Sunday, January 25, 2009

Double Take of the Week - A House Is Not A Home

"A House is Not a Home"

Written by Burt Bacharach

Original performance by Dionne Warwick (1964)



Cover by Luther Vandross (1981)


Verdict:

This is one of the rare cases where the cover artist establishes the new standard. Vandross killed this one. Not taking anything away from Warwick, who was probably Luther Vandross’ main musical inspiration. He retouched several of Warwick’s recordings. But he really remade this song and made it his own.

These double takes are something new that I will try to post once a week…. I will try to find tube videos of original tracks to compare them with prominent remakes…. I was bored at work one day this week… and came up with about 40 songs for my list. I will probably only be able to find 2 videos (including an original) for only half that many. So suggestions are welcomed. I’d particularly like more suggestions from the Blues, Pop and Rock genres.

2 comments:

rikyrah said...

Luther owns this.

Period.

Anonymous said...

How about 'I believe in you & me', by the Four Tops and later by Whitney Houston?