How Not To Do a Cover Version

Some songs, of course, just simply should not be messed with.

Anyone who was unfortunate enough to hear Ed Sheeran and Anne-Marie, or even worse Ronan Keating and Moira Brennan’s versions of “Fairytale of New York” will know what I mean.

Here’s another song to add to that list. Many have tried. All have failed. I mean, why try and improve on perfection?

Take professional kookie indie girl Zooey Deschanel and M Ward’s stab at this, which they play with a straight bat, omitting the words “The”, “Chipmunk”, and “Song” from the title and steadfastly refusing to perform any of the lyrics in triple time:

She & Him – Christmas Don’t Be Late

And then there’s Tegan and Sara, who at least have the decency not to castrate the title, and have some chipmunk-y vocals:

Tegan and Sara –  The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)

I mean, they’re both perfectly acceptable, but they’re not this,  the closing track on that “Looney Tunes” compilation album I featured quite a lot a while ago, are they?:

David Seville and The Chipmunks – The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)

It amuses me greatly to think that somebody searching for Christmas songs by rapper Chipmunk may have just have stumbled across this and will either be very happy or very, very disappointed right now.

I suspect the latter.

More soon.