Friday, May 22, 2015

33 Non-English Covers Of English Songs (continued)

This is the second half of the list. For the first half of the list click HERE.








Spanish


Beatriz Luengo - Alguien
Cover of Kings of Leon's 'Use Somebody'

Did you realize that your life was missing an acoustic, Spanish version of a Kings of Leon song? No? Okay, it's probably not, but here's one to explode you mind-holes anyway.





Santiago - Kokomo
Cover of Beach Boys' 'Kokomo'

We'd like to think Brian Wilson is smiling down from heaven, giving his thumbs up to this version. Yes, we know he's not dead. We still like picturing it though.





SINIESTRO TOTAL: Miña terra galega
Cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama'

We hope this version is big in Spain so that they too can experience the pain of every amateur guitarist trying to play it.






Chinese



Dawen 王大文 - Creep
Cover of Radiohead's 'Creep'

Of all the international covers of Radiohead, this was our favorite. Plus there's a link under the video on youtube to download a free MP3 of the song. Now you can be a creep in Chinese!





林憶蓮 - 激情
 (Sandy Lam - Passion)
Cover of Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away'

Holy 80's Batman! This cover did little to differentiate itself from the original, except of course for the fact that it's in Chinese. Chinese-Goose, Nooo!





Japanese



Saijo Hideki -Young Man 
Cover of Village People's 'Y.M.C.A.'

If you ever wondered why Village People wrote this song, this is the reason. It was always destined to be covered in Japanese.





MACO - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Cover of Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'

Not a fan of Taylor Swift? Well, prepare to...probably not be a fan of this pretty straightforward cover. Love Taylor? Then you'll love Japanese-Taylor (she probably prefers to be called Maco).





French


Claude Francois - Ce Monde Absurde
Cover of Barry McGuire's 'Eve of Destruction'

With all due respect to Barry, when the apocalypse happens, it'll likely be in French.






Gael Boom - Mirrors
Cover of Justin Timberlake's 'Mirrors'

It's true what they say, Justin Timberlake's music just translates better into French. Sure, our French is a little rusty, but that only helps.





Eileen - Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher
Cover of Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'

What are boots made for if not for walking? This French version is not any closer to answering the eternal question.





Tukuleur - Afrika
Cover of Toto's 'Africa'

The singer of this cover is from Senegal, which if memory of our second grade geography lessons serves us right, is located in Africa. 





Swedish


Anni-Frid Lyngstad - Liv Pa Mars?
Cover of David Bowie's 'Life on Mars'

David Bowie is always best when covered by other artists, and this is no exception. If you ever wanted to learn Swedish, the Youtuber who posted this was kind enough to include translated lyrics. 






Jonathan Johansson - Alla vill ha hela världen
Cover of Tears For Fears' 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'

You remember the 80's? Well, they're back, and this time, they're Swedish (as if they weren't anyway).





Greek

Protopsalti Alkistis - Ola auta pou Fovamai
Cover of Nickelback's 'How You Remind Me'
We're not sure even covering it in Greek can make Nickelback good, but it sure helps a lot. Plus, dig this crazy video. Silly people, when there's lightning, you should play inside.






Arabic



MC Rai - Everybody Hurts
Cover of REM's 'Everybody Hurts'

Tunisian born artist MC Rai delivers the Arabic version of REM's hit song you said could never be done. But it is done. And you were wrong, yet again.





Punjabi


Cornershop - Norwegian Wood
Cover of The Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood'

Technically speaking, Cornershop is a London based group. That said, the brothers who formed the group are Indian, and this amazing cover of the Beatles' classic is sung in Punjabi.





Estonian


Jaak Joala - Öö Chicagos
Cover of Paper Lace's 'The Night Chicago Died'

Nothing quite like listening to Estonians singing a British song about a gang war in Chicago, where the history and geography is based on gangster films. No, seriously, what is like that?




That's it for our list. We hope you enjoyed globe trotting with us. If you have any suggestions for non-English covers, let us know in the comments.


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4 comments:

  1. Sweet Home Alabama probably loses something in translation...

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  2. This is very fascinating because a lot of these songs lose nothing in the translation. Music is universal. I often think of the success of Gungnam Style which is completely in a language 90% of people in the U.S. don't understand but the music and the feeling it creates is universal. I do like the Gael Boom - Mirrors cover especially.

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  3. It's amazing how well some of them translate. I enjoy quite a few of them as well for what the artist does with the song. And I agree, Gael Boom's cover is fantastic.

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  4. That one does lose a little bit when it's not in Alabama and the scores of amateur guitar players drown it out. LOL

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