When Rufus Wainwright took over Carnegie Hall for two nights a few months back to recreate Judy Garland’s classic concert of 1961, it was both an homage to her influence and an attempt to be be taken seriously as one of “the voices” of his generation. We’re huge fans of Rufus’s songwriting — few are as literate or ambitious — but walking out of that Carnegie show, we felt that, with some exceptions, his voice may be most spectacular when he is the one writing for it.
But that’s not stopping our favorite Wainwright from taking the Garland show to London’s Palladium (where Judy played a whopping 68 times) and Paris’s L’Olympia, for one-night-only engagements in February ’07. From his website:
Rufus will once again perform the legendary 1961 Judy Garland Carnegie Hall concert with a full orchestra under the direction of Stephen Oremus. He will visit the historic London Palladium where Judy Garland performed over 68 times on February 18, 2007. L?Olympia in Paris, another famed venue played by Judy, will host the show on February 20, 2007. Rufus will once again perform this renowned program in its entirety.
In fairness, Rufus-on-covers can be quite enjoyable, as on this Pet Shop Boys collab, from their live album Concrete, recorded earlier this year in London’s historic Mermaid Theater.
That awesome Lennon cover:
And a take on Leonard Cohen:
Any other worthy Rufus covers? Let us know.
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Hey, your mp3 feed isn’t working. I’m getting 404. Yeah, Rufus is great!
I’ve only ever been able to find a snippet, but his cover of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” from that Gap commercial is killer.
I’ve always thought of Rufus Wainright as the king of mediocre covers; two of the mp3s you list are perfect examples.
Across The Universe: fairly good cover, doesn’t add anything new and definitely not as good as Fiona Apple’s take on the tune.
Hallelujah: fairly good cover, doesn’t add anything new and DEFINITELY not as good as Jeff Buckley’s take on the tune.
For me, a cover is only succesful if it doesn’t make you want to listen to the original. If it does, then the artist is just re-hashing and there’s no need to actually put it on wax; maybe bust it out at a live show but not on a record.
i love his version of chelsea hotel #2
i think the cover of “Hallelujah” is great because it strips the song down to its basics; illustrating and highlighting just how perfect the song really is…
His covers of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” and “The Origin of Love” are pretty great.
rufus’ version is totally better than fiona’s.
Agreed. I love Rufus as much as the next guy (almost) but his “Across the Universe” is a cover of Fiona Apple’s and his “Hallelujah” is a cover of Jeff Buckley’s.
I know everyone thinks that Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” is godly but I think the best version of said song is JOHN CALE’s.
That said, the Rufus version of “The Origin of Love” is so good it hurts!
Does anyone know anything about a DVD or CD of the Carnegie Hall show(s) coming out before Xmas? Maybe I just dreamt that I heard they would.
“i think the cover of “Hallelujah” is great because it strips the song down to its basics” – matt
I would like to point out/remind you that Buckley’s version of the tune is nothing but him and a guitar. Trading the guitar for a piano really isn’t doing anything that much different. Not that it’s a bad cover. It’s decent. But no one can match Jeff’s soul. That man could bring a tear to Clint Eastwood’s eye, I’m sure of it.
His cover of “Careless Whisper” (also featuring Ben Folds) makes me laugh whenever I listen to it.
And his version of “The Origin of Love” is better than the original, especially because it lacks the bad grammar
His cover of Seth Swirsky’s “Instant Pleasure” is great. Also, his version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” which is the only holiday song I can tolerate, is available in full-length form on The McGarrigle Christmas Hour by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. I spent way too long looking for that after he sang it in the GAP ad (which is only marginally embarrassing), but it wasn’t commercially available until last Winter.
His cover of “Careless Whisper” (also featuring Ben Folds) makes me laugh whenever I listen to it.
And his version of “The Origin of Love” is better than the original, especially because it lacks the bad grammar
His cover of Seth Swirsky’s “Instant Pleasure” is great. Also, his version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” which is the only holiday song I can tolerate, is available in full-length form on The McGarrigle Christmas Hour by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. I spent way too long looking for that after he sang it in the GAP ad (which is only marginally embarrassing), but it wasn’t commercially available until last Winter.
He did a great version of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” on the Zoolander soundtrack. And another great version of “Le Roi Dy’s” (the opera) on the Myth of Fingerprints soundtrack.
I’m with Carlos on this one. JOHN CALE’s “Hallelujah” is by far the best.
Anyone heard Jeff Buckley’s cover of “I Against I”?
never seen him live, but in the leonard cohen movie.. whenever he performs it seems like he works with 3 notes. am i the only person who doesn’t think that’s that exceptional of a singer?
also, why did he get to perform 3 songs at that concert and all the other great artists only got one?
ALSO.. why is his song on the antony cd the only one that features his voice instead of antony’s??
WHY WHY WHY, RUFUS??
I have Rufus versions of “California,” “Last Cup of Coffee,” and “Over the Rainbow” from 2000 (I think).
But my favorite Rufus song is “April Fools.” Hands down.
“Everybody knows” from the Leonard cohen doc was pure genius… It was the only song in the whole movie totally rearranged and risky.
Those two french songs, bonus tracks on Want two, recorded live in montreal are also quite something. “Quand vous mourrez de nos amours” and “Coeur de parisienne” Personally not a fan of Gilles vigneault or Arletty but sung by Rufus and his mom and aunt, I simply adore it.
I agree with Lori — his Everybody Knows rhumba was phenomenal. Reminded me of Bob Dylan conga-ing up “One More Cup of Coffe for the Road” at Budokan. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, though.
jeff buckley > rufus wainwright
in every way
end of story
or rufus < jeff, depending on how you wanna frame it
I love Jeff Buckley as much as anybody, but he had a tendency to oversing [and sometimes ruin good] songs.
And Rufus – well, he is perfection.
I was at the show at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA where Ben Folds and Rufus played “Careless Whisper.” As a die-hard Wham! and George Michael fan, I about died when Ben started playing the opening chords, and I died again when Rufus came out to sing the chorus.
I’m not sure how relevant this is because it’s more Sean than Rufus, but I have a live recording of him covering This Boy by the Beatles with Sean Lennon that I absolutely love.
rufus does a cover of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 for this Love Speaks album that is pretty spectacular especially if you are familiar with the poem, or actually just the sonnet form in general.
He once did a cover of Harvest with Chris Stills that I find pretty good : http://rufus.jt.org/song.php?i=Harvest
I find it implausible, for several reasons, that Judy Garland performed at the London Palladium over 68 times on Feb 17, 2007.
I like Rufus but his voice, although technically good, doesn’t do much for me. I find it flat and lacking emotion. So him doing a song for song tribute of sorts to Judy – who in my opinion was one of the best vocalists to ever sing a note both in pure talent and her ability to emit passion and heartbreak and touch her audience – didn’t tempt me to buy a ticket.
That said, Fiona’s ATU owns.
I’ve always loved Rufus’ taken on his father’s “One Man Guy”.
Rufus does a great version of Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel no. 2 from the soundtrack to Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man. Also, Everybody Knows. Both worth a listen.