If a cheeky keyboard-driven outfit were to craft a peppy minor hit out of an 18-year-old soft-rock song, similar to the way the Canadian outfit Kon Kan transformed Lynn Anderson’s “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” into their U.S. top 20 track “I Beg Your Pardon,” what song would you pick to be rescued from the pop history books? Feel free to ponder this question while noting the lyrical back-and-forth between the Kon Kan track and the Anderson song, which I’ve placed after the jump.
Come to think of it, the Plies/Ne-Yo song “Bust It Baby (Part 2)” samples Janet Jackson’s 1990 song “Come Back To Me”:
Even though my affection for Ne-Yo is well-documented around these parts, I’m looking for something a little… sassier, and more call-and-response (seriously, I thought the song was sampling an Anita Baker track for the first two months I knew about it). Like a remix of Kiss’ “Forever” in which the singer is getting irritable with Paul Stanley’s mealy-mouthed proclamations of fidelity. Or an answer song to the Glenn Medeiros/Bobby Brown duet “She Ain’t Worth It”:
Yes. Yes. Someone has to make my day and jump on “I’m Worth It ‘08″ before it’s time to turn the pop-song calendar year to 2009. Just don’t let Bobby know, otherwise he might try to horn in on the recording sessions.
Kon Kan - I Beg Your Pardon [YouTube]
Rose Garden (Lynn Anderson) [YouTube]
Plies - Bust It Baby Part 2 [featuring Neyo] [YouTube]
Glenn Medeiros and Bobby Brown - She Ain’t Worth It [YouTube]
MGMT doing “An Evening in Roma”?
Jens Lekman could do a sweet “Lonely Boy” by Andrew Gold. Prolly.
I have always wondered why no one has covered The Carrie Nations’ (from Russ Meyers’ Beyond The Valley of The Dolls) “In The Long Run” or “Come With The Gentle People. Two amazing songs that should be known.
Also: Blue Suede: Send Me A Postcard.
you can’t best the original, but at least someone should try
also: Rose Garden was covered by KDLang on her first album. Very disco/country.
Oops, I mean Shocking Blue not Blue Suede.
i meant shocking blue not blue suede
OK, so, I know I can be inappropriate, but, you know, well, um, is that his pee pee?
Wow. I still have the Kon Kan cassingle. If I still had a tape player, I’m sure listening to it would bring me right back to the 9th grade.
The Suicide Machines did a cover of Rose Garden too…or maybe they did a cover of I Beg Your Pardon…either way it’s pretty good.