Best "Time After Time" cover

[RGA]

Before you say "why a Cyndi Lauper song?" note that this has been covered by over 100 groups including Miles Davis. And it's been done considerably differently over the years.

I am poling 10 versions that I like. I left off Miles Davis' version because there are no lyrics and I figure everyone would probably pick it. I also left off the original Lauper version.

Here are the ones I've included.

1) Korean Singer Whale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64MfYbNNVIc&feature=player_embedded#!
Her English isn't spot on but she has a nice voice

2) Tuck and Patti Time After Time (Tuck & Patti) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZC8J5oX1pg&feature=related)

3) Javier Colon Javier Colon: Time After Time - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIirpSViHv0&feature=related) I must say I like this guy - smooth voice

4) QuietDrive Time After Time - QUIETDRIVE (w/ lyrics) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASMmSX4-b88)
Really liked this harder rock version

5) Rob Thomas Rob Thomas - Time After Time (live, 2005) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pqpq7j3xEw&feature=related)

6) Sarah Menescal Time After Time - Sarah Menescal - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyt_2dXRubk&feature=related)
I like the jazz take on this

7) Cassandra Wilson Cassandra Wilson Time after time - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySVWeao57m8&feature=related)
The smokey Wilson - very interesting take on it.

8) Nana Mouskouri Nana Mouskouri - Time After Time - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7j2C8-3iA)
A bit dated but holds appeal

9) Eva Cassidy Eva Cassidy - Time After Time - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMznNlfLXP4&feature=related)
This one gets my vote - she just raises the bar on the emotion factor

10) Sarah McLachlan duet with Cyndi Lauper Cyndi Lauper Ft Sarah Mclachlan Time After Time Acoustic 2005 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPE1lr1pcUc)
Interesting duet - I took this recording to CES and had a lot of people interested in which album it was on. Different voices to be sure but I like it.

There are some people may like such as Matchbox 20 or INOJ (didn't like them myself though).

Some of the nicer instrumental versions

Miles Davis MILES DAVIS: TIME AFTER TIME - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OddHP8_Em7s&feature=fvwrel)

Cyndi Lauper said that his cover meant more to her than winning a grammy.

Ulli Boegershausen Guitar Ulli Boegershausen Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper Cover) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASzwTX2TVtY&feature=related)

Scot Stenten playing two acoustic guitars at the same time - which is pretty cool Scott Stenten - Time After Time - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxHvrsejNm8&feature=related)

[atomicAdam]

Can I vote for none....

Mile's version was awful - the electro smooth shiat in the back ground was just horrid to listen to.

Eva Cassidy has a nice voice though, good timing, inflection, and use of dynamics and holding her vocals past the standard 4x4 break down.

Cassandra Wilson version was a good recording, sort of - using that whole crazy thing called stereo.

But overall I'd have to leave it to the original version. The others were crap.

[SlumpBuster]

Before you say "why a Cyndi Lauper song?"

I wouldn't say that. Cyndi Lauper is terribly underrated. She's So Unusual is a great record. "Great" as in top 50 rock albums of all time. I'd take it over The White Album, DSOTM, or any Zeppelin any day of the week. If you haven't listened to it in its entirety in one sitting with the lights out and a lava lamp and candle you are missing out. It can be tough to listen to some of those songs with fresh ears, but its worth the try.

That being said, no one should ever have covered Time After Time. Half the magic of that song is the performance itself. The heartbreak is audible to the point of the song being half sung and half cried by the end. Too many vocalists are too worried about making the song a show case for how pretty their voices can be. Much like Whitney Houston's terrible cover of I Will Always Love You failed to capture the heartbreak of Dolly's original performance, it is possible to capture Cyndi's heartbreak. Some songs are so completely owned by the original performer as to be impossible to justify. Lauper nailed it so dead that everyone else was just inessential.

Conversely, here's Lauper covering Prince off of She's So Unusual. This is how a cover is done. She completely changes the feeling of the song. Fleshes out the desperation in the lyrics. Doesn't bother to change the pronouns. And, her overdubs are sick. She has completely made the song her own to the point that it is still an essential live number for her today.

Cyndi Lauper - When you were mine - Original - Studio - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzxA-5OfWc&feature=related)

[RGA]

That's why it's a best cover not which is the best version

If I ranked them including the original it would be like this:

1) Eva Cassidy - (I like her version better than any version including the original (and I own Cyndi's LP of this).

2) Sarah/Cyndi version tied with the Cyndi only version. Which then one could argue if it's a tie then Sarah isn't needed. Fair point but I just like the vocal offset of their voices.

