Rhino’s Got You Covered: Duran Duran, Seal, Adrian Belew, and Afghan Whigs

It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to take another dip into the Rhino catalog and trot out a new quartet of cover songs that you may or may not have heard before. Let’s get started, shall we?

•    Duran Duran, “Perfect Day” (1995): Although it would be fair to say that Duran Duran’s covers album THANK YOU was not exactly greeted with universal acclaim upon its initial release, no less an authority than Lou Reed himself declared this to be “the best cover ever completed of one of my own songs.” And who are you to argue with Laughin’ Lou?

•    Seal, “Back Stabbers” (2012): Seal’s spent a fair amount of time over the past few years delivering covers albums, including two volumes worth of classic R&B tunes, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say that this may well be the single best song between the two LPs. It’s damned near perfect.

•    Adrian Belew, “Not Alone Anymore” (1990): There haven’t been many Traveling Wilburys covers over the years, so it’s even more unlikely that Belew would’ve done one so soon after the original album was released and more unlikely still that he would’ve picked an album track. The fact that he does Roy Orbison’s original vocal performance justice is even more impressive. So what are you waiting for? Go listen!

•    Afghan Whigs, “My World Is Empty Without You / I Hear a Symphony” (1993): To be honest, what we really wanted to spotlight in this spot was Afghan Whigs’ cover of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” but- alas, alack – it’s not on Spotify. Thankfully, this live radio performance of a Supremes medley is there to pick up the slack. Never let it be said that Greg Dulli doesn’t have the pipes of an R&B singer.