The Cover Changes the Gender: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Change the lyrics, of course! Most of the time this will entail no more than switching a couple of pronouns or changing "boy" to "girl" (or vice versa) but in some cases it can require a much more extensive rewrite. Another common way of doing this is giving the song a [[Perspective Flip]] - i.e. "then he kissed me" becomes "then I kissed her."

 

[[Tropes Are Not Bad|This can work well in many cases]], while sometimes it can seem forced and awkward, sometimes becoming more of a distraction than it would've been if the artist had simply used the original lyrics. It can also come across as [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?]], especially if the original version is particularly well known.

 

 

See also [[The Cover Changes the Meaning]], [[Gender Flip]], and [[Perspective Flip]]. [[Double Standard]] may or may not be involved.

 

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== Female perspective changed to male ==

* [[Elvis Presley]] performing [[Dusty Springfield]]'s "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" turns out pretty well, since there's no specific pronouns used. But regardless of gender it does come of with some [[Ho Yay]] subtext.

* [[Tony Bennett]] did this all over his album ''For the Ladies'' which was entirely covers of songs made famous by female singers or written for female singers. This is averted in his live shows, however where he feels the original song is more important than the pronouns. And really trying to make "Black and Blue" about anything other than the colorism black women experience doesn't work.

* [[Frank Sinatra]] performed "The Man That Got Away" as "The Gal That Got Away." (Aside from pronouns and such, the only difference in the lyrics was changing "A one-man woman" to "A lost, lost loser.") However, this was averted in [[Jeff Buckley]] and [[Rufus Wainwright]]'s versions. (Then again, Rufus Wainwright is openly gay, so that's not surprising)

* Used by [[The Beatles]] ("my girl says when I kiss her lips...") in their cover of [[The Shirelles]]' "Boys." It's still full of [[Ho Yay]], though.

** Another Beatles example: the obscure girl group song "Devil in His Heart" was changed to "Devil in Her Heart."

* [[Counting Crows]]' cover of [[Joni Mitchell]]'s "Big Yellow Taxi" turns "a big yellow taxi took away my old man" to "a big yellow taxi took my girl away." This stands out as it is in no way clear that the "old man" in question is, in fact, a love interest. It could as easily be the artist's father.

* [[Neil Diamond]] covered "I Dreamed a Dream" from ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]'', changing the pronouns.

* Used for the French song "Mon amant de la Saint Jean": the original is sung from the point of view of a woman ("I loved him.") When it was covered by a male singer, the lyrics were changed to the point of view of an outsider ("She loved him.")

* [[Soft Cell]]'s [[Covered Up|cover]] of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" changes the line "all a girl could give" to "all a boy can give."

* In their cover of Queen's "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", [[Los Lobos]] changed the lyric "Now I'm sleepin' like a princess" to "Now I'm sleepin' like a ki-ing". Not only did the change throw off the rhythm, but it changed the meaning of the lyric. The intent is to show that, like the protagonist of the fairy tale "The Princess in the Pea", the singer has become so spoiled that he would notice if there were a pea under his mattress.

* "Mr. Sandman" was originally performed by [[The Chordettes]] with the desired "dream" (a.k.a. love interest) being a "he." In [[The Four Aces]]' version (it is this version which is heard in ''[[Back to The Future]]''), the "dream" is a "she."

* An interesting variation: Damien Rice's "The Professor" is originally entirely sung by him, but there is a recording in which Lisa Hannigan sings the second half, changing the pronouns so that she is singing as the woman who the first half is talking about, so that the song is about both perspectives.

* The [[Jonas Brothers]]' cover of "[[The Little Mermaid|Poor Unfortunate Souls]]" removes the singer's gender ("I'm a very busy ''person''/And I haven't got all day.") It also replaces the gendered term "witch" with "kind of strange".

* [[The Doors]]' cover of "Alabama Song" (or [[Refrain From Assuming|"Whiskey Bar"]]) changed "Show us the way to the next little boy" to "Show me the way to the next little girl." Originally, the song was sung from the perspective of prostitutes.

** [[David Bowie]] covered the same song about a decade later again changing "boy' to "girl" but keeping a verse that the Doors dropped entirely.

