Tunesmith,

I know exactly what you are saying, and I think that this is a good topic for a discussion. Unfortunately, I can't think of specific examples right at this moment to add to your ideas, but give me a little time and I'll remember some renditions which really have knocked my socks off because of the change of flavour added by the artist.

Wait, I just thought of a whole CD's worth of examples. Have you ever heard a CD or seen the video/tv programme called Red, Hot + Blue? It is Cole Porter's songs reworked by popular singers. One of my favourites is Tom Waits doing It's All Right With Me. This song actually turned me into a Tom Waits fan, but it took maybe 30 or more listens to get "into" what he does. I love almost every track on the CD because the songs themselves are good songs to start with, but then each artist or group has invested the song they have performed with a totally new way of performing it which breaks through the invisible barriers placed there by previous performers. They are too varied to talk about any one of the tracks because there is so much to say about all of the tracks.

There is another CD with the same basic concept based on Gershwin songs called Red Hot + Rhapsody. I haven't had that one very long so I am still getting into the feeling of it.

Helen