I woke up Monday morning to Mr. Cher Scholar first thing telling me about Richard Thompson’s compelling cover of the Britney Spears’ song “Oops I Did It Again” from his live album 1000 Years of Popular Music.

Mr. Cher Scholar knows I love cool reproductions of derided pop songs. I’ve even started cobbling together a list on YouTube which now includes the following:

  1. The Baseballs doing an Elvis-esque rendition of Rhianna’s “Umbrella”
  2. Ike and Tina Turner drawing out the eroticism often overlooked in The Archie’s misleadingly sappy-sounding “Sugar Sugar.”
  3. Ben Folds fierce cover of Kesha’s “Sleazy”
  4. Cake’s making practically a thesis defense of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”
  5. Ray Charles taking on Melanie’s “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma”
  6. Shonen Knife doing a Japanese punk version of The Monkees “Daydream Believer”
  7. Red Hot Chili Peppers revisiting the funk disco of “Love Rollercoaster” by The Ohio Players
  8. Ten Fé doing an indie cover of TLCs “Waterfalls”
  9. Richard Thompson’s historical cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops, I Did It Again”

There are a plethora of other reinventions of the maligned. Just spend a bit of time on any indie-covers channel on your chosen streaming service. A lot of interesting and creative things often happen in the instrumental bridges. See “Waterfalls” example above.

And this inspired me to take another spin through the covers of “Believe:”

  1. MNEK’s house music version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbrYaCK-nOI)
  2. Robbie Fulks’ country version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB4GG979qnw)
  3. Mida’s indie version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYkKjtHkQfQ)
  4. Pomplamoose’s indie version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5IuaORFmI)
  5. Hannah Trigwell’s singer-songwriter version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Dyfg3CjDw)
  6. Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies’ punk(ish) version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svSg-i7xRTc (including an autotune spoof)
  7. Macha Loved Bedhead’s experimental post-rock version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZYkrY9yxC0)
  8. Janet Devlin’s singer-songwriter version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOE_-Rk5RBY)
  9. Manchester Orchestra’s indie version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6unXb9BAFk)
  10. Aaron Richards’ melancholy dance version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g5nOcFWyV4)
  11. Jake Owen’s country version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbcprCxvHzI)
  12. Ellen Henderon’s X-Factor version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTbcO9qaE5g)
  13. Jeffrey Austin’s searing The Voice version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-xc12YiwmI)
  14. Adam Lambert’s sweet yet intense Kennedy Honors tribute version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PzQHZLiUPs),

Enjoy!