Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Original vs. Cover: "When You Were Mine"- Prince or Mitch Ryder?

"When You Were Mine" is a cool, sparse little powerpop-esque song from Prince's "Dirty Mind" album.
 In 1983 two different artist, Mitch Ryder and Cyndi Lauper, covered it.



The original:

From 1980 Prince's version.Very sparse. He plays all the instruments and it sounds like that. Like a cool little demo, not fully fleshed out to it's full potential. Musically, a little bit of a throwback to the songs the early 60's girl groups used to do. Phil Spector would turn these types of songs into big productions.





When You Were Mine by Prince on Grooveshark




The cover:

In 1983 John Cougar Mellencamp helped one of his teenage idols, Mitch Ryder, stage a comeback.
 He produced Ryder's "Never Kick a Sleeping Dog" (just about impossible to find on cd. a real shame).  The single was a great version of this Prince song. Production-wise it was the precursor to Mellencamp's fantastic "Uh-Huh" released later that year.



When You Where Mine by Mitch Ryder on Grooveshark



the other cover was from Cyndi Lauper on her breakthrough release "She's so Unusual". Not bad but a bit mired in 80's production. A bit of a slower tempo.





When You Were Mine (Featuring Prince) by Cyndi Lauper on Grooveshark


The Winner : The Mitch Ryder cover.

 The Prince original is good, but Mitch Ryder's version took the song to the next level .

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