Elena and I are going to see the Wallflowers tomorrow, and after determining that Jakob Dylan’s voice held up over the last twenty years (it did), I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of 80’s and 90’s cover songs.
Full disclosure: I felt and still feel this is one of the most overrated tunes of the early 90’s. Sinead O’Connor’s voice was never really the right fit for it, though it’s essentially synonymous with her at this point. That said, I’d have to put this version into the top ten cover songs in recent history, simply because it beats out the original *and* is more true to the song than the most popular recording of the song.
If you listen to Prince’s version, then Sinead O’Connor’s, then this one…it’s pretty jarring how over-produced her sound was. Cornell’s cover takes an otherwise unremarkable song (even Prince’s version didn’t really earn fanfare until Sinead O’Connor covered it), dilutes the sugary lyrics, and makes it a legitimately good sound.
Edit 1: It’s oddly reminiscent of Johnny Cash covering Hurt. Obviously not to the same acclaim, but here’s how Reznor describes how that entire thing unfolded, and then realizing the song was no longer his:
“Rick Rubin has been a friend for a long time, and he called me asking how I felt about Johnny covering “Hurt.” I was flattered, but frankly, the idea sounded a bit gimmicky to me. I really didn’t put much thought into it, as I was working on something at the time and was distracted. A few weeks later, a CD shows up with the track. Again, I’m in the middle of something and put it on and give it a cursory listen. It sounded… weird to me. That song in particular was straight from my soul, and it felt very strange hearing the highly identifiable voice of Johnny Cash singing it. It was a good version, and I certainly wasn’t cringing or anything, but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else. Or something like that.
Anyway, a few weeks later, a videotape shows up with Mark Romanek’s video on it. It’s morning; I’m in the studio in New Orleans working on lack De La Rocha’s record with him; I pop the video in, and… wow. Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore.”