Friday, June 1, 2012

under-covers: Roy Orbison/Van Halen

Perhaps, one of the greatest guilty pleasures in my life: the perverse enjoyment I get listening to musicians covering other artist's songs. The weirder the cover, the better! It doesn't matter how awkward or horrible the quality (shitty cell phone video, I'm looking at you), I'm an absolute sucker for this stuff. Here's the latest installment of "under-covers."

Today we feature one of the greatest singers of all time, Roy Orbison and his 1964 classic, "Oh, Pretty Woman." I'm sure everyone knows this song (and the movie...c'mon I know you do)

 My god that voice! Orbison's voice is just uncanny. He could literally sing the phone book and I'd be stoked to hear it. It doesn't hurt that this is probably one of the catchiest tunes in the universe.

You know what else is catchy and totally rad in a different way? Van Halen. Here's Eddie and the boys cover of "Oh, Pretty Woman," from their 1982 album, Diver Down.
Spiffy. Spiffy stuff right there. I love how this cover remains so true to the original, yet sounds so much like a Van Halen song in it's own right. This just shows how huge an influence Orbison and all the classic early rock'n'roll pioneers of his era were on the band.

I love both of these covers but gotta say, nothing beats the original in my book. David Lee Roth is (er...was) one hell of a frontman but he's got NOTHING on Orbison when it comes to vocals. Roy's dreamy/lonesome voice is probably the most tragic yet heart warming thing I've ever heard. What do you folks think?

11 comments:

  1. I love Roy Orbinson so much man, he's one of my dad's favourites and he's one of mine too for that matter, "I Drove All Night," is amazing. With that said I can't believe how much I love Van Halen's cover, it's surprisingly good, the voice works so well with it too, the guitar has a kind of dreamy vibe to it, it's a great song.

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  2. Yeah if you don't now pretty woman you've been living under one big rock.

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  3. Van Halen covered Pretty Woman? Why does that appeal to me so much? Though I still agree the originals are almost always better.

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  4. I love this one, but I prefer the cover to Dancing in the Street on the same album. I just like the riff better.

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  5. Roy Orbison looks effortlessly cool. :)

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  6. I don't know the guy (Gosh. I've been missing a lot of good stuff on earth) but I can't deny the obvious..he's good :)

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  7. Orbison never did the splits while wearing lycra.

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  8. Hehe, I agree with most people here, cool Orbison.

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  9. Roy Orbinson had such a great voice...I loved him in the Travelling Wilburys

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  10. "Pretty Woman" IS a pretty good song.

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  11. While it may not be the original, I do love the Van Halen one much more. :D

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