Songs that make you cringe or feel ill

**Pinkpapercut** · October 25th, 2012, 04:56 PM

Not so much songs that make me cringe but cover versions that make me cringe:

I cringe when I hear almost every version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" except Cohen's, John Cale's, and Jeff Buckley's. "Hallelujah" has been covered by so many second rate singers who treat is as a Gospel-style hymn of praise or an over-blown soul power-ballad rather than a song of sadness, regret, and acceptance, that whenever I hear it on the radio - inevitably in a latter-day shite version - I have to turn off temporarily.

Alexandra Burke's version was particularly misjudged - and given that the song choice was imposed on her and she said "it did nothing for her", that's no surprise. Given that it sold 576,000 copies in its first week of release, becoming the fastest selling single released by a woman in the United Kingdom and the 2008 Christmas number one, it's a perfect demonstration of the old adage that no-one ever went bust under-estimating the intelligence [or taste] of the public.

The missus only knew the versions from the X-Factor and thought it was a sickly and awful song until I played her the oldest versions.

I feel the same about "I Will Always Love You", touching in Dolly Parton's restrained and wistful original version, painful in Whitney Houston's overblown and overbearing cover version.

October 25th, 2012, 04:56 PM	#11
Pinkpapercut Rust Never Sleeps Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: North of the Channel, west of the hills, south of the mountains Posts: 984 Thanks: 31,846 Thanked 20,522 Times in 986 Posts	Not so much songs that make me cringe but cover versions that make me cringe: I cringe when I hear almost every version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" except Cohen's, John Cale's, and Jeff Buckley's. "Hallelujah" has been covered by so many second rate singers who treat is as a Gospel-style hymn of praise or an over-blown soul power-ballad rather than a song of sadness, regret, and acceptance, that whenever I hear it on the radio - inevitably in a latter-day shite version - I have to turn off temporarily. Alexandra Burke's version was particularly misjudged - and given that the song choice was imposed on her and she said "it did nothing for her", that's no surprise. Given that it sold 576,000 copies in its first week of release, becoming the fastest selling single released by a woman in the United Kingdom and the 2008 Christmas number one, it's a perfect demonstration of the old adage that no-one ever went bust under-estimating the intelligence [or taste] of the public. The missus only knew the versions from the X-Factor and thought it was a sickly and awful song until I played her the oldest versions. I feel the same about "I Will Always Love You", touching in Dolly Parton's restrained and wistful original version, painful in Whitney Houston's overblown and overbearing cover version. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. That's To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 's bottom and I'd love it for a pillow Last edited by Pinkpapercut; October 25th, 2012 at 06:06 PM..