Track listing for potential Sparks EP

November 9, 2021 5:09 PM

I recently covered “All That” for a benefit compilation, and a few of my friends and the people who have heard my cover have suggested I record an EP of Sparks covers. I sing and play ukulele, and I have some experience with keyboards and producing. Which songs should I include on a possible Sparks covers EP?

In addition to “All That”, I have “Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “Slowboat” in my repertoire. I would like to avoid doing more than one song from an album, and I don’t quite have the range to pull off some of the high falsetto songs from the Island years. Keeping all this in mind, are there three other songs that could fill out a tribute EP?

posted by pxe2000 to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Oooh, glad you asked. I'll list some of the more obvious/commercial ones I can think of off the top of my head:

When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way' -- you simply must do this one, including Ron's little dance
Beat The Clock
When I'm With You
Cool Places (if you fancy a duet)
Calm Before The Storm
Music That You Can Dance To
Dicking Around or Suburban Homeboy (if you feel cheeky)

And you could cover Spray's "Sparks Called And They Want Their Ideas Back" if you want to go meta.

This is just a start, I'm sure the Sparks musicologist Mefites will have better suggestions for a more discerning audience if that's your preference.
posted by zaixfeep at 5:42 PM on November 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I feel ukulele would really complement a lot of the songs off of Introducing Sparks well. I could totally see uke covers of "Ladies" or "Those Mysteries". Probably "Over the Summer" too.
posted by jackbishop at 6:04 PM on November 9, 2021

Response by poster: Hey Zaixfeep! That is a fine list. I don’t want to threadsit, but one of the reasons why I’ve been a little touch-and-go with this project is because a lot of their songs are dependent on fuller arrangements than I’m able to do. I have a limited recording setup and I want to do justice to these songs, and I don’t know how I could do some of the Lil B/Number One in Heaven-era material with one uke, one voice, and one copy of free Ableton Live. I’ve been slightly more interested in covering their standard pop songs, but if anyone has suggestions on how you could cover the bigger songs with a limited setup...!
posted by pxe2000 at 6:05 PM on November 9, 2021

Ooh ooh I think “So Important” would be great on a uke!

Also if you did “This Town Ain’t Big Enough” in a different arrangement it could slap so hard.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:16 PM on November 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Fair enough, pxe, but all the same, don't sell yourself and your instrument short :-)
posted by zaixfeep at 6:20 PM on November 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

"Angst in My Pants" can sound good with a simpler arrangement (here's a recent home-recording cover by Sleater-Kinney).

"Something for the Girl with Everything" could be pretty fun too.
posted by lisa g at 6:50 PM on November 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

pxe, I was a heavy Cakewalk Studio user back in the day, so I never played with Cubase or Ableton. If it is not able to give you multitrack mixing/output the way you want, you can pull and mix individual audio track files into the free open-source software DAW, Audacity. You can make the arrangement as simple or complicated as you wish (see Jonatha Brooke's arrangement of Alan Parsons 'Eye In the Sky' on YouTube as a great example of band-to-soloist cover). In any event, good luck with your project.
posted by zaixfeep at 7:10 PM on November 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I was going to say - "well obviously not Number One Song in Heaven" - but it seems I am very wrong. - that arrangement could be expanded on in several ways.
posted by rongorongo at 9:28 PM on November 9, 2021

I lean 'Propaganda', so the Sparks covers we've done were 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth' and 'Bon Voyage'. We tried 'B.C.' but it's a tricky one (wait am I suggesting a song with yodelling?).
posted by ovvl at 7:18 AM on November 10, 2021

'This Town Ain't Big Enough' is The Iconic Track, so don't leave it out.
posted by ovvl at 5:32 PM on December 5, 2021