Jun 262011
It started innocently enough: A friend was calling tech support and had been on hold for some time. He chronicled his wait on Facebook, I responded by posting a link to The Nerves’ “Hanging On The Telephone.” I know it’s a great song, but I had no idea there was such a vast array of cover versions of the song.
Here are the results of a little digging for covers of this song, and this is not including all of the videos of bands covering the tune in bars, parties and other gigs. This is studio versions only. Some stay close to the original (or to Blondie’s much more well-known version) and some stray away – often to their own peril.
So set aside some time and enjoy…
- The Nerves
- Blondie
- Def Leppard
- Cat Power
- Eutopia
- Micadelia
- Sinergy
- Charlie Drown
- The Jolly Boys
- Schlong
- Girls Aloud
- L7
- Davila 666
- Kurt Baker
- Fourty Winks
- Acid Reign
- Hey
- The Cuban Boys
- The Richies
- The Atomics
Impressive compilation, cher!
Is there another song that has such a good skeletal structure and has been covered in so many different styles?
Schlong.
God that’s awful.
There seem to be a number that play it pretty safe, so I wonder if anybody has any (positive) feelings about some of the more far-out versions.
Cat Power. I so don’t get it.
A group called Waycross do I nice slow dramatic version. A couple of folks from this group also put out that cover of the entire “Tasking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)
I’ve hardly had a chance at this, but this is great work!
Yeah this is good. I haven’t listened to all of them, but what’s clear is that speeding it up doesn’t work. I hadn’t heard the Jolly Boys’ version, but I like it.
It was also good to hear the Nerves’ version again and to marvel at the economy of it. The riff the guitar plays during the verses is crucial, and a lot of the punkier versions dispense with it at their peril.
The Jayhawks and/or Golden Smog played this one live at a show I saw in the mid-late 90’s.