Take Cover: Frank Sinatra Tribute His Way, Our Way
They say Classics never die. Frank Sinatra is one of those musical pillars of legend, and despite his passing in 1995, “The Voice” sings on—on MySpace! As Frankie’s MySpace Blog indicates, an exclusive Frank Sinatra tribute collection, entitled His Way, Our Way was released in 2009 featuring thirteen trademark Sinatra covers from contemporary musicians. Popular bands such as The Kills and The Republic Tigers can be heard deconstructing and refreshing classic Sinatra songs such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
While a few songs from this tribute resonate more like the sound of Sinatra rolling in his grave, there are a handful that are exceptionally delightful. Disappointment arrives in the cases of Maroon 5 and The Fashion’s covers. Maroon 5’s “The Way You Look Tonight” finds a way to match tritely Sinatra-imitating vocals to a song whose lyrics already spell out, “Desperate.” It comes to no surprise that the bands responsible for successfully remastering these hits are some of the arguably better bands from the collection anyway.
In plain terms, The Kooks and The Morning Benders killed it. The Kooks covered “Stormy Weather” in a guitar strum and harmonica-filled fashion complete with lead singer, Luke Pritchard’s, signature British croon. There’s no mistaking the song’s Sinatra origins, nor its Kooks revival. It’s a sweet and simple tune that welcomes replaying and each time seems to end all to soon.
The Morning Bender’s rendition of “Strangers in the Night” is equally successful. While the deliberate guitar strums in synch with clean drum snares are similar to the instrumentals from The Kooks’ cover, lead singer Chris Chu’s smooth and warm vocals are a uniquely perfect Sinatra adaptation. The legend lives on.
CLICK HERE to give the Morning Bender’s cover a listen…
–Charlotte Japp, “Sunday Night Cram Jam,” Sundays 11 pm – 1 am on WGTB
That Morning Bender’s cover is awesome. My favorite Sinatra cover ever though has gotta be Cat Power’s version of New York, New York : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3vhh5sHNOg&feature=related
Every album has its cover. This Morning Bender’s is not bad.
Have you checked out the morning benders’ album “the bedroom covers”? It’s actually amazing. Love Fool will never be the same. http://ambenders.blogspot.com/2008/07/bedroom-covers.html
Did you guys get a chance to listen to the maroon 5 cover? I obviously disliked it because Adam Levine is trying soo hard to actually be Sinatra but it just ain’t right…it got rave reviews on itunes and it’s making me feel like I’m missing something. Am I wrong in thinking that maroon 5 singing karaoke to frank Sinatra music is bad?
Yeah, the Maroon 5 cover does just sound like lame karaoke.
Agreed – it’s karaoke. Surprising that it could even be included in an album of “covers.” I have no interest in hearing someone try to perfectly replicate the original–its only interesting if the band has its own take on the song.
I really like The Kooks and Morning Benders’ versions, although to be fair I didn’t listen to the whole album or anything.