I pass no judgements on people’s love of originals versus remakes of songs. Your vote is your vote. There’s some buzz today about an updated version of “Hazy Shade of Winter” for a new show on the CW. I love love love the opening grind of the Bangle’s version. It is frequently one of those songs I happen across in my library and then I play it twenty times in a day.
To set the stage, the original is from Simon & Garfunkel. It’s a fine song, but if I’m ever building a Top 10 playlist, it doesn’t make the cut:
Version Two from the Bangles is a real re-imagining that captured some of the original magic. Like I said, the opening riff is killer. I also like the random walk-out with the jingle bells in the video. Even more important was that it captured the frenetic energy of the movie “Less than Zero” that they recorded it for.
Version 3 is probably great if you’re not rooted in that late ’80s version. I would classify it more as an “update” than cover — a lot of it feels the same, but they took out some of the 80s-telltales, like the brass section. The minimalist video is also pretty good. The vocals have a flavor of a Pet Shop Boys West End Boys accent which adds some nice texture.