Nov 012021
 
best cover songs 1991

As regular readers know, every year, at the end of the year, we do a big year-end covers list. This tradition started in 2007 and will continue in a couple months with the best covers of 2021.

But there are so many years before 2007 where we weren’t doing year-end covers lists (and, as far as I’m aware, no one else was either). So once a year, we do a big anniversary post tackling the best covers of a year before Cover Me was born. So far we’ve done 1969, 1978, 1987, 1996, and, last year, 2000.

And for 2021, we look back thirty years, to the heady days of 1991. The days of grunge and acid house, of parachute pants and ripped denim, of The Gulf War and Home Alone. Country music and hip-hop increased their cultural dominance (or really just making their existing dominance known; 1991 is also the year Soundscan made the Billboard charts more authoritative). In a single day, Nirvana released Nevermind, Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and A Tribe Called Quest released The Low End Theory. Think that’s a fluke? The week before saw massive albums from Mariah Carey, Hole, and Guns ‘n’ Roses (two albums, no less). The week before that came Garth Brooks, Talk Talk, and Saint Etienne.

All of those trends are reflected in the list below. Many of these covers scream “1991!” LL Cool J raps Disney. Courtney Love shrieks Joni. Aretha Franklin tries to new jack swing. A spate of early tribute albums (in fact, last year I wrote a 33 1/3 book about a 1991 tribute album). Other covers are more timeless, from veteran artists doing great work several decades into their careers, or way-underground artists who never even approached the mainstream. The only criteria was quality. Thirty years later, these 50 covers Hole-d up the best.

Check out the list starting on Page 2, and stay tuned for the best covers of this year coming in December.

The list begins on Page 2.

Sep 082021
 
indianna hale falling

I was eight when Twin Peaks captured America’s imagination. I was too young to be allowed to watch it, but I still could feel the excitement this strange phenomenon was creating. At some point, I was exposed to the title sequence. So much of what Twin Peaks is, seems to be captured by Angelo Badalamenti’s theme song “Falling” and Julee Cruise’s singing: the mystery of the place, the collision between the mystical and the real, the weird sense of displacement, and the utter camp. Continue reading »

Jun 212017
 
chrysta bell falling

Laura Dern. Naomi Watts. And, of course, Kyle MacLachlan. David Lynch has long had muses, actors and actresses he’s returned to again and again through his career. All three of these appear in the new Twin Peaks, as does his latest muse, Chrysta Bell. The difference is, she’s not an actress. FBI Agent Preston is her first role.

Bell is a musician, one Lynch has recorded with on several albums and EPs. Her music falls right in the Lynchian mold, creepy and haunted and dark. And for her new song, she teams up with the other master for creepy and haunted and dark, This Mortal Coil co-founder John Fryer. In honor of her new role, it’s a cover of Julee Cruise’s classic Twin Peaks theme “Falling.” Continue reading »

Nov 062013
 

There are two distinct elements to the Twin Peaks theme song, elements that are difficult for any artist to balance and for any listener to approach. There’s the theme song as a theme song, as Angelo Badalamenti’s mellow, dreamlike instrumentals that play over shots of Northwestern industrialism and waterfalls as the opening credits roll. Alternately, there’s “Falling” – it’s the same song, but it becomes entirely different when Julee Cruise‘s vocals and David Lynch‘s lyrics are introduced. Understandably, most (if not all) covers of the song opt for the latter. And yet, the listener is still somehow presented with the two different versions. Sometimes, like with last year’s Field Mouse cover, we get covers that are evocative of the opening – covers where the vocals are as ethereal as the instrumentals and the whole thing flows together as one ambient whole. Continue reading »

Nov 072012
 

Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it; don’t wait for it; just let it happen. It could be a new shirt in a men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black, coffee.

There are few things truer than Agent Dale Cooper’s secret to being happy. Today, we are making it easy for you to give yourself that little gift with Field Mouse‘s rendition of the Twin Peaks theme, “Falling” by Julee Cruise. Continue reading »

Jan 272011
 

A wren rests on a tree branch. A factory spews smoke into the mountain pines. A waterfall cascades over a cliff. If you watched David Lynch’s ‘90s drama Twin Peaks, you may have recognized those as scenes from the show’s memorable intro. You probably also have that haunting theme playing in your head. You may not know, though, that that Grammy-winning score that will likely creep into your dreams tonight, is in fact an instrumental version of another song: “Falling,” by Julee Cruise. Continue reading »