I don't buy any arguments about passion or soul or emotion etc. Plenty of artist's choose to cover songs because they love the song - and it meant something to them. The fact that they didn't write the thing doesn't mean it can never be sung by anyone else. It's the same lame argument that someone always makes when anyone covers an Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone song.

I have no problem with someone who takes a song and tries to put their own flavor or style on it.

Plenty of covers suck I agree - Cyndi has a song - Drive my car that Celine Dion butchered but it was quite popular.

I Will Always Love You is an entirely different song to Dollie's. Same Lyrics but that is pretty much where the similarity ends. Houston turned it into a vocal exercise - an impressive one but hollow. Didn't exactly love Parton's version either to be honest - and if it were not for Houston - no one would know of Parton's.

Another example is Dylan's Knockin on Heaven's Door - to me Guns and Roses owns this song - i have heard others but they own it. Doesn't mean someone else can never dare to cover it - Avril Lavigne covered it. I give her credit for being brave enough to do it and do an acoustic version no less despite having a mediocre voice and knowing that she will be blasted from every corner for making the attempt. It means something to her - so she sings it with emotion because she loves the song.

For me - Eva's version makes me "feel" - none of the others do that including the original. I like some of them in different ways mind you.

Atomic Adam - yeah I would not buy the Miles cover - in fact I never even knew he covered it until today so it's hardly one of the cuts anyone thinks of when they think of Miles Davis - but by the same token - it's better than Crap. Maybe a hint of a fart but c'mon.

[SlumpBuster]

I don't buy any arguments about passion or soul or emotion etc. Plenty of artist's choose to cover songs because they love the song - and it meant something to them. The fact that they didn't write the thing doesn't mean it can never be sung by anyone else. It's the same lame argument that someone always makes when anyone covers an Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone song.

I have no problem with someone who takes a song and tries to put their own flavor or style on it.

Plenty of covers suck I agree - Cyndi has a song - Drive my car that Celine Dion butchered but it was quite popular.

I don't have any problem with covers in general. There are just some songs that are almost impossible to approach because it has been "owned" by another artist. The song your thinking of is "I Drove All Night." Cyndi's version is great. Roy Orbison's version is great. Celine's is not bad per se, just inessential after Lauper and Orbison had their way with it. "Time After Time" is just one of those songs that I think is impossible to approach. And I would agree that I'm in the minority given that so many artists have covered it.


I Will Always Love You is an entirely different song to Dollie's. Same Lyrics but that is pretty much where the similarity ends. Houston turned it into a vocal exercise - an impressive one but hollow. Didn't exactly love Parton's version either to be honest - and if it were not for Houston - no one would know of Parton's.

Really? Except for all the people that made it a number 1 country hit.


Another example is Dylan's Knockin on Heaven's Door - to me Guns and Roses owns this song - i have heard others but they own it. Doesn't mean someone else can never dare to cover it - Avril Lavigne covered it. I give her credit for being brave enough to do it and do an acoustic version no less despite having a mediocre voice and knowing that she will be blasted from every corner for making the attempt. It means something to her - so she sings it with emotion because she loves the song.

Here I agree. Dylan is such a limited performer, both vocally and emotively, that many covers eclipse his. For me, Mr. Tambourine Man is a Byrds song, All Along the Watchtower is Hendrix's, Blowin' in the Wind belongs to Peter Paul and Mary, and It Ain't Me Babe belongs to Johnny Cash and the Turtles in equal parts.

And you'll never get me to hate on Avril (other than her penchant for plagerizing - which is probably more the fault of her song doctors). I dig her.

[RGA]

Well I don't think we really disagree much here - I really only like Eva better than Cyndi - and I liked Cyndi's version over the rest of them.

I must say I am not up on Country music - "Houston's version is the only version I remember hear and Dolly's." You'd have to know Houston's version since they played it about 29 times a day every day for years. Or at least it seemed that way when I was driving to work in the mornings and home in the afternoons. Too bad Houston fell apart because the girl had pipes.

[harley .guy07]

I do like the format with the song ratings as it seems like a fun thing and certainly not the normal thing on this forum which is good every once in a while but I can't vote on this one because this song is just not my cup of tea so it would be a waste for me to vote.

[bobsticks]

Eva Cassidy could do very little wrong in my book.

I consider myself to be one of the bigger Miles fans on the board but the Tutu era stuff sends me falling all over myself, screaming from the room. Dreadful and unfortunate...

Can I add a "version" of Time After Time? :biggrin5:

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[frenchmon]

I vote for the Ella Version to be the best of all time!

Oh....im a even bigger Miles fan, sorry Sticks man....