Just two dudes feelin’ alright.
This tournament will often have two posts up at any given time, so you can still vote on Day 1 matchups until tomorrow at midnight.
Welcome to Day 2! You can listen to all of the songs here except for Sex on Fire, and vote in the comment section before 11:59pm on Thursday, November 27. There are plenty of old and plenty of mellow artists in this tournament, but our first matchup is all glitz and glamour:
#8 Sex on Fire (Beyonce) vs. #9 Toxic (Mark Ronson). Bey needs no intro. Neither does this Kings of Leon hit. For those who remember this song from our tourney a few years ago, we have a better version now. On the flip side, we’ve seen a lot of interesting Toxic covers over the years, but no one does Britney better than Mark Ronson, who was also the force behind Amy Winehouse’s cover of Valerie.
Play-in: More Than a Woman (Tavares) vs. You’ll Be a Woman Soon (Urge Overkill). It’s the battle of movie soundtracks! (Saturday Night Fever v. Pulp Fiction.) It’s also the battle of two of the great hitmakers of modern pop/rock, Barry Gibb (origin of the name, Bee Gees) v. Neil Diamond. Both writers took their own stabs at these songs, but the covers bring a bit more to the table.
Play-in: I Fought the Law (Clash) vs. Black Magic Woman (Santana). These are both classics, well-familiar to music fans. They both lost disappointingly early in the last Covers tournament, so making this matchup a play-in is a balancing act between seeking new blood and giving these legends another shot.
Play-in: Bohemian Rhapsody (Jake Shinabukuro) vs. Blitzkrieg Bop (Yo La Tengo). Instrumentals bring their own loveliness to the game. Here are two brilliant reinterpretations of classic radio songs by Queen and the Ramones.
#7 I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Creedence Clearwater Revival) vs. #10 Feelin’ Alright (Joe Cocker). Once you’re done voting on this one, treat yourself to John Belushi’s Joe Cocker duet with Joe Cocker. Feelin’ Alright was originally done by Traffic, an underrated 60s band featuring Steve Winwood, and Grapevine was of course done by Marvin Gaye, another 60s figure who may have become underrated at this point.
Living the Dream 
toxic-4
sex on fire- 5
woman soon- 6
more than woman- 2
black magic woman- 4
i fought the law- 5
bohemian- 5
blitzkreig- 5
feeling alright- 5
i heard it through the- 6
toxic-8
sex on fire- 6
woman soon- 8.5
more than woman- 7
black magic woman- 6
i fought the law- 9
bohemian- 4
blitzkreig- 7
feeling alright- 7
i heard it through the- 9
toxic-5
sex on fire- 4
woman soon- 6
more than woman- 4.5
black magic woman- 6
i fought the law- 10
bohemian- 7
blitzkreig-7.5
feeling alright- 8.5
i heard it through the- 7
toxic- 3
sex on fire- 3
woman soon- 7.5
more than woman- 4.5
it’s weird that i’m older than uma thurman’s character in pulp fiction, but i have vivid memories of being much younger when i first saw this. that whole scene makes more sense when you’re not in high school.
black magic woman- 6.5
i fought the law- 9.5
bohemian- 7
blitzkreig- 5
jeez bohemian rhapsody get’s a lot of points for pure virtuosity
feeling alright – 7.5
i heard it through the – 5.5
2 voters:
Toxic:
tspell: 2
Dr J: 2
More than a Woman:
tspell: 2
Dr J: 3
You’ll be a Woman
tspell: 7
Dr J: 2
I fought the Law:
tspell: 8
Dr J: 6
Black Magic Woman:
tspell: 10
Dr J: 6
Bohemian Rhapsody
tspell: 8
Dr J: 8
Blitzkrieg Bop
tspell: 6
Dr J: 5
I heard it through the grapevine
tspell: 10
Dr J: 10
Feeling Alright
tspell: 4
Dr J: 4
Toxic 2
Sex fire 8
Oof hate to seem too biased but I really dislike this toxic cover and bey made me like this song. Sorry!
Woman soon 3
More than a woman 6
Black magic woman 8
I fought the law 8.5- I relate 😦
Bohemian 4
Blitz 8.5
Feeling alright 7
Grapevine 10- This is perfection. It should win.
Me and Anna
toxic- 7.3 / 8.3
sex on fire- 6 / 7.9
woman soon- 7.5 / 7.8
more than woman- 9 / 7.5
black magic woman- 7
i fought the law- 9.4 /
bohemian- 6– the crescendo didn’t quite get pulled off
blitzkreig- 9–always been one of my favorite covers
feeling alright- 6.5
i heard it through the grapevine-9.3 this is a great jukebox bang for your buck
anna may revisit the rest of these later.
Toxic – 4.0
Sex on Fire – 7.0
More Than a Woman – 5.5
You’ll Be a Woman Soon – 7.0 – Not the original but better material to work with
I Fought the Law – 7.0 Never a Clash fan but this was good.
Black Magic Woman – 8.5 This was better.
Bohemian Rhapsody – 5.5 Love the song but you can take just so much uke.
Blitzkrieg – 6.5 Better performance but still an instrumental.
Grapevine – 7.5 CCR does this in fine style.
Feelin’ Alright – 7.0 Close but no cigar on this one.