Don’t Stop The Music
Back In The Doghouse
Bugz In The Attic, 2006
I am a strong believer that if someone covers a song, they should do something completely different with it or noticeably outperform the original artist (if I remember correctly, Chris Robinson said something similar about the Black Crows’ cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard To Handle” although he didn’t manage to follow his own advice). I now have to add a new caveat to my rule - covers that give a song the extra punch that it needs.
The original “Don’t Stop The Music” is by Yarborough & Peoples and while not that many people know the artists by name, the song is definitely a classic (in some circles). The bridge (4:35) was used as the chorus of Common’s “All Night Long” featuring Erykah Badu and Eve’s “Gangsta Lovin’” featuring Alicia Keys. Puffy also found his “can’t stop / won’t stop / we don’t even know how to stop - uh-uh, uh-uh — uh-huh, uh-huh!” (ubiquitous in the 90’s) here.
I love the original but the energy always seems to lag as a I wait for my favorite part to happen (the bridge at 4:35). The Bugz version is like the original on steroids. It emotional range is a little narrower but the low-end and the syncopated drums more than make up for it.
>> songs are available for two weeks [7.1 MB]
April 15th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
[…] is “great covers installment #2″(see below) and as I said in this post from last year, I think people shouldn’t cover songs unless they are going to do a completely […]