* In ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'', "[[Madonna|Like a Virgin]]," sung by [[Large Ham|Zidler to the Duke (who joins in later)]], explaining why Satine wasn't there for an arranged rendezvous.

* [[Bruce Springsteen]] wrote "Because The Night" from a male perspective, but couldn't make it fit with the rest of ''Darkness on the Edge of Town''. He ended up giving it to [[Patti Smith]], who recast it from a female perspective. Springsteen released a live concert recording of the song, however, and he included a studio version of it on ''The Promise,'' his 2010 album of ''Darkness'' outtakes.

** Springsteen also used to sing the aforementioned Crystals song "Then He Kissed Me" in live shows as "Then She Kissed Me."

* "Bachelor(ette)", originally recorded by [[Bjork|Björk]], is covered by Voltaire with the point of view changed.

* Tobias Sammet's Avantasia's cover of "Lay All Your Love on Me" by [[ABBA]] changes the "Now every woman I see" to "Now every man that I see."

* [[They Might Be Giants]] played this straight with their cover of "Maybe I Know" by [[Lesley Gore]] (best known for "It's My Party").

* ("You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" has been covered by [[Rod Stewart]] as "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Man"

* Boyce Avenue did a [[Perspective Flip]] of [[Katy Perry]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAUMU3QQE6w Teenage Dream]" and turned it into a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]:

{{quote|"I will get your heart racing, if that's what you need, in this teenage dream tonight. Let you rest your head on me, if that's what you need, in this teenage dream tonight."}}

* [[Madness]]'s cover of "Money, Money, Money" by [[ABBA]] changed "If I got me a wealthy man" to "If I were a wealthy man," among other changes.

* [[Bowling for Soup]]'s cover of [[Britney Spears]]' "Baby One More Time" changed "boy you've got me blinded" to "girl you've got me blinded".

* "House of the Rising Sun" is often gender-flipped, despite the fact that doing so completely obscures the fact that the house in question is a brothel.

* Actor-singer Christian Kane covered Tracy Chapman's signature "Fast Car" on his 2011 album ''The House Rules'', changing the subject of the song to a guy instead of a girl.

 

== Male perspective changed to female ==

* [[Alison Moyet]]'s cover of "Windmills of Your Mind."

** Also, [[Dusty Springfield]]'s cover.

* [[Bonnie Raitt]] turned Skip James's "I'd rather be the devil than be that woman's man" into "that man's woman."

** She also pulled a [[Perspective Flip]] on [[Stevie Ray Vaughan]]'s "Pride and Joy": ''I'm his sweet little baby / He's my little lover boy''

* [[Ashley Tisdale]]'s cover of "[[Rick Astley|Never Gonna Give You Up]]," which had already gotten tons of [[Internet Backdraft]], replaced the lyrics "Any other guy" with "Any other girl," which doesn't really rhyme with "I."

* ''DEV2.0'' flipped the genders on [[Devo]]'s "Girl U Want" to result in "Boy U Want." They didn't change any other words though, so you had a pre-teen girl sing a song about sexual arousal. Hilariously wrong.

** [http://www.aolwatch.org/backup/boyuwant.htm Not neccessarily so].

* [[Heart]]'s cover of "Black Dog" by [[Led Zeppelin]] changes some pronouns from third-person to second-person ("started telling '''your''' friends '''you''' gonna be a star") and others from first-person to second-person ("tell '''you''' no lies, make '''you''' a happy man").

* [[Sheryl Crow]]'s cover of [[Guns N' Roses]]' "Sweet Child o' Mine" changes she/her to he/his ("he's got a smile that it seems to me...").

* On her most recent album, ''Quiet Night'', [[Diana Krall]] sings "The Boy From Ipanema".

** She actually sings "not at ''hiiiiim''." It's more evident on the album version (same take, but on the single the vocals are cut off by the repositioned saxophone solo).

* [[The Bangles]]' cover of [[Jules Shear]]'s "If She Knew What She Wants" changed the perspective from first person ("I'd be giving it to her") to third person ("He'd be giving it to her").

** The song "I Drove All Night" was written for [[Roy Orbison]], but went to Lauper instead. Orbison ended up doing his own cover of it later on.

