Cover Girl

This started, as many posts do, with the radio… driving home from a VERY productive meeting for our care package drive (expect more on that one soon), all three of my kids were subjected to a little nostalgia, courtesy of two of my fellow Musketeers and the local 80s station. The cheese was in full swing, and we started talking about memories and music in general. Somewhere along the line, though, the conversation turned to remakes. I think it was when I said something about Metallica doing a cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.” One of the very few occasions where I was not offended by a remake.

A few years back, Madonna covered Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Sorry to all you Madonna (or as my mom and I call her, McDonna) fans – I like her sometimes, but this particular time was just a big mistake. It was wrong, as only Madonna can be wrong. Heresy. Sacrilege. So, too, is the double-blow dealt with the Britney Spears covers of “Satisfaction” and “I Love Rock n Roll,” but then again, Britney herself is just a crime against talent. To think, there are people like LaToya London out there struggling to get a CD cut, and that little two-bit… but I digress.

I have mixed feelings about the chick who did Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” as an upbeat dance number. And it was recently pointed out to me that Quiet Riot’s career-launching (however short-lived said career was) “Cum on Feel the Noize” was in fact a remake, and I have to admit I really like that song. I loved Billy Idol doing “Mony Mony.” Remakes, in and of themselves, aren’t evil or wrong. It just has to be done carefully… the right way… for the right reasons.

There’s been a rash in the past few years (or maybe I’m just noticing it because my girls are the right age) of “tween” movies that do remakes of songs that were hits when I was young. Frequently I will be watching a DVD with my girls, and interrupting to dig out my own CDs to show them what “Changes” and “Somebody to Love” originally sounded like. I catch myself telling the girls how old their mother was when the song first came out, or how much older than their mother the song is… It really freaks them out when, every now and then, I’ll tell them that a song they like, was popular when their Bita, my mother, was a teenager. Their eyes get wide, as though they didn’t realize there even was music back then. Me, I’m just happy that they like anything other than the flood of country they always hear when they’re with their grandmother. And now that Miah is back with her old babysitter, I’m thrilled to hear her sing along, “Try to set the night on… FY-UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” or ask me, “Mommy, do you know the song with the Twentieth Century Fox?” And the fact that all four of us bop along happily every time “Pour Some Sugar on Me” comes on, makes my heart swell with pride. No matter what, it seems these girls really are my kids…