Full disclosure: I'm not that much of a fan of the band Texas. I like them about on the "greatest hits" level. That said, I think they're a talented band with an especially gifted singer, Sharleen Spiteri. Recently, I've been working with musical friend Lil Panda, and he turned me on to the idea of compiling a collection of cover versions by Texas. That's what I've made here, with his help. Whether your like Texas's originals or not, they play a great and ambitious bunch of classic songs for their covers, with Spiteri's vocals an obvious highlight. So if you enjoy the music of the blog in general, you should like this.
Here's a list of who did the original versions:
01 Dimples - John Lee Hooker
02 Living for the City - Stevie Wonder
03 It Hurts Me Too - Tampa Red / Elmore James
04 Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
05 Heart of Glass - Blondie
06 Tired of Being Alone - Al Green
07 I Can't Get Next to You - Temptations / Al Green
08 What Goes On - Velvet Underground
09 Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
10 I've Got a Feeling - Beatles
11 Revolution - Beatles
12 One Love - Bob Marley
All but two of the songs here have been officially released: "Sympathy
for the Devil" and "Heart of Glass." In terms of sound quality, they
sound as good as the rest. Most of the songs are from B-sides or an
album of BBC performances. The cover "Tired of Being Alone" was a big
hit in 1992. I figure any Texas fan would know that version already. So
instead I've included an acoustic version that comes from a B-side.
Here is the usual song list:
01 Dimples [Edit] (Texas)
02 Living for the City (Texas)
03 It Hurts Me Too (Texas)
04 Sympathy for the Devil (Texas)
05 Heart of Glass (Texas)
06 Tired of Being Alone [Acoustic Version] (Texas)
07 I Can't Get Next to You [Edit] (Texas)
08 What Goes On [Edit] (Texas)
09 Sweet Child O' Mine [Edit] (Texas)
10 I've Got a Feeling (Texas)
11 Revolution (Texas)
12 One Love (Texas)
This album is 50 minutes long.
https://www.upload.ee/files/15852696/Texs_1989-1993_CovrVersionsVol1_atse.zip.html
I know Texas is a full band, but my interest is mainly due to the vocals of Sharleen Spiteri, so she gets the cover billing here. The photo of her dates to 1998.
Curious to hear that. I'm not fan of Texas actually.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
I love Sharleen voice and charisma. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul, finally got around to browse a bit more through some of your stuff.
ReplyDeleteJust to point out that the last track isn't on the right compilation. It says it's from 1998, but there's no way that's true. The original "All These Things I've Done" was published in 2004, so I imagine this recording is from sometime in the mid 2000s.
D'oh! You're so right. I'm a stickler for accuracy, so I moved that song to the second volume. Thanks for the tip! And if you can figure out when and where this version was actually recorded, please let me know.
DeleteA little research et voila: Dermot O'Leary (name of the host and of his show), BBC Radio 2, 2008.
ReplyDeleteI still can't find that info, but I'll take your word for it. I just updated the link for Volume 2 again. I'm glad that my guess of 2008 was right. :)
DeleteI found that info here and it sounds about right. Apparently every musician guest at O'Leary's show at the time sang a cover song.
Deletehttps://www.coverville.com/song/all-these-things-that-ive-done/15689/
http://fongsongs.blogspot.com/2009/07/batch-of-bbc-covers.html?m=0
Thanks for the info. And that's a cool tradition that show had going.
DeleteHi, Texas released an album with "Tired of Being Alone" on it (I'm 99.9% positive in 1992), which was quite quickly recalled (I missed getting it by a couple of days back then) and now I cannot find any mention of that album's name or full track listing .............. as though it never existed !!!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone please help and give details? It was a full album, not the 45 single or an EP !!
Personally, their unique style/sound pre-White On Blonde was what caught my attention but kept them away from success at that time, and then disaster happened and they became such a boring, mundane middle-of-the-road 'pop' band. I keep getting their new album releases hoping one day they'll return to their 'roots sound', because Miss Spiteri's vocals were only ever their brilliance before 'White On Blonde'
Huh. I'm not sure which album you speak of. I just checked the Discogs website, and I didn't see anything like that, sorry.
DeleteExactly! I know it was released because the record shop I used told me it was in and by the time I could get there, they'd returned them all.
DeleteThis also means that discogs only show released and sold, not withdrawn from sale.
It is the US release of Ricks Road from 1994: https://www.discogs.com/release/1572738-Texas-Ricks-Road
DeleteI can't seem to download this album. Is the link still active please.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, don't know if this is appropriate or not, but the links for both Texas covers albums are empty, have expired. (Guess many folks are also not much for them, but these look interesting, all the covers.)
ReplyDeleteAt your convenience, after your holiday sometime, could you repost these? That would be great. Please have a great break, you've earned it!
Do you have more of the songs Texas performed at Night Stage, Cambridge in 1989? Thanks so much for this, especially Sympathy for the Devil! Would be glad to help you out with some of Texas/Sharleen's other ones, do you have Misty from 2004?
ReplyDeleteHi, sorry, Sympathy is all I have from that one. If you have other ones that fit, please share them. For instance, I don't know about Misty.
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