Hopefully everyone enjoyed a lovely fall weekend (for those of you not on the east coast, you missed a beaut’). Mondays after lovely weekends tend to suck, which is why I thought it was particularly important to pick out tunes capable of lifting you up on what might otherwise be a rude return to the working week.
Today's set is the cure for your case of the you-know-whats.
Without further ado, here are your matchups for the Round of 128, part the eleventh. Songs are here, except for Natural Woman, which is here, and You Shook Me All Night Long, which is here. Votes are due by Tuesday at 9pm EST.
Round one presents a showdown between two latter-day soul divas: Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson team up to cover the Zutons’ Valerie, while Adele returns with her take on Aretha Franklin/Carole King’s Natural Woman.
In round two, we have another match-up in which a band goes up against one of its own songs. Ike and Tina Turner soup-up the Credence Clearwater original, Proud Mary, while CCR attempts to out-scream Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in I Put a Spell On You. All of you CCR fans out there will have to decide what you like better: the singer or the song.
In my younger days I would have given you all the bird for nominating only one song off my critically acclaimed American Recordings albums. Instead, I'll just give you this withering look.
In our third match-up, we find two members of country music royalty adapting selections from the modern rock canon. Dolly Parton performs a decidedly un-grungy version of Collective Soul’s Shine, while the Man In Black, Johnny Cash, covers Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down (Petty is backing up Cash here, but the Commission on Covers has decided to let this slide). Shockingly, I Won’t Back Down was the only nomination from Cash’s well-received American Recordings.
Finally, we end today’s round on a mellower note, with two female vocalists giving the treatment to songs from different ends of rock’s chronological spectrum. Leslie King offers up a toned down interpretation of ACDC’s eighties power chord anthem You Shook Me All Night Long, while Cat Power finishes off the set with her tender rendition of 1950s hit Sea of Love.
Grooveshark link here.
Pastable (with embedded youtube links for Natural Woman and You Shook Me All Night Long):
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele)
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival)
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash)
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power)
Living the Dream 
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 7 / 6
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 7.5 / 7
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 7.5 / 7
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) 2.5 / 5
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) – 6/2
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) – 5/6
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) – 7/6.5
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) – 3/4
This set of songs totally hit the spot this morning. Thank you!
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) – 8.5
Natural Woman (Adele) – 6.5
I liked Adele’s version, but it felt sort of flat. Amy totally owned Valerie. Love it.
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) – 8
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) – 6
“We never, ever do nothing nice and easy” The intro to this song gets me every time. While this CCR song sounds good and always feel appropriate around Halloween, I don’t love it.
Shine (Dolly Parton) – 9.5
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) – 8
Shine is my nomination, and I love, love, love it. I first heard this song (on a mixtape from a friend – yes!) when I was working on a ranch in Colorado. Every time I hear this song now, I think of singing along to it as I drove my old pick up truck (named The Beast) too fast on a winding red-dirt mountain road, seeing sunlight coming through aspens and pine trees, and amazing views of The Rockies. Dolly’s voice totally works with this song, and really makes you feel the lyrics. Nickel Creek is also amazingly talented backing her up. It is just all sorts of awesome.
Tough match up though. I love everything off this Johnny Cash album – and he did a great job with this song.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) – 4.5
Sea of Love (Cat Power) – 3.5
meh.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 7 / 5
Amy Winehouse keeps surprising me.
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 3 / 4
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 8 / 5
Loved Shine.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) 3 / 5.5
Votes are from ChrisB and Carolyn, respectively.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) – 7.6, 8.7
Natural Woman (Adele) – 6, 6
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) – 7, 9.8
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) – 5.5, 6.5
Shine (Dolly Parton) – 8,8.5
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) – 8.5,8
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) 1, 4 This cover is about as lame as when Celine Dion did it. In fact, songs like this is probably why Lillith Fair died.
Sea of Love (Cat Power) 2, 3.8
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 7/2
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 6/5
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 9.5/8.5
I think both of these should have gone deep in this tourney; it’s a shame one has to go now.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) 5/8
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 8.5 to 7.0
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 9.5 to 8.5
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 2.5 to 7.0
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) 5.0 to 7.0
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 8.5 to 6.0
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 8.0 to 8.5
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 3.0 to 5.5
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) 2.5 to 5.5
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele) 7/2
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 6/4
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 9.5/8.5
It’s a bummer that both of these can’t move on.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power) /8.5
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) 6
Natural Woman (Adele) 2
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) 5.5
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 6.5
Shine (Dolly Parton) 9.2
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 10
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) 7
Sea of Love (Cat Power) 9
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) 8 How good is this?
Natural Woman (Adele) 3
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) 7
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 8
I felt bad pairing this two together because they’re both pretty good, but it’s a nice contrast.
Shine (Dolly Parton) 6
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 7 Not my favorite tune off the American albums, but Cash needs to represent at least into the second round.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) 2
Sea of Love (Cat Power) 10 I didn’t nominate this, but I’ve had it floating in my head since I posted on Sunday. It’s really lovely.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) 7.5
Natural Woman (Adele) 3.8
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) 7
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 6.2
Shine (Dolly Parton) 8
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 10
Too early, not fair.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) 4
Sea of Love (Cat Power) 7
Studying/doing homework with Kelsie, and she had her scores all good to go, and then clicked to listen to the Leslie King song, and lost them. Maybe have all links open in new tabs! Kelsie says thank you.
I already voted, so votes are just for Kelsie:
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele): 9 / 3
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival): 7.5 / 6
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash): 8.5 / 3
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power): 7.5 / 8
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele): 9.2 : 5.7
Amy f’in kills it. Adele has a great voice, but the cover’s a bit monotonous.
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 7.3: 9.4
Ha, clever match-up. There was about a 30-45 second run where Ike and Tina were tearing it up, but the whole song doesn’t hold together. CCR took the best of Screamin Jay and added some sweet swamp rock guitar work in the middle. Fit the lyrics perfectly.
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash)- 7.4 : 7.6
Shine was plenty pleasant. I’ll give Cash the slight nod, though.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power): 7.1 : 6
Shook Me has grown on me significantly since the play-in.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele): 7.5/4.5
Don’t get me wrong, Adele is singing it well, I just don’t like the song.
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival): 7/8.5
Isn’t this another one of those songs where the artists did a cover and made it truly their own? I think so Ike and Tina. (Ado do do do do!) I think it took until I was in college before I realized that the CCR version wasn’t the cover.
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash): 6.5/8.5
Dolly, Shine seems like a whole other song.
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power):9/5
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) vs Natural Woman (Adele)
9.5/7
I love Amy’s Valerie. So good. Amy had such a great voice. Against just about anything else, Adele would win. But she’s no match for Amy.
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) vs I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival)
5/6
Shine (Dolly Parton) vs I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash)
6.5/6.25
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) vs Sea of Love (Cat Power)
4/8
Good to be back! So many songs missed… so many beatdowns I could have taken part in… on the losing side.
Valerie (Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson) 5
Natural Woman (Adele) 1.5
Proud Mary (Ike and Tina Turner) 8.5
I Put a Spell On You (Credence Clearwater Revival) 9
Man this hurts… wish it were in a later round
Shine (Dolly Parton) 6
I Won’t Back Down (Johnny Cash) 7
You Shook Me All Night Long (Leslie King) 5.5
Sea of Love (Cat Power) 2.5