Cover Versions from the Dark Side - Help Required

[Ian Townsend]

Just realised how much I really like cover versions of very familiar songs that turn normally light easy songs into something...well...a little spooky, dark and atmospheric.

My collection is very very limited...I wonder if any VV'ers out there could point me in the direction of other tracks that have this effect? Or simply tracks which spring to mind which explore this kind of mood?

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Ain't No Sunshine....genuinely menacing and prowly... a real stalker anthem....heebie-jeebies heaven.

Klaus Wunderlich - Summertime...not as dark, but definitely not summery!

Lenny Dee - Little Green Apples.....slow, atmospheric..a million miles from Dean Martin's version

This'll probably be a thin thread but anything would be appreciated.

[sermad]

Curfew - Summertime - Pretty sombre psych/fuzz version where the singer sounds like he has gargled a cheese grater! noice. From the 'let there be dark and there was' lp.

[Col Wolfe]

Flies version of 'Stepping Stone' is damned menacing

and The Road's cover of 'She's Not There'

[john stapleton]

Sound of Feeling's cover of Hurdy Gurdy Man is just plain wrong
Muddy Waters' version of 'Let's Spend the Night Together'

[Matt Hero]

Might not really be appropriate.... but Callipe's (sp?) version of 'California Dreaming' on Buddah might be up your street.

[vibra]

Rotary Connection 'Respect' (Cadet Concept) - moody as..

[alanmck]

Is it offbeam to suggest Rotary Connection's version of Respect or Sunshine Of Your Love?

and the Satisfaction version on "vampyros Lesbos" from the "funky stones" thread might fit too.

[dr kraken]

Another thread has reminded me about Barbara Streisand's version of Grandma's Hands, which might meet your criteria.
Admittedly this is a song about death, so you could say that the original is a bit spooky too, but I can't remember Bill Withers banshee wailing into an echo chamber.

That's two to Bill then. Actually Tom Jones' Ain't No Sunshine is a bit spooky too ... I used to think that Michael Jackson's version was a bit sinister given the subject matter and his age at the time... but ... over to you, Col Wolfe

[Belson]

Klaus Wunderlich - Summertime...not as dark, but definitely not summery!

Walter Bishop Jr's version on Black Jazz is a broody little number.

[Ian Townsend]

Easter Homework for me

Another thread has reminded me about Barbara Streisand's version of Grandma's .

Cool. Love Gil-Scott Heron's version of this song anyway....any clue as to which Barbara LP it's on?
Bet it'll sit lovely back to back with R.R Kirk's 'Aint No Sunshine'.

Just remembered earlier how haunting and ethereal Marvin Gaye's version of 'Shadow of Your Smile' is from the oft-derided 'Romantically Yours' LP...(his last I think?)

Thanx Dr. K and everyone so far...feel a late-nite comp coming on.... school Easter holidays...not back at work til....oh....god knows when....gotta keep busy.

[dr kraken]

Cool. Love Gil-Scott Heron's version of this song anyway....any clue as to which Barbara LP it's on?

Aye it's on Butterfly, currently being discussed on
this thread

[babycart]

Gladys Knight and the Pips' version of 'The Look of Love' is definitely darker and more despairing than most other versions. It's my favourite cover of this song, along with Bill Plummer's excursion into nerve jangling Bacharach/sitar madness.