** The [[Scala]] cover, on the other hand, averts this.

* Pandora's Box's recording of ''It Just Won't Quit'', a song originally written for [[Meat Loaf]] (their version was released first, though). It actually works out quite well, changing 'There used to be every hope in the world' to (slant) rhyme with 'girl', to 'There used to be every hope, every joy'.

* [[Shirley Bassey]]'s cover of [[Ben E King|Ben E. King]]'s "I Who Have Nothing" is another perspective-flipped example.

* Used in [[Cat Power]]'s version of "Satisfaction", but averted in [[Bjork]] and [[PJ Harvey]]'s version.

* [[Joss Stone]] covered [[The White Stripes]]' "Fell in Love With a Girl" as "Fell in Love With a Boy," despite the fact that it doesn't fit with the song's rhyme scheme.

* Blondie's [[Covered Up|more famous version]] of "The Tide Is High" by The Paragons does this ("I'm not the kind of man that gives up just like that" becomes "I'm not the kind of ''girl''...", for instance)

* [[Conway Twitty]]'s "Lost Her Love on Our Last Date" became "Lost His Love on Our Last Date" when Emmylou Harris covered it.

* The [[Lady Gaga]] version of "Viva La Vida" leaves the gender the same in the first few verses, but she eventually ''screams'' "who would ever want to be...'''QUEEN'''!" and even changes "St. Peter" to "St. Mary" at a few points. [[Cloudcuckoolander|Lady Gaga being Lady Gaga]], these are some of the more ''normal'' [[Throw It In|changes]].

** On the other hand, the "Sock it to me!" part definitely sounds harsher being sung by Franklin....

* ''[[Odetta]] Sings [[Bob Dylan|Dylan]]''. Most of the political stuff is gender-neutral, but some of the personal songs needed some pronoun tweaking.

* In her cover of "You Can Leave Your Hat On", the magnificent [[Etta James]] tells her man to "take off (his) vest" instead of the original "dress". It rhymes very neatly with the following "yes, yes, yes"es.

* The popular [[George Michael]] Christmas song "Last Christmas" has been covered by many. When a female artists covers it, the lyric is almost always changed from "a man on a cover" to "a girl on a cover but you tore her apart". Except for [[Michie Tomizawa]] singing it as Sailor Mars in [[The Merch|another one of the Christmas CDs]] for ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', who left it as is entirely in broken English.

* There is a cover version of Luis Miguel's song "La Incondicional" by Edith Marquez. Since articles, adjectives and nouns are gendered in spanish pretty much all the song is song is changed while remaining the same; the most notable change however, is the line "tu cuerpo de mujer" for "''mi'' cuerpo de mujer".

* ''[[Across the Universe (film)|Across the Universe]]'' featured a cover of [[The Beatles]]' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" sung by a woman. [[Les Yay|Only it was about being a lesbian.]]

* A country singer named Sunday Sharpe covered [[Paul Anka]]'s "(You're) Having My Baby" as "I'm Having Your Baby".

* Mario Winans' plaintive R&B ballad "I Don't Wanna Know" - the 2004 single which, due to copyright law dealing with sampling of other tracks, hilariously co-credits both P. Diddy and [[Enya]] - is sung by a man who suspects his girlfriend is cheating and just prays that she keep it secret because if he discovered it for sure it would break his heart. Shola Ama came back with a devastating response from the woman's perspective called "You Should Really Know," the gist of which was that if the guy was so in tune with the woman and so invested in the relationship he should know her damn well enough to know that she's not cheating. Oh, snap.

* A rather neat version, the female cover of "[[Seal|Kiss from a Rose]]" as sung by Katherine Jenkins. "There is so much a man can tell you...," becomes "There is so much someone can tell you...,".

* Rockell's version of "[[Garth Brooks|The Dance]]" changes "king" to "queen", which interrupts the rhyming.

* [[Billie Holiday]] and other female singers have done "She's Funny That Way" as "He's Funny That Way," though the earliest female versions are "I'm Funny That Way."

* In Donna Summer's version of "MacArthur Park", "Spring was never waiting for us, girl" became "Spring was never waiting for us, till (it ran one step ahead)"

* Amii Stewart's [[Covered Up|cover version]] of Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood" has her telling the partner rather than herself to knock on wood. Mary Griffin's version, featured in the film ''[[Studio 54]]'', leaves the lyrics unchanged.

