This week’s invitation from Jim for Song Lyric Sunday, in his post Transcending The Original, is to play a cover song that we think is better than the original. I really should be claiming this as an episode in my (very) occasional Under The Covers series, shouldn’t I! Having recently extolled the virtues of First To Eleven as one of my favourite covers bands I thought about going for one of theirs, but somehow that felt like I would be taking the easy way. So I’m going instead with a lovely version of a power pop song song from the Eighties. Trimmed down this has a delicate beauty that I think is much more enjoyable than the overblown bombast of the original.
The song I’m playing today is The Power Of Love. The title has been used for three songs that I’m aware of, by Huey Lewis and the News, Jennifer Rush, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Three very different songs, and this is Gabrielle Aplin’s version of the FGTH one:
And if you’d like the lyrics, these are they:
Ay, ay, ay, ay Feels like fire I’m so in love with you Dreams are like angels They keep bad at bay, bad at bay Love is the light Scaring darkness away, yeah
I’m so in love with you Purge the soul Make love your goal
The power of love A force from above Cleaning my soul Flame on, burn desire Love with tongues of fire Purge the soul Make love your goal
I’ll protect you from the hooded claw Keep the vampires from your door When the chips are down I’ll be around With my undying, death-defying love for you Envy will hurt itself Let yourself be beautiful Sparkling love, flowers And pearls and pretty girls Love is like an energy Rushin’ an’ rushin’ inside of me, eh
The power of love A force from above Cleaning my soul Flame on, burn desire Love with tongues of fire Purge the soul Make love your goal
This time we go sublime Lovers entwine, divine, divine Love is danger, love is pleasure Love is pure, the only treasure
I’m so in love with you Purge the soul Make love your goal
The power of love A force from above Cleaning my soul The power of love A force from above A sky-scraping dove
Flame on burn desire Love with tongues of fire Purge the soul Make love your goal
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Brian Philip Nash / Peter Gill / Mark William O’toole / Holly
FGTH had a UK #1 with their original in December 1984, though only for one week, as it was knocked off the top by the Band Aid charity single. It has long been thought of as a Christmas song, though it isn’t actually about Christmas: its theme of love is fitting for the season, though, and I guess that is why that has come about, helped no doubt by the video that was released for it. It would also have been relevant for Friday, if the calendar hadn’t spoiled things!
Gabrielle Aplin had made a name and following for herself by posting her acoustic music on YouTube, and actually self-released three EPs before she was awarded a record contract in February 2012. Though they have gone off the boil a bit in recent years the John Lewis retail chain was at that time well known for its annual Christmas tv ad, which was eagerly awaited and usually set a high bar for others, who tried to better them and failed miserably. Gabrielle was chosen to record her version of the song for the 2012 ad, as you can see and hear from this:
On the strength of the vast tv coverage that both the ad and the record received, Gabrielle’s version also reached #1 in the UK, in December 2012, and went on to sell more than 600k copies. I think the simple piano/orchestral accompaniment gives the song a perfect treatment, and I much prefer it to the original, to which I linked earlier in case you really needed to hear it. In May 2013 she released her debut studio album, English Rain, which got to #2 in the UK and includes this song. I bought it at the time and played it a lot: it is a lovely record, and I have all of her subsequent three albums in my collection too.
I thought that as an additional treat I’d play you another of Gabrielle’s songs. This is from that same album, and was the follow up single to her big debut hit:
Please Don’t Say You Love Me came out in February 2013 and got to #6 in the UK (entirely on download sales of 400k), and also reached #3 in Australia: it was released there in July 2014 after a contestant had performed it in the auditions for their version of The X Factor. It is another lovely little song, so typical of what she does, and I like the video too. In case you were wondering, the actors are Iain De Caestecker, from an American tv series I’ve never seen, called Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the English actress Ophelia Lovibond, who has a whole string of movie and tv appearances to her name: I’m most familiar with her from her recurring role in the US series Elementary, the one in which Jonny Lee Miller played a slightly odd Sherlock Holmes. He was good, but I preferred Benedict Crumblecrutch in his version of the stories.
That seems to be a good note on which to leave you for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this taste of some delicately beautiful music after I blasted your eardrums last Sunday! Enjoy the rest of your day, and I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes. Take care 😊
