Covers are extremely popular, especially when the artist recreates a song with their very own take on it. Here are five songs by talented women that you know, but may not know that they are actually someone else’s song originally. But, in my opinion, the girls did it better.
- “Same Ol’ Mistakes” by Rihanna
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This is a song originally coined “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” by Tame Impala, and although they crushed it, Rih’s dreamy vocals and layering of notes take this song up a notch. Although Rihanna didn’t change the actual instrumentals much, her vocals just add a completely different vibe to the song and give it a sensual, mature feel.
- “Doin’ Time” by Lana Del Rey
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This song is originally by Sublime and came out in 1996. Lana took her own spin on it by slowing down the tempo a lot, making it much funkier, and way more sensual. Much like Rihanna, Lana’s voice is also dreamy and gives the song much more definition and maturity. Although the song is playful and fun, Lana gives it a sexy twist and makes it that much more of a jam.
- “Hold Me Down” by Halsey
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Halsey took “Easy” by Son Lux and not only changed the pitch but rewrote all the lyrics in her own style. By lowering the pitch, Halsey created a darker, more dangerous sounding tone, and seeing as the lyrics are all about her demons, the song takes on a much more serious note. (Side note, G-Eazy also went ahead and used the Son Lux song on his song, “Eazy”.)
- “Tessellate” by Ellie Goulding
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Ellie Goulding took the lyrics to her song “Tessellate” from the song “Tessellate” by Alt-J. However, she completely redid the instrumentals, also slowing down the tempo but adding a more simplistic, methodical background track and including a saxophone solo towards the end. Her vocals are super high-pitched, which makes the whole track way more feminine.
- “Swingin’ Party” by Lorde
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This is also a remake of an older song, “Swingin Party” by the Replacements. The original song features a very upbeat guitar strumming pattern, which contrasts with the severity of the lyrics. Lorde took these lyrics and gave the song a more downtempo, moody background track. Her vocals stand out on the track, which features her raspy, deep voice and makes the song very sensual and beautiful.
Overall, this lineup features some of my favorite artists and shows how powerful adding a female voice to a track can be. Hopefully, you love these songs even more now that you know that the artist took another song and made it that much cooler.