Tag Archive for 'Madonna'

Odes to Rain

It’s been raining and freezing here in San Francisco, and that got me thinking about the emotional effects weather can have on people. Some feel refreshed and invigorated after running in the rain, some curl up by the fireplace and read a book, some whine about bad drivers and wet socks…

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Weather – and rain specifically – has surely inspired more than a few artists to write music. Let’s get nostalgic and take a look at some odes to rain from years gone by.

Gene Kelly – “Singin’ in the Rain”

Beatles – “Rain”

Dinah Washington – “September in the Rain”

CCR – “Who’ll Stop the Rain”

Led Zeppelin  – “The Rain Song”

Milli Vanilli – “Blame it on the Rain”

Madonna – “Rain”

Missy Elliot – “The Rain”

Blind Melon = “No Rain”

And of course, one of YouTube’s own celebrities…

Tay Zonday – “Chocolate Rain”

Got any others? Leave a comment.

How to Make an Old Song New

I love cover songs. Maybe it’s the awesome local 80’s cover band who woos their audience with their uncanny ability to emulate everyone from Journey to Madonna and still make each song their own. Or maybe it’s a well-known artist covering a well-known song to make something deliciously different.

There are myriad ways to make an old song new: speed it up and add a dance beat, change the genre to something unexpected – say, Frank Sinatra done as Dancehall, add/remove instruments and vocals, throw in some exotic scales to give the song a more worldly sound. Or…

You could do this.

If you need a frame of reference and want to hear the original song, “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple, here ya go: