The WXPN 885 cover songs countdown ended last evening, and there were no surprises among the top finishers: Jimi Hendrix covering “All Along the Watchtower” was No. 1, Johnny Cash doing “Hurt” No. 2 and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” No. 3, all of which were easy to predict.
There were plenty of surprises further down the list. The biggest one for me: The songs that appeared on the list most often. There was a three-way tie for the top spot, with five covers apiece. “Hallelujah,” which has been recorded by more than 500 people, naturally was one of them, and Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” another. It was the third song that startled me: the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” I had no idea it was so popular among other artists.
It’s a fairly recent phenomenon, too. Released in 1983 on the band’s “Speaking in Tongues” album, it flopped as the follow-up single to “Burning Down the House,” stalling at No. 62. It was over a decade before its first cover, by Shawn Colvin (No. 386 on the XPN list). It wasn’t until the 2010s that it became a popular choice. The Lumineers (No. 225), Kishi Bashi (No. 354) and Iron and Wine (No. 387) all recorded versions in that decade that made the countdown.
Here’s the original, with a video directed by frontman David Byrne.
Many covers succeed by stripping down a song’s original production, better revealing its lyrics and structure – Colvin, the Lumineers and Iron and Wine all treated it that way. Kishi Bashi arranged it for string quartet. But my favorite of the five was by a band I’d never heard of, Sure Sure, who basically updated Talking Heads’ synth-based arrangement while making it more danceable.
