It seems like forever since we’ve had a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” on here. Let’s fix that. This one is a little different than the previous ones though; it’s an instrumental. And a semi-avant-garde jazz one at that. Here’s Yaron Herman desconstructing “Toxic” and building it back as something completely different:
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A general rule of thumb: any song will sound more suave when sung with a French accent. For example, Yael Naim’s cover of “Toxic” is 137 times cooler than the original. To test that rule, here’s a cover of Michael Sembello’s 80s classic “Maniac”, from the movie Flashdance, covered by two French guys playing acoustic jazz guitar:
Tonight another year silently slips into the mists of memory like mime into quicksand. And to celebrate, here’s what those of us a PCWEI think are the best things to remember about 2008:
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Entry #721 in our ongoing series of “Toxic” covers comes from Swedish girly-pop/soul group Those Dancing Days. I dig using a hammond organ for the main riff, and lead singer Linnea Jönsson’s voice suits “Toxic” perfectly. Yet another case of a cover better than the original.
“Toxic”
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Here’s a soulful take on “Toxic”, performed by a Dutch teenager named Hannie (or RockingDudette, if you speak YouTube). When you’re done watching this one, go check out some of her other covers. They’re all good, particularly the Amy Winehouse one.
I’m a little worried that I’m becoming obsessed with this song. After all, this is the second DUTCH cover of it I’ve posted. But I’m going to go with it.
Here’s another in our continuing series of covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. This one is performed by Dutch singer Stevie Ann, live in a radio studio. It’s a slow, sultry version, and yet another example of how this is actually a good song once you remove Britney from the equation…
It’s been a little while since we featured a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”, so here’s one by bluegrass virtuosos Nickel Creek. They have a lot of fun with the performance, and the song itself is actually pretty good. Once again I’ll say that in the hands of decent musicians this is actually a good song.
New Jersey is known for many things: The Sopranos, a lack of left turns, acid-washed jeans, guys with fake tans, medical waste on beaches. Musically it’s most famous sons are Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, and Bruce Springsteen. The Ergs! are about as far away from those all of these things as you can possibly get.
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YouTube user SweetAfton23, the ukulele player that we’ve featured covering Britney’s “Toxic” and Jonathon Coulton’s “Tom Cruise Crazy”, has posted an original song called “My Hope”. It’s very much in the vein of JoCo’s material (meaning it’s funny), and it very much kicks ass. Watch it below, then go leave a comment for her on YouTube.
For some reason I’m drawn to covers of glossy, over-produced pop songs. I like hearing the songs’ potential revealed as layers are stripped away. This is why I keep coming back to covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. The song has a great melody, but all the shit piled on top of it make the glossy pop poster girl’s version unlistenable. Not so for this version by French/Isreali singer Yael Naïm.
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Naim’s version a bazillion times better than Britney’s, but who would win a cat fight? Naim was in the Isreali Defence Force. Britney’s completely bat shit crazy. So I don’t know. But I know I’d pay to see it…
