And Balloon Boy Blew Up In My Hand

OK......this entry has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Balloon Boy hoax, but I didn't want to let a good headline go to waste.

Instead, let's talk about one of the greatest songs of the 90's. Perhaps one of the greatest of all time. How do I KNOW this? Well, personal opinion, for one thing. and also THIS fact: For a song that was released in 1997, it sure has a growing number of cover versions. The Beatles' "Yesterday" is the most covered song in history, having been recorded by over 3,700 artists. Massive Attack's "Teardrop" has a long way to go, but it has already amassed quite a number of interpretations. Most of us know this song because we hear it every week on Fox....It's the theme to "House". But you're only hearing the least interesting parts every Monday night at 8PM. Too bad they couldn't have included just a TAD bit of Liz Fraisier's vocals. Oh well. But the song IS really beautiful and being that the former lead singer of the Cocteau Twins' lyrics are usually incoherent, cover versions of anything she does seem almost impossible. Still....these brave souls have tried to duplicate the magic. Here are 3 covers, in order of preference from best to worst.

ELBOW - "TEARDROP" . Out of all the artists who have taken a stab at this ethereal track, Elbow come the closest to creating something unique and beautiful with it. And he mumbles a bit too.....just like Liz.

Jose Gonzalez - "Teardrop"

And now for something completely different. For a Spanish lilt to this tune, check out Jose's version. I like this...........

And now for Simple Mind's new version of "TEARDROP". This is from the newly released album of covers called "Graffiti Soul". On this release they cover everything from Siouxsie & The Banshees' "Christine" to Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World". I'm not going to say anything bad about Jim Kerr's version of this song.......but I'm not going to say anything good about it either.