The Spotify Playlist

Video Is Still Killing The Radio Star

Trevor Horn's song commemorated a milestone in popular music, so it seems right that there should be many different versions of it available on another. I wrote about Video Killed The Radio Star last year, so there's not much point in another analysis, except to underscore that it's one of those songs that brings back memories of more innocent times when music all seemed to be coming from one source and we in general all liked the same thing.

In the first series of British Big Brother when contestant Anna Nolan, the lesbian ex-nun (as she was described) was given a choice of song to listen to, the first music she would have heard in eight weeks (conditions were much harsher in those days) she chose this. She said it reminded her of a club she used to go to with friends. She cried too. Just a pity that year's winner Craig talked all the way through it.

This playlist constitutes all of the cover versions available bar karaoke soundalikes and one track which sounds like it has been knocked out from a midi-file. The preponderance of guitar bands of a certain age means that many of them sound quite similar, but the best covers are those which strip the elements of the song away and create something else.

The Presidents of the United States recording from the Wedding Singer soundtrack isn't available (you tube replacement) or the automated Tom Baker. I've topped and tailed the list with my favourites, Viva Voce's stunning live acapella and Mataha who along with Beverley Jo Scott transform the song into a folk standard, the sound entirely opposite to the partly electronic original, more Bob Dylan than Bob Moog.

Cool t-shirt available from Zazzle. I hope they don't mind me using the picture.