Then comes Pina Bausch's "Orpheus and Eurydice" (1975), a dancers-plus-singers version of Gluck's opera, which will play Friday through Sunday, completing the company's New York season.
The beat was disco with its Latin percussion played up; the set stretched out and re-grooved crate-digging finds like the Staple Singers' version of Talking Heads' "Slippery People" and Richie Havens's version of Lamont Dozier's "Going Back to My Roots".
However, others were concerned that the singer's version of feminism appeared to have been interpreted as overt objectification, pointing to lyrics such as "Bow Down Bitches" and her sexually provocative dancing.
Houston was subject to the singer's version of the black athlete's curse: as the daughter of the gospel great Cissy Houston and a cousin of Dionne, Whitney was regarded as all instinct and natural gifts, whereas Mariah, arranger and songwriter, had a brain.
Mr. Singer's version of the battle over the building is as black and white as Charas's, only with the roles of hero and villain reversed: Charas is illegally subletting his property to arts groups, while he waits to renovate two now unusable floors for the good of the community.
Recovering from the birth in her Chicago apartment, dealing with the singer's version of writer's block, Lulu occupies herself with memories of her grandmother and reflects on the complications of her life, namely that her new daughter is likely the product of an extramarital affair about which her besotted husband is oblivious.
Though uploaded last August as part of the A.V. Club's "Undercover" series, the "Boom Clap" singer's version is just crossing our radar now.
Wracking my brain for other ideas I came up with the opera singer's version of "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me" Carl Kasell's voice on your answering machine: Susanne Mentzer sings Happy Birthday or Anniversary to someone special to you.
It includes the great "Busted," two Mel Torme songs, "Ol' Man River," and a string-laden, backup-singer-drenched version of "Lucky Old Sun".
She was a genuine musician, among the very small handful of British singers whose version of American soul music had a gutsiness and flair far beyond what could be studied.
Mindful of Gaye's track record, they had both singers record versions and then mixed them together.
