Tune du Jour: “We Can Work it Out” – The Beatles
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: The Slackers vs. Steel Pulse vs. Stevie Wonder
Everybody’s Dressin’ Funny … Cover Me Impressed!
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
The Original
We Can Work it Out:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
The Slackers vs. Steel Pulse vs. Stevie Wonder
The Slackers:
Steel Pulse:
Stevie Wonder:
S
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On?!!?
cover me impressed 
Interesting historical note: This song was part of what was then a historical first – the “Double A-side single”. McCartney and Lennon always strove to have their song be the Beatles’ next single. With “We Can Work It Out”, which McCartney wrote, and “Day Tripper”, which Lennon wrote and recorded around the same time (October 1965), the Beatles had two legitimate candidates for their next single. So to resolve the friendly competition both songs were designated as the A side.
It’s also interesting to note that the single with both of these songs was issued on the same day as the Rubber Soul album (early December 1965), yet neither song appeared on the album, which was something the Beatles insisted upon for their UK singles/albums. It wasn’t until 1969 that the Beatles issued as a single a song that was already available on their most currently released album.
This is one of my favorite Beatles songs. If I had to make a top 5 Beatles faves, this would be number 4 or 5, most likely. All pretty good covers here. The production on the Stevie Wonder version is excellent, and his voice is terrific here, but I was really taken with the Slackers version. It’s just a happy, upbeat, more ska than reggae version that made me very happy. Steel Pulse’s version was too heavy duty and overproduced, in my opinion.
Three nice and diverse covers. Close one between The Slackers and Stevie Wonder. The Slackers by a nose.
BTW: Glad to see Cuspid was still around for this song. Doug, I hope you can stay for the week. I am not sure if I can continue doing this after this week.
The words/premise of this song have always made me chuckle. On the surface, or at first blush, it seems to be a reconciliatory pleas for compromise. Yet, the words actually seem to be more to the effect of ” let’s compromise … see it my way”.
I was hoping to pick someone other than Stevie since I have heard this cover so many times but I was’t wowed by the others so this very solid Wonder version wins for me. I liked the Steel Pulse version but I thought The Slackers were a bit boring.