New wine in old bottles.

October 4, 2014 7:05 AM

I am looking for late twentieth-century pop music covered in earlier styles. I know The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, I know The Puppini Sisters, I know Big Daddy (although that is kind of an edge case because the song and the style are only a decade apart, but it was a tumultuous decade musically). Tell me more that I have yet to learn about.

The before-after line is roughly 1960 or so, but that is not immutable. I am not too much interested in songs where the original is released in the last decade or so: many of the listeners will not be familiar enough with Adele's or Justin Timberlake's catalogues to appreciate doo-wop versions. Bring me your ABBA as barbershop quartets, your U2 as swing jazz, and your Who as cajun fiddle tunes.

posted by ricochet biscuit to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

Nicki Minaj in bluegrass form.
posted by dfriedman at 7:06 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Lounge Against the Machine.
posted by dfriedman at 7:08 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: The Baroque Beatles.
posted by Longtime Listener at 7:13 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: That's what Love Canon does.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:15 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Paul Anka: Rock Swings is Paul covering several songs with Nelson Riddle-like arrangements. While the whole album is musically brilliant and funny, his version of Black Hole Sun is one of my most favorite things ever in the history of things.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 7:20 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: scott bradlee's postmodern jukebox (linked above with the anaconda video) seems to mostly cover recent pop songs, but if you look through the catalog they do some older songs as well: (Waterfalls, Livin on a Prayer, No Diggity, for instance).
posted by lilnublet at 7:30 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Pat Boone did an album of rock songs in the 90s. It is truly bizarre and IMO only really worthwhile for the novelty/WTF factor:

Enter Sandman
Paradise City
posted by lunasol at 7:53 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Sounds like Nouvelle Vague might be right up your alley. French jazzy/bossa nova covers of 70s/80s punk and new wave. A few examples:

This is not a love song
Blue Monday
Dancing with myself
Guns of Brixton
Heart of glass
posted by hangashore at 8:20 AM on October 4, 2014 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I think the songs The Baseballs cover are too recent for you, but they do this sort of thing. Rihanna's Umbrella, for example
posted by Vibrissa at 9:00 AM on October 4, 2014

Came in to recommend Nouvelle Vague.
posted by Sara C. at 10:23 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Max Raabe und der Palastorchester did a couple of albums of modern pop hits with a sort of Weimar Republic big band vibe, totally worth a spin.
posted by jormundgondir at 10:58 AM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: If you have the time, you may want to browse through Cover Me. Lots of good covers in there, but you'll have to sort through them.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:38 PM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme did the 1997 classic cover of Black Hole Sun. A dark luxurious haunting interpretation.
posted by ovvl at 4:02 PM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: The Anachronistic Jazz Band covered modern and bop jazz in the style of the 1920s/30s.
posted by fings at 6:52 PM on October 4, 2014

Dread Zeppelin is a wonderful group that does reggae covers of Led Zeppelin. The Persuasions did an album of acapella covers of Frank Zappa songs. 180 g's have fun acapella covers of Negativeland. Also, most Weird Al albums have a polka that combines several pop songs together.
posted by irisclara at 7:07 PM on October 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Came in here to recommend Postmodern Jukebox and Nouvelle Vague. Also for those who like Nouvelle Vague, Ivy's Guestroom is in a similar Francophone vein (though not as explicitly stylized).

I can't find a good video of it, but Hot Club of Cowtown does a western swing-style cover of Roxy Music's Love Is the Drug.

Imelda May does a rockabilly cover of Tainted Love with a 50s vibe.

Devotchka is kind of cabaret style and they have an EP that's mostly covers: Curse Your Little Heart. It hits Venus in Furs and the Last Beat of My Heart.

If you want to go all the way back to Victoriana/steampunk kind of music, Rasputina has a covers EP called Lost and Found, including Bad Moon Rising, Wish You Were Here, and All Tomorrow's Parties.

In a similar but even more classical vein: Pink Floyd Lisztified: Fantasia Quasi Sonata. It's recognizable.

I can give you a LOT of this kind of thing on the Celtic rock side. If you want rock with bagpipes, let me know.
posted by immlass at 7:09 PM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: Last year's Bioshock Infinite (a game set in 1912) included a number of anachronistic covers, most notably a barbershop quartet version of the Beach Boys' God Only Knows.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 8:15 PM on October 4, 2014

Best answer: See also Old School Freight Train's cover of Heart of Glass.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 9:17 PM on October 4, 2014

Besides the Sgt Pepper's album, Big Daddy had a much larger spread between the "song" and the "style". Always on My Mind done in the style of The Big Bopper.
posted by sideshow at 10:57 AM on October 13, 2014