When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week the Langley Schools Music Project takes on David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
In 1976, Hans Fenger, a Canadian music teacher, got the idea to record a bunch of school kids singing popular rock songs in the gymnasium. Two LPs came from the project, pressed only for posterity among the students and teachers. It wasn’t until 2000 that one of the records was unearthed in a second-hand shop and re-released on the Bar/None label that the recordings became a critically acclaimed media sensation. The emotional resonance with which these children (most between the ages of nine and 12) sing remarkably outweighs the original, even on mature lines like “Tell my wife I love her very much/She knows.”
The Cover:
The Original:
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