* Max A Million's and Unique II's covers of Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride" both used a female singer, and thus "she said" became "you said", and the bridge changed from "another girl like you" to "another boy/guy like you".

* Sarah Brighton's cover of Scarborough Fair changes "she once was a true love of mine" to "he was once a true love of mine."

* Alina's version of "When You Leave" (aka "Ma Ya Hi" aka "Numa Numa" aka "Dragostea din Tei") replaced "Picasso" with her own name and "your duke" with "your babe".

* In recent years, since [[Ashley Tisdale]] did a cover of "Kiss The Girl" in 2006, it's become common for that song to be sung by women. Before that, in [[The Nineties]] it was a rarely covered song and it was done by men, but look on [[YouTube]] and you'll find cover songs of "Kiss The Girl" done by women outnumber those done by men by about 20 to 1. It's gotten to where people forget that it was sung by Sebastian and not Ariel in [[The Little Mermaid]]. The unusual thing is, the words entirely remain the same, but the connotations completely change, when sung by a man it's always a third person urging to just follow his heart and kiss the girl he loves, when sung by a woman it becomes a not-so-subtle hint to the guy she likes that she's growing impatient with his hesitation.

* Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night" from 1971 was originally intended to be sung by a man.

 

== Multiple flipflops ==

* "I Heard It through the Grapevine" is another odd case. Originally written by Motown hitmakers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, it was first recorded by the Miracles and the Isley Brothers, but never released. The gender was changed for Gladys Knight's version, which ''was'' released and became a number one single... only to be [[Covered Up]] a year later by Marvin Gaye's iconic recording, which used the original male lyrics.

** Subsequently semi-flipped, semi-averted by The Slits, who retain the male lyrics for added weirdness.

* "Scarborough Fair" (aka "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme"). Depending on the choice of pronouns, the lyrics can be addressed to a man or a woman, or the singer can switch halfway through so that ''both'' lovers asking each other to do various impossible tasks.

* Many old songs from musicals were written to be sung by characters of both genders, by means of a second chorus or a reprise. "Hey There" from ''[[The Pajama Game]]'' is one example of this; the female version preserves a rhyme by substituting "like a mother" for "like a brother."

* Averted in Irish and Scottish Traditional Music, where the genders are never flipped because - well - that's the way it's done.

** Female singers are quite happy singing Burns songs, despite "the lassies" being one of Rab's favourite subjects.

** Any version of "Danny Boy" sung by a man. It's sometimes suggested that the speaker is changed to Danny's father rather than his lover without altering the lyrics.

** Also, The Pogues' version of "I'm A Man You Don't See Everyday" from Rum, Sodomy And The Lash. Considering their usual singer is male, and it's the only song performed by bassist Cáit O'Riordan, it would appear they did it solely to enforce this aversion.

* While not originally sung by a member of the opposite sex, J Mascis & The Fog's cover of [[The Smiths]]' classic "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" manages to turn it into a particularily bad example of [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?]].

** On the other hand, this trope was averted by [[Morrissey]] himself when covering songs like "I Want a Boy for My Birthday," "Give Him a Great Big Kiss," and "Golden Lights." However, his version of Bradford's "[[Intercourse with You|Skin Storm]]" leaves out the line "when it's wet and warm", making the song gender neutral rather than specifically heterosexual.

** [[Word of God|Gareth]] has said in an interview that it was mainly because he wanted to do Amelia's spoken/rapped breakdown

* [[The Sisters of Mercy]] averted this trope with their version of [[Dolly Parton]]'s "Jolene."

* Apparently there was a time when it was illegal due to copyright law to change the lyrics of a song, ''even pronouns''- Art Deco released an album called "Can't Help Lovin' that Man" featuring many gentlemen (including [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Ukulele Ike]]) singing songs intended for women.

* Similar to the Los Campesinos! aversion, the Future Bible Heroes cover of "Don't You Want Me" by the [[Human League]] has Claudia Gonson singing the male verse and Stephin Merritt singing the female verse (complete with the line "I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar"). And Chia Pet's version of the same song is a duet between two female vocalists, also without changing any lyrics.

