Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
A discussion about a 1980 synth-pop song that references the atomic bombing of Hiroshima may run the risk of being, unintentionally, too close to current world events. But the popular new wave band who recorded the original version happens to be in the news themselves because of a brand-new studio album, their thirteenth, that dropped on September 1st. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, also known as OMD, formed in 1978 in northwest England. Founding members Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey saw their first significant UK and US dance chart success with the release of “Enola Gay.” Named for the plane that dropped the first A-bomb ever dropped on a city, the McCluskey-penned antiwar dance track was the only single from their second album Organisation, and predated the success the band would experience in the late-‘80s with Top 20 hits like “If You Leave,” “Dreaming,” and “(Forever) Live and Die.”
“Enola Gay” has been ranked as one of the greatest songs of the ’80s by NME, and MusicRadar says that “its almost naive arrangement… includes some of the biggest synth hooks of all time.” But it turns out a good cover of “Enola Gay” doesn’t need a synthesizer. As you’ll see, the song has inspired a variety of cross-genre covers well worth sharing…
Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer have released a new record, Not Dark Yet. It has been out a week or two, and I’m surprised this hasn’t yet had much shout here, unless the sole original song discounts the inclusion of this consummate otherwise all-covers showpiece. Neither of the two sisters (for they are) are strangers to a cover, each producing an example within their already expansive repertoires, Shelby with her exquisite reimagining of Dusty Springfield on 2009’s “Just a Little Lovin’,” and Allison with her “Mockingbird” the year before.