SONG OF THE DAY (#202)

'your song,' by the streets [elton john cover]

my friend stuart tipped me off to a pretty cool new compilation of covers the other day. it's called 'radio 1: established 1967' and features a pretty wild and varied collection of contemporary artists covering songs going back to 1967. as with any compilation, there are hits and there are misses. it's pretty cool, though, to hear lily allen's take on the pretender's 'don't get me wrong,' keane's version of 'under pressure,' and hard-fi's fuzzy, amped up version of britney's 'toxic'; but as fun as those songs are, there's one song that stands miles above the rest. it's the crown jewel of the entire collection: the streets' version of elton john's and bernie taupin's classic, 'your song.'

'your song' is one of elton john's finest [if not the finest] melodies and mike skinner is probably the least likely person to cover sir elton's classic, but this version is so many kinds of awesome that i can't even count them all, but there's at least 34 or 35. maybe 36. i was expecting a two-steppy, dancy sound a la 'weak become heroes' or 'fit but you know it,' so it's a bit surprising that mike stays fairly faithful to the original, musically speaking. i would've loved to hear a two-step version of it, but the fact that he didn't makes it all the more brilliant and unpredictable. mike skinner's marlboro-man, staccati vocals are an excellent counterpoint to the flawless melody and the fact he pronounces 'live' in such a way that it could rhyme with 'spliff' is extraordinary. that mike's version of 'your song' works as well as it does speaks to the song's transcendence and trans-generational appeal. some might cry foul or make claims of heresy [indielondon says mike 'murders' it--that's precisely why it's so great], but in this dood's opinion, it's a revelation.

→ the streets: your song
→ ewan mcgregor: your song [from the 'moulin rouge' soundtrack