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All Along the Watchtower
Hendrix keeps Bob Dylan's cryptic verses and the descending chord cycle. The guitar fills the gaps left by Dylan's folk arrangement, to the point where the solos feel like another voice in the story.
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(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Devo trades the Rolling Stones' famous guitar riff for tight, offbeat drums and prickly bits of guitar. The repeated line still sounds exasperated, though the clipped delivery makes Mick Jagger's complaint feel more like a nervous tic.
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Personal Jesus
Cash takes Depeche Mode's synth-rock hit back to the blues shape of its riff. The strum keeps that phrase within reach while Cash's dry low voice makes the familiar invitation sound very personal.
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In Bloom
Simpson sings Nirvana's grunge melody as a country-soul ballad. The brass builds where the distorted guitars used to surge. You can follow the same broad lift into the chorus even as the performance grows tender.
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I Will Survive
CAKE puts the chords of Gloria Gaynor's disco hit under a dry, almost conversational vocal. The bass sets a new pace, but the melody still rises into the declaration that gives the song its name.
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Gloria
Patti Smith folds her own spoken lines into Van Morrison's garage-rock song. The riff gathers force underneath her, and the spelled-out name eventually lets you hear where Them's single fits inside the new performance.
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Walk On By
Isaac Hayes gives the Bacharach and David song Dionne Warwick recorded an extended psychedelic soul arrangement. The title melody arrives after a long introduction and keeps returning as a point of recognition amid the guitar and orchestral swells.
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Killing Me Softly With His Song
Lauryn Hill carries the vocal shape familiar from Roberta Flack's version over a hip-hop beat. The little answering interjections make the refrain feel shared, even as Hill holds on to the intimacy of one person singing about another.
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Rock El Casbah
Rachid Taha sings the Clash song in Arabic and brings its bounce into his raï-rock sound. Listen for the familiar shape of the title refrain. It carries you through a change in language as well as a change in rhythmic feel.
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Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Joy Division song becomes a light bossa nova arrangement, with quiet acoustic strums replacing the driving post-punk beat. The title melody keeps its melancholy shape, which makes the softness of the new performance feel a little uneasy.
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How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
The Bee Gees' pop ballad settles into Memphis soul. Al Green stretches the title question and lets his voice hover or retreat while the band holds the chords. The waiting changes who seems to be asking the question.
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Stairway to Heaven
Parton keeps the rising melody and long build of Led Zeppelin's song. Her bluegrass setting shifts the climax toward gathered gospel voices, so the end sounds like something a whole room has arrived at together.
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Common People
Shatner speaks much of Pulp's Britpop single so the awkward pauses and mounting anger take center stage. Joe Jackson keeps its sung melody in the mix. The contrast makes the chorus feel like an answer to Shatner's story.
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Here Comes the Sun
Nina Simone takes George Harrison's Beatles song into an orchestral soul setting. She lets her voice linger on the familiar rising phrase while the arrangement opens around it, making the song's relief sound hard-won.
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Time
Easy Star All-Stars keep the sung melody of Pink Floyd's "Time" over a reggae pulse. Ranking Joe's toasting brings a new rhythmic voice into the spaces between those familiar lines. Choose the song on Dub Side of the Moon to hear both.
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Umbrella
The Baseballs put Rihanna's R&B-pop hit into a rockabilly shuffle with answering voices. The title hook is still easy to sing along with. Its repeated last syllables sound at home in a style built to pass phrases between singers.
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Heart of Glass (Live from the iHeart Festival)
Cyrus keeps the high melody of Blondie's disco hit and sings it against a much rougher live rock backing. When she leans into the ends of phrases, the bright tune stays recognizable through the change in attack.
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Heartbeats
The Knife's synth-pop beat becomes a repeating figure on acoustic guitar. The notes pick out the rhythm under González's quiet voice, leaving enough of the Swedish duo's vocal melody intact for you to sing it along with him.
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Tainted Love
Gloria Jones's Northern soul favorite becomes synth-pop with a slower, more insistent pulse. The little keyboard accents take over from the band, and Marc Almond keeps the urgent rise in the vocal melody.
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I Can't Stop Loving You
Ray Charles preserves the short, direct tune of Don Gibson's country song. He turns it into a much larger soul performance, with the choir sustaining the familiar lines as his own voice pulls and pushes against them.
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Landslide
The Chicks put bluegrass instruments and vocal harmonies around the fingerpicked pattern and reflective melody of the Fleetwood Mac song. The blend of voices gives Stevie Nicks's solitary question a feeling of shared experience.
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