Filed under: Black Music Month
In the hundreds of cover songs that have ever been made, only a few can be regarded as doing justice to the original recordings. Here, we've listed our five favorite remakes that are so memorable that you probably thought they weren't cover songs at all.
5. Alicia Keys, "If I Was Your Woman' (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
Legend has it that Gladys Knight didn't even like this tune when producers from Berry Gordy's Motown Records label approached her to sing it. Thankfully, she relented and the song shot up the charts in 1971. Here, Alicia Keys makes the song about devout love her own in this 'Unplugged' performance, combining power, grace and heartfelt emotion in a way that could only make Gladys proud.
4. Chaka Khan, 'I Feel For You' (Prince)
After Chaka left Rufus to embark set out on her own, she released this title track to her 1984 solo debut, which was actually a cover of a 1979 tune by Prince. (The Purple One would write many songs for her in subsequent years.) Chaka added heavy doses of rap (that's Melle Mel on the intro saying "Ch-Ch-Ch-Chaka Khan-Chaka Khan"), Steve Wonder on harmonica and dancing from b-boy Shabba-Do from the hip-hop drama 'Breakin' in accompanying music video.
3. Lenny Kravitz, 'American Woman' (The Guess Who)
An early knock against Lenny was that he was bent on sounding retro but lacked that special oomph in this own music to make him a truly great rocker. With this cover of this vintage 1970 track by Canada's The Guess Who, Lenny showed that he could tackle the classics and not lose himself in the process. He actually looks pretty badass in this video too.
2. Maxwell, 'This Woman's Work' (Kate Bush)
R&B heartthrob Maxwell's falsetto nails the somber valleys and peaks that British songstress Kate Bush touched on in the 1989 original song from her album, 'The Sensual World.' Unlike many of today's soul men, Maxwell's interpretive skills show that he understands how to express melancholy and longing without coming off like a schlockmeister. He's pure class.
1. Fugees, 'Killing Me Softly' (Roberta Flack)
Though this song is credited to the Fugees and appears on the trio's second album, 'The Score,' Lauryn Hill deserves every accolade she's received for her 1995 take on Flack's 1973 hit which was originally titled, "Killing Me Softly With His Song.' The hip-hop backing beat and her soaring vocals do the exact thing that every successful cover song should do: It makes you almost forget that the original existed. And that says a lot given that Flack's version won three Grammy awards during its chart-topping heyday.