Apparently, there's a little land called Oz somewhere over the rainbow, where bluebirds fly. Bluebirds also fly here on Earth (is Oz on Earth?), so that's a rather silly lyric, but as far as music goes, Over The Rainbow is a great song.
Judy Garland - Over The Rainbow (mp3, 3.9mb)
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole may not be the most attractive man ever, but he can sing beautifully. His medley of Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World has become something of legend, being extremely popular but never quite surfacing to mainstream charts. The song is an entirely new interpretation of the original, changing note length, pitch, and even lyrics in some places. This large amount of change is rarely seen in covers, with many musicians not being brave enough to go too far off the already laid down path. The inclusion of What A Wonderful World is a stroke of genius, and the crossover is barely noticeable amongst the wash of beautiful vocals and soft ukelele playing.
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World (mp3, 3.6mb)
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Over The Rainbow (mp3, 1.2mb)
Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow (mp3, 5.8mb)
Get your own little piece of Oz...
Dorothy
The Lion
Munchkins
The Wizard
The Gimmes can't do a bad cover, and we all know that the majority of songs they do are amazing, so there's not really much to say about this. Fast paced, well done and including the odd bit of humour. Sounds like every other Gimmes song, right?
Of course Eva Cassidy has to be one of the covering artists. She can cover almost as well as The Gimmes, though admittedly the two contrasting genres should not be compared. Eva has a lovely voice, much like Katie Melua, another one of my favourite female singers. They actually dueted together, but we'll save that for another time. Right now we're concentrating on Over The Rainbow. I'm going to say this straight: Eva Cassidy's version is far better than Judy Garland's. It's not often I'll say a cover is better than the original, as most of the time it's not (Scissor Sisters demonstrate this wonderfully with Comfortably Numb, which killed the song permanantley to the point where I can no longer listen to Pink Floyd satisfactorily). But this really is. It's incredible.
Get your own little piece of Oz...
Dorothy
The Lion
Munchkins
The Wizard
. I'd be happy to feature your band! Just write me a quick note saying what type of music you play, maybe a link to your website/MySpace, and include a link to a few downloadable songs if you can (submissions without samples are usually disregarded).
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