The theme of the Yankee Swap this year was "Recycled Christmas" so I assembled (with editing help from Emily) an all-covers mix:
- "I Saw Her Standing There" The Smithereens recorded their own song-by-song remake of Meet The Beatles, called Meet The Smithereens.
- "Don’t Bring Me Down" (Live) The New Pornographers covering the ELO classic, Live from Soho.
- "Hackensack" (Live) Katy Perry unplugged, covering Fountains of Wayne. Who knew she had such good taste?
- "Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic" From Shawn Colvin's all-covers album Cover Girl
- "Burning Down the House" A terrific remake of The Talking Heads from Bonnie Raitt's live Road Tested album. Perhaps the most radical remake of the mix.
- "It's My Life" It's great to hear a remake of a New Wave one-hit wonder, especially so well done by No Doubt.
- "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" Wilco covers Steely Dan for the Me, Myself, and Irene movie soundtrack.
- "This Charming Man" Death Cab For Cutie increases the tempo on this Smiths classic. From their CD You Can Play These Songs With Chords.
- "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing Baby" An Ashford & Simpson oldie from Michael McDonald's Motown album.
- "Everyday Is A Winding Road" Who knew Prince was a Sheryl Crow fan?
- "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" Annie Lennox covers The Clash on her all-covers CD Medusa.
- "Teenage Dream" This a capella cover of Katy Perry might be the most exciting performance I've ever heard on the TV show Glee.
- "People Get Ready" In the a capella theme, The Housemartins cover Curtis Mayfield's song on their album London 0 Hull 4 (that might be a soccer reference?)
- "High & Dry" British wunderkind jazz pianist Jamie Cullum covers Radiohead on this album Twentysomething.
- "Mrs. Robinson" The Lemonheads' cover of Simon & Garfunkel was a late addition to their album It's A Shame About Ray... after it was a surprise hit as a standalone single.
- "Whole Lotta Love" Carlos Santana's manager must have noticed there's two types of albums which aging icons sell well-- covers albums and collaborations. Why not put them together for Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time? Chris Cornell was born to sing Led Zeppelin.
- "...Baby One More Time" I think Fountains Of Wayne covered Britney Spears ironically. From their odd-and-ends collection Out-Of-State Plates.
- "I Will Survive" I know for certain that Cake covered this Gloria Gaynor disco classic ironically. From their CD Fashion Nugget.
- "In Between Days" Ben Folds covers the awesome Cure song on his EP Speed Graphic.
- "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" Ray Charles & Elton John duet on Ray's album Genius Loves Company.
- "More Than This" The Charlie Hunger Quartet are joined by Norah Jones on the Roxy Music song, on their CD Songs from the Analog Playground.
- "Green Onions" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover the Booker T & The MG's instrumental -- best known as the song they play during pitching changes at baseball games -- on their Live Anthology box set.
