Tag Archives: classic soul remakes

O Bilal, Bilal, Wherefore Art Thou Bilal?

12 Wednesday Nov 2008

Posted by in Feeding The Music Jones

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by vivrant thang on dresden soul symphony

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I am truly slipping on my stanning duties.

I saw that Bilal was going to be in Germany back in April of this year. However, I had no idea that he had joined Dwele, Tweet, and underrated German female soul singer Joy Denalane for the Dresden Soul Symphony concert, where they performed classic soul hits backed by the MDR Symphony Orchestra.

The concert was broken up into four movements which included some of my favorite classic soul hits such as:

  • (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (original: Aretha Franklin)
  • Lovin You (original: Minnie Ripperton)
  • Midnight Train To Georgia (original: Gladys Knight and the Pips)
  • A Song For You (original: Leon Russell)
  • You’re All I Need To Get By (original: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell)
  • Let’s Stay Together (original: Al Green)
  • It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World (original: James Brown)
  • Me and Mrs. Jones (original: Billy Paul)
  • Betcha Bye Golly Wow! (original: Stylistics – I LOVE this song. The Norman Conners/Phyllis Hyman version will be my wedding song)
  • Sir Duke and Master Blaster (Jammin) (original: Stevie Wonder)
  • Love Train (original: The O’Jays)
  • Everything Is Everything (original: Lauryn Hill – guess we can consider this a classic huh?)

A DVD of the concert will be released. Check out footage of Tweet and Joy performing “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

The CD was released on October 24th. Many thanks to my loyal reader Soul UK for hooking me up. I’ll share the love by posting a few of my favorite songs. Since re-imagining classic soul songs seems to be the “thing” lately (Kenny Lattimore’s Timeless and Seal’s Soul are recent examples) I am learning to try and not compare them to the original.

“Sir Duke”

“A Song For You”

“Me and Mrs. Jones”

“Everything Is Everything”


Let me know what you think of what these artists did with these songs in the comments. Or are you over albums covering soul classics? I think you at the very least have to admit that this is an interesting blend of talent!

Old School Friday: Remakes

16 Friday May 2008

Posted by in Feeding The Music Jones

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by vivrant thang on old school fridays

I went way overboard with this one. Just been that kind of week and I needed some good music to get me through.

This week’s theme was remakes. So many places I could have gone with this. The first artist that entered my mind was the King of Remakes, Luther Vandross. Once he remade a song, it became his. A lot of people have been surprised to know that many of their favorites were not his.

I needed some inspiration and found it here and here. I decided to weigh in on which version is my favorite. Some of my choices will probably be blasphemous. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.

Sara Smile (Hall and Oates v After 7)
Although I LOVE After 7’s version, there’s just something about that blue-eyed soul. Besides, H&O’s version is one of my top fifty songs.)

As We Lay (Shirley Murdock v Kelly Price)
Really like Kelly’s video for this one, especially having Shirley make a cameo. However, this will ALWAYS be Shirley’s song. I really think she recorded this the second she got up out the bed with ‘Husband’)

Killing Me Softly (Roberta Flack v L Boogie)
This might draw some criticism from the few old heads that visit, but I fell in love with L Boogie’s sweet alto on this one. This became my version.

In the second video, Roberta joins the Fugees for the performance, which says a lot. Now that is the perfect combination.

Sweet Thing (Chaka Khan& Rufus v Mary J Blige)
This remains Chaka’s song…if only because she is SLAYING them in that red dress. Another off of my top fifty songs list.

Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, (Rose Royce v Faith Evans w/ Mary)
Don’t beat me down old folks but I got to go with Faith on this one. She got Mary on the joint too! Another perfect combination! Admittedly, I’m biased. Faith is one of my all-time favorite albums from start to finish.

Ain’t No Sunshine, (Bill Withers v. Michael Jackson when he was cute)
Michael’s version is so sweet. But Bill will always own this song. No one else can capture that distinctive sound. I’d like to see the Anthonys give it a try – that would be David and Hamilton)

Head on over and check out the other participants. This is a great theme this week and I KNOW you will enjoy what they come up with.

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