Can A Good Cover Rescue A Song From Drowning In Its Bad Production?

As my family was making its annual trip down the coast of Texas to favorite Girls Gone Wild destination South Padre Island last summer, my parents called me (we were in two cars) to ask who on earth was singing the fantastic cover of the Beach Boys’ song “Kokomo” they were listening to. (The track–which was by Adam Green and Ben Kweller–happened to be on one of the many peculiar mix CDs that my friends perpetually store on my car’s floor.) Sure, anything involving the Moldy Peaches’ Green is always going to have at least a slight twinge of shit-eating irony, but Kweller’s interminably sincere presence adds gravity to the track, and the instrumentation (a definite Green strength) is beautiful. Long story short: it’s a knockout cover. But is it better than the original?

First of all, let’s leave all Beach Boys songs besides “Kokomo” out of this. I have enough respect for the band’s body of work to not put Adam Green and Ben Kweller anywhere near the Boys’ league. But “Kokomo” is a prime example of the crappy-production plague that struck so many once-great artists in the ’80s (Jimmy Buffett, I am looking you square in the face). The band’s harmonies are still dead-on, but the rest is a bit like watermelon Bubblicious: sweet, but somehow depressing. Maybe it’s John Stamos on the drums, or the absence of Brian Wilson, or the complete lack of bass guitar (I see it in the video but I don’t hear it).

Whatever it is, the Beach Boys’ original version lacks heft. And if there’s one thing that Green can add to a song it’s luxurious production. Of course Green also sings incredibly vulgar nonsense in an affected lounge-singer style, so a solo cover probably wouldn’t have come off quite as charming as a collaboration with sweet, goofy Ben Kweller. Their combined talents and sensibilities surpass the Beach Boys’ pastel original.

Is anyone with me on this? Or am I justing continuing my alienation streak? Furthermore, how often, if ever is a cover superior to the original?

“Kokomo” Adam Green and Ben Kweller [The Hype Machine]