zwolanerd

I don’t remember where I heard it, but someone once said, “Your favorite version of a song is the one you hear first.”  I’ve found that holds up pretty well, as long as the Beach Boys Greater Remake Theory is taken into consideration. (The BBGRT states that “any beach Boys song remade by a different group is automatically worse, while any any non-Beach Boys song remade by the Beach Boys is automatically better.” You can test that, it checks out.) the weirdest instance of this for me is The Beatles’ “In My Life,” which I love, but I heard first sung by Bette Midler on the “For the Boys” soundtrack. I know in my brain that the Beatles version is better, but there’s something about the way Bette sings it that still makes me doubt.

A more recent example is Outkast’s “Hey Ya.” I had heard of the song but never heard it before Ted’s band sang it on Scrubs. As with many other songs on the show, I’m sure the emotion going on in the episode wrapped with the music made for an overall stronger experience, but I still love the song on its own. It wasn’t until several months later that I heard the original and my brain was all like “ugh, no thanks.”

I’m going to leave you here with the video for The Blanks’ version but ask you this: what remake do you like better than the original? And no fair saying Rufus Wainwright’s version of “Hallelujah.”

You’re going to hate me for this, but I’d really, really like to hear The Blanks do a rework of Guns & Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” in a similar style. If I could make that happen somehow, I would.

Tags: The Blanks, video

Written by: Mark