sleigh could fly on that groove alone."
#TheFunkBrothers
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – The Christmas Song Samara Joy grew up in a musical family. Her grandparents started one of Philadelphia’s premiere (and longest-lasting) gospel groups and her father toured with Andrae Crouch. So she knows that…

Morning Song - The #Christmas Song by Samara Joy

"Although it's been said many times, many ways...."

Enjoy.
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs #Jazz

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Morning Song – Inuuniaravit Elisapie was still in a cradle (or its equivalent) in her hometown of Salluit on the Hudson Strait in far northern Quebec when one-hit wonder Patrick Hernandez’ “Born To Be Alive”…

Morning Song - Inuuniaravit by Elisapie

#BornToBeAlive
#Inuktitut
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town The opening and closing of Jimmy McGriff’s 1963* recording of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” swing so cool butter would keep for the entire winter, but what makes the track is th…

Morning Song - Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Jimmy McGriff

"...swing so cool butter would keep for the entire winter..."
#McGriffMonday
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Route 66 I was today years old when I learned that eleven years before recording his impeccably swinging cover of “Route 66” (as part of a Nat King Cole tribute album), Sammy Davis Jr. lost his …

Morning Song - Route 66 by Sammy Davis Jr.

"...impeccably swinging..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – I Thank You I was this-week-old when I learned the incomparable Mavis Staples covered “I Thank You” with William Bell back in 1969. “You didn’t have to love me like you did;But you did,…

Morning Song - I Thank You by Mavis Staples & William Bell

“You didn’t have to love me like you did;
But you did, but you did and….”
#Thanksgiving
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – The Letter In 2015 The Tedeschi Trucks Band paid tribute to some of their forebears by assembling many of the surviving members of Joe Cocker’s legendary 1970 “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tou…

Morning Song - The Letter by @tedeschitruckkband.bsky.social

"Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane,
Ain't got time to take a fast train...."
#MadDogsAndEnglishmen
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Season Of The Witch So, as the story goes, Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield knew each other from playing in Dylan’s first electric band, were both between projects, and planned to spend a couple of days in the stud…

Morning Song - Season of the Witch by Al Kooper ft. Stephen Stills

"It’s Haight-Ashbury meets Memphis…but in a good way."
#Halloween
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Tumbling Dice Outsourcing to the brilliant Elizabeth Nelson for commentary on what she calls “…my favorite recording of my favorite song of all time”, Linda Ronstadt’s sizzling cover of T…

Morning Song - Tumbling Dice by Linda Ronstadt

"...my favorite recording of my favorite song of all time." @paranoiacs.bsky.social

#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Brown Eyed Handsome Man If Nina Simone’s 1967 cover of “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” consisted of nothing but but the two second clip (at 1:16) from the fourth verse of what is arguably Chuck Berry’s m…

Morning Song - Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Nina Simone

"Just like your daddy, he's a...."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Love Minus Zero/No Limit Hats off to Leon Russell. I don’t know how you listen to Bob Dylan’s bare bones acoustic strumming on “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” and hear something akin to a countrified ver…

Morning Song - Love Minus Zero/No Limit by Leon Russell

"She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Once In A Lifetime I think Angelique Kidjo understands what Talking Heads (and specifically, lyricist/lead singer David Byrne) were trying to say in their existentially weird 1981 single, “Once In A Lifetime&#8…

Morning Song - Once in a Lifetime by Angelique Kidjo

"And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – My Girl Who wouldn’t want to cover “My Girl”? (Answer: almost nobody. Just watch what happens next time you’re at a party and the DJ spins The Temptations’ original version.) …

Morning Song - My Girl by @joyoladokun.bsky.social

“I’ve got so much honey, even the bees envy me;
I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees.”
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Route 66 Chuck Berry was such a great and influential guitarist, it’s easy to overlook what a fine vocalist he was. Not on his 1961 cover of “Route 66”, though. It’s Chuck’s si…

Morning Song - Route 66 by Chuck Berry

"Won't you get hip to this timely tip?"
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Love Is Alive Joan Osborne has a knack* for finding steamy sexiness in the unlikeliest of songs. Take her 2001 cover of Gary Wright’s huge ’70s synth-rock hit, “Love Is Alive”. Osborne dr…

Morning Song - Love Is Alive by Joan Osborne

"There's something inside that's making me crazy,
I'll try to keep it together...."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Lonely Avenue It doesn’t matter where you live—a big city or a small town—there’s a “Lonely Avenue” somewhere nearby. It’s where men who’ve blown up their marriage…

Morning Song - Lonely Avenue by Jon Batiste ft. Randy Newman

"...where men who’ve blown up their marriages w/o a Plan B end up: surrounded by others who’ve slipped out of society & are hanging on by a thread."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs
h/t: MAH

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Morning Song – Mahna Mahna Some of you may know the children’s book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, a delightful little tale of the anarchic unintended consequences of small, seemingly unimportant initial decisions. In …

Morning Song - Mahna Mahna by Cake

#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs
#JMP3

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Morning Song – Worker’s Song Sometimes on Labor Day you just want to fire up the grill, crack open a cold one, and enjoy a quiet day of rest with family and friends. Other times you want to find the fiercest, proudest, proudes…

Morning Song - Worker's Song by The Dropkick Murphys

#LaborDay
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

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Morning Song – Beautiful Strangers There’s a lot going on in Kevin Morby’s song, “Beautiful Strangers”. Written in 2016, it references, among other things, the Bataclan massacre in Paris, the Pulse shooting i…

Morning Song - Beautiful Strangers by Mavis Staples

"If I die too young,
Let all that I've done,
Be remembered;

Carry onward,
Like some songbird,
Beautiful stranger..."
#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs

h/t: NMH

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