* Most times Blixa Bargeld sings the female part of "Where the Wild Roses Grow" with [[Nick Cave]], there seem to be no pronoun changes from when it was a borderline-[[Soprano and Gravel]] duet with [[Kylie Minogue]] . Or differences in how the two act when on stage. It makes it either a little more confusing or a little more [[Ho Yay]]. (Though it would work fairly well as a song between two men if it weren't for the fact that a major part of the chorus is "for my name was Eliza Day".)

* Smith's semi-cover of [[Van Morrison]]'s "Gloria" leaves the gender unchanged.

* Averted by [[Mr Bungle]] performing the [[Portishead]] song "Glory Box", with Mike Patton leaving the lyrics (such as "I just wanna be a woman") unchanged.

* Averted with [[Amy Winehouse]]'s cover of "Valeri.e"

* Anya Marina's version of T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" averts this: The original is mostly addressed to someone in the second person anyway, but she does keep lines like "My chick can have what she want" and "I know you ain't ever had a man like that". The only thing that ''is'' a minor change is "Tell them other broke [[N-Word Privileges|brothers]] be quiet".

* Freek de Jonge's cover of "Peter" plays this for comedy. At the end of the song, he reveals that "Peter" is the name of a girl from Suriname.

* Oddly enough done by [[The New Pornographers]] to ''themselves'': Carl Newman had written the love song "Go Places" for himself to sing, but he thought it sounded better in [[Neko Case]]'s voice, so she sang it instead, without changing the line "Good morning, Christina".

* Clara Moroni's cover of [[Michael Sembello]]'s "Maniac".

* [[Luther Vandross]] averted this in his cover of [[Roberta Flack]]'s "Killing Me Softly With His Song."

* Jawbox didn't alter the lyrics when they covered [[Tori Amos]]' "Cornflake Girl". Hearing J Robbins sing it borders on surreal.

* Zebrahead's cover of [[Avril Lavigne|Avril Lavigne's]] make's no attempt to switch around the genders... in fact, EVERYONE is a guy in their video

* Averted by Electrelane in their [[Les Yay]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RE7DcEv1s&feature=related cover] of "[[Bruce Springsteen|I'm On Fire]]".

* Joan Baez made several changes to "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (originally by The Band), but ''kept'' the line "Back with my ''wife'' in Tennessee, and one day ''she'' said to me ..."

* Averted by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKULjplrgPs Claudette's cover of Billy Joel's ''Only the Good Die Young'']. This is also an example of [[The Cover Changes the Meaning]], as the song goes from being about a young man trying to get with a [[Catholic School Girls Rule|Catholic girl]] by suggesting that she not take religion too seriously to being about a girl encouraging a potential girlfriend to embrace her true self (''Come out, Virginia.''), not to let her faith get her down about it (''The stained glass curtain you're hiding behind never lets in the sun.'') and become part of the queer community that already accepts her. (''I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.'')

* Xiu Xiu have a habit of covering songs without changing any of the pronouns. Considering singer Jamie Stewart is quite camp (and has written many songs of his own sung to men, both from male and female perspectives) this is almost always the least troubling example of [[The Cover Changes the Meaning]] in their versions however.

** Their version of Don't Cha by the Pussy Cat Dolls is a particularly notable effort. Instead of playing up on the joke of covering a dodgy pop song, he sings it entirely straight and turns it into a kind of moving - and deeply disturbing - tale of a man refusing to let his bisexual lover leave his wife for him.

** Though Fast Car, originally by Tracey Chapman, doesn't really gender the narrator, they still manage it. The song changes from being a blue collar couple escaping for a better life elsewhere, to a young homosexuals dream of leaving for the big city.

* Linda Eder's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWP7l0OTXJI "Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote)"] averts this completely. She sells it anyway. Complete with blazing soprano note at the climax.

* The ''[[Sucker Punch]]'' soundtrack is mostly female singers doing songs by male artists ([[The Beatles]], [[The Smiths]], [[Jefferson Airplane]]) - but the lyrics are unchanged (the most blantant is [[The Stooges|"Seek and Destroy"]], which is still "I'm the world's forgotten boy...").

* [[Judy Garland]] averts this completely when she sings "For Me and My Gal."

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gender Blending Tropes]]

[[Category:Music Tropes]]