BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP

Partyboys

Remember the days before everybody went off to see There's Something About Mary at the local multiplex? This was one of those songs that lurked somewhere on Disc 2 of Definitely The Greatest Sixties Album In The Universe Without Question (Volume 31). Then what happens, it pops up on the credits with the entire cast singing along and hey presto, it's been given a new lease of life and everyone wants a copy. Nothing wrong with that, after all, there are far worse songs than this you could resurrect (Santa Claus Is On The Dole is one that springs to mind). Besides, I don't mind hearing it every so often so you won't hear me complaining. At least, you wouldn't have if the Partyboys hadn't bothered covering it. The kindest way to describe this version is karaoke gone horribly wrong. Now, I honestly don't know if this was the intention or not, but the singers' ability to hold a note is questionable at best and the singing takes your attention away from the song, not in a good way either. What could have been a reasonable, if slightly lacklustre cover version is wrecked by the poor singing. It really is that bad. I can't sing a note myself, so perhaps I ought to mention the words glass, houses and stones, but the difference is I don't release records.

THE CLOSEST THING TO CRAZY

Katie Melua

And then, as a polar opposite to the Partyboys, there's this. Can she sing? Oh yes, and then some. There's no theatrics from her, she's not out to impress any Pop Idol judges, all she needs to do is to sing the words and get the message across. It may sound simple, but listen to Will Young sing and you'll see what I mean - I've heard his new album (don't expect a review anytime soon) and on more than one occasion he makes a totally unecessary groaning noise that sounds as though he was asked to sing whilst sitting on the loo. Not only that, but her backing band are up for this one too. This is a slowie, so nobody's doing anything stupid, the pace is just right and there's no pointless key-change rubbish at the end (is there, Westlife?). It 's not my sort of song, but even I can appreciate how well put together this is. Put this next to a Gareth Gates single and decide for yourself which sounds less artificial.

SOMEBODY TO LOVE

Boogie Pimps

It's another cover version of sorts, but thankfully it's not the old Queen song. Oh no, somebody's really been rooting through their dad's record collection, because this is a song first made famous by Jefferson Airplane years and years ago. As some of you may know, Jefferson Airplane turned into Jefferson Starship who turned into Starship who dumped the staggeringly dismal Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now upon us from a great height back in the eighties (and We Built This City, but for some strange and unfathomable reason I quite like that so I'll forgive them that one even if you won't). Jefferson Airplane would never have given the world the theme from Mannequin, no siree, they were around in the sixties when LSD was abundant and the world was a much groovier place, power ballads were surplus to requirements in those days. Anyway, this is what happens when you leave a hippy song in the care of two German DJs. They rebuild it for you from scratch and turn it into a house tune, whilst keeping the original song pretty much intact, and do you know something, this is actually pretty damned good. If you think this is good, just wait until you see the video. Babies with parachutes, I kid you not. The look on one of the little sprog's faces when he realises his parachute isn't going to open and then starts crying his eyes out is priceless (the little guy lands safely, in case you're worried, besides it's not real so don't panic - how many people do you know go around chucking babies out of planes? That many? Oh...) You could do worse than this.