Cover Me: Three Superb Cover Songs from 40 Years Ago
Rate-A-Record returns
A few days ago I wrote a story about songs turning 40 this year, and roughly thirty seconds after publishing it I realized I should have made it my first Rate-A-Record piece of the New Year. With that opportunity missed, I wracked my brain for one to kick off 2024 right, and ultimately found my inspiration exactly where you would all expect: Bruce Springsteen.
This isn’t a Springsteen Rate-A-Record, however. The inspiration came from the 11th-best song on the Born in the U.S.A. album (just behind “Darlington County” and light years ahead of “Glory Days”): “Cover Me.” I have written stories about cover songs on several occasions, but never one focusing on covers that all came out the same year. Fortunately, there are three great ones that were released in 1984, so I get to atone for my earlier oversight.
Of the three here, there is one you surely know, one you almost surely do not, and one you’ll probably be surprised by if you were listening to this band’s hits back in ’84.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Rate-A-Record format, it was started by the inimitable Terry Barr in the summer of 2022 as a riff on the old American Bandstand segment (he probably never dreamed it would catch on like it has) and is quite straightforward: rate each song in the comments using the odd scale of 35 to 98.
Let’s get started with the one I said you surely know:
“Some Guys Have All the Luck” — Rod Stewart
Did you know this was a cover of a 1973 R&B hit by The Persuaders? I didn’t until I dove into the interwebs wormhole for this article; it was, in fact, a Top 40 hit for them. Rod did them one better, with his version peaking at #10 on the Billboard charts in 1984. It’s obviously not in the same class as “Maggie May” or “Reason to Believe,” but it’s miles better than his “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” disco phase.
“New Orleans” — Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
In researching this piece, I was not at all shocked to find a cover song from 1984 by the Queen of Covers, Joan Jett. A few years ago I wrote a story about my ten favorite covers she’s done, and had I been aware of it this one would have bumped her version of David Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel” from that list.
Originally from Gary U.S. Bonds’ 1961 debut album Dance ’Til Quarter to Three with U.S. Bonds (which featured the smash hit “Quarter to Three”), Jett’s 1984 version from her Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth album has the harder edge you would expect while still remaining true to the original. She really does make everything she sings better, as she proved with this cover of the theme song from The Mary Tyler Moore Show (yes, I am adding a bonus video; you don’t have to rate it).
“Born to Run” — Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Anyone alive in 1984 will remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood for the songs “Relax” and “Two Tribes” from their hit debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. What few know is that buried deep in the double album, the boys from Liverpool included a cover of The Greatest Song Ever. As an 18-year-old punk in ‘84, the only band that annoyed me more than Frankie Goes to Hollywood was Wham!, and when I saw that they had covered my beloved “Born to Run,” I was ready to riot. The guys who did “Relax?” Seriously? Yes, and I was not at all prepared for how good it really is.
Once you recover from your shock that I managed to yet again sneak “Born to Run” into a story, be sure to rate the songs in the comments. Tramps like us…
You can find my entire rate-A-Record series here:
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