Everybody Hurts

This. 

This is how it's done. This is a cover. 

“I could really feel the heaviness of the song and I wanted to inject a little touch of hope and light into it,” Green said in a statement. “There’s always a presence of light that can break through those times of darkness.”

Mission more than accomplished, Reverend. 

 Michael Stipe added, on behalf of R.E.M., that “this is an epic moment for us.”

So say we all. 

The Star-Spangled Banner

After all these years, still surprising, still so cool.

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

There is so much to love about this clip. In fact, there is absolutely nothing not to love.

Carole King's out of her skull joy.

The president crying before the song's even 30 seconds in.

The Queen of Soul's piano playing, of which there is never ever ever enough. (Dear Unplugged people: why in the hell didn't you get her? Justifiably afraid no other would ever come close to measuring up?)

How she owns the lower register for the first 2/3rds the song, leading one to understandably recognize that she's 73 and no longer has the force of nature vocal chords she did as a young woman but can still more than bring all the emotion any singer could ever dream of?

Or when she stands up and shows that, yeah, no, she may have lost a few miles per hour off her fastball but she can still bring the heat with all the authority there is.

Or maybe it's at the end, when George Lucas, standing next to Carole King, is clearly thinking, "well...shit. My tribute wasn't nearly that awesome." Don't feel bad, George. Nobody's was. Nobody's could be.

People Get Ready

Just how great is Aretha Franklin? Words cannot adequately describe. But here's one indication—this amazing cover of the great Impressions song:

The thing isn't so much how great her cover is, although of course it is. Even by Lady Soul's incredibly lofty standards, it's great. But what struck me recently is that it barely even gets mentioned when the song is discussed. Not because her version isn't fantastic, but because fantastic is what we expected from The Divine Miss F, every single time. Fantastic is her baseline standard.

That's how great.

I Feel Good

I have often said that the first woman I ever truly loved was Batgirl. Sure, I was only 4.5 years old at the time, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and I think time has proven my ardent passion was not misdirected.

But if there's any human in the entire world I could understand, even respect and approve of being passed over for, it's the Godfather of Soul.

Frankly, I think the world is worse off for the fact that (as far as we know) they didn't have a bunch of kids. Can you imagine the offspring of these two? Surely, sartorially, at least—to say nothing of their talent, vision and appearance—they would have been unmatched.

Tryin' to Live My Life Without You

Self-awareness can be a wonderful thing.

“I was not impressed,” Henley said of “American Wedding” in this new interview. “He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works. [He] doesn’t seem to understand U.S. copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can’t do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it’s against the law. That’s a problem with some of the younger generation, they don’t understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright.

Aw...isn't that just adorbs? For Don Henley, of all famous rock stars, to get all hot and bothered about a smidge of borrowing?

Allow me to elucidate.

This? Is such a great song.

 No wonder the Eagles stole it.

Sure, the Eagles made who knows how many millions off their cover. (Well, "cover.") But I'll bet, at least now and then, in the long dark teatime of his soul, Henley can't help but think about the drumming of the great Howard Grimes on the original and knows he's never once played drums even a quarter that sweet, no matter how much he wishes he had. And the private jets and multiple mansions and cheering throngs tamp down the pain of that knowledge...but not entirely. 

Try a Little Tenderness

I am emphatically not saying this is my favorite version of this song, especially given that the Queen of Soul already, as Otis Redding himself put it, stole one song from him. (Not that he's the original writer of this one.)

But listening to Franklin's substitutions on this, it really hits you just how fine a jazz singer she could have been, had she chosen to go that route, rather than demolishing all contenders to the soul throne.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

I'd love to hear the good reverend record an album of nothing but covers of the likes of One Direction, Justin Bieber, the Backstreet Boys, and other popsters of today and yesteryear. Sure, it'd be a gimmick, but I can't help feeling he'd still hit homer after homer, and there'd be a certain thrill in just the spectacle of him taking light, fluffy pop—which, I hasten to add, I adore—and turn it into gem after gem.