Roger TJ Koo: Remake of Songs

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Remake of Songs

Hi Everyone,

It is very common that new singers or bands will popularise certain songs that were well known in the past and present.

Some of songs being remade are:

ABBA - I Have A Dream
Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Phil Collins - Against All Odds
Andy Williams - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Air Supply - Without You
Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Son
You Raise Me Up
Fun - We Are Young

So, are the remade songs have the same quality as the original versions? Glee, the musical television drama series also used some of the current songs such as Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would ... Without You, Fun's We Are Young, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and Leona Lewis' Take A Bow.

Westlife is one of the bands that remake many of the songs. In their first album, they remade I Have A Dream and Seasons In The Sun. Against All Odds (Duet with Mariah Carey), Uptown Girl followed after that. Later, for their Face to Face album, they recorded You Raised Me Up and When You Tell Me That You Love Me. In their Love Songs album, they also sang The Rose and Total Eclipse of The Heart.

Glee recently remade Fun's We Are Young. I think that both versions are good though. For Westlife, I would like think that I Have A Dream, Seasons In The Son, When You Tell Me That You Love Me are the better remakes. The others are ok only. Most original songs are better than the remakes generally.

Below are some videos of the orignal and the remade songs that we can compare:

The sequence is original song followed by remake.

I Have A Dream