Presenting the second in our new Cover Me Round-Up series, spotlighting Springsteen songs that are covered too frequently to keep up with unless I spotlight them in batches. (Check out the first installment featuring covers of “I’m on Fire” here.)
Leading off today’s tour is Toronto indie-disco/neo-soul band, Human Magic. Recorded during the pandemic, their cover of “Dancing in the Dark” is urgent, funky, and features a trombone solo instead of The Big Man’s sax. It works amazingly well–this is one of my favorite “Dancing in the Dark” covers in many moons.
Next, let’s slow it down with New York-based Morgan James’ 2014 cover, from her debut album Hunter.
Morgan’s cover is lonely and yearning, just like Bruce’s lyrics, and her stripped down live performance (released the same week as her album) is fantastic, too.
Let’s stay in this mellow groove for just a bit longer and hop across the pond to take in Blackburn-based self-professed “sad white boy indie band” Waltz Away and their appropriate take on Bruce’s greatest hit.
Okay, that’s enough brooding. Now let’s turn the pace and volume up a notch with Michigan-based Billy Moon, and his awesomely hard-rocking version of “Dancing in the Dark.” This one’s been around for several years, but it’s been undeservingly under the radar.
We’ve got time for one more in this installment, and it’s one of my favorites.
Like most of us, the Minnesota-based Holtze family found themselves spending a lot of extra time together (and almost zero time with anyone else). Luckily, the Holtzes are a musical family, so they put the extra family time to good use and started recording creative arrangements of popular songs and sharing them with the world.
Their version of “Dancing in the Dark” features stomping boots, rattling keys, a lovely violin, and a family of gorgeous vocals.
That’s it for this installment, but there will definitely be more–there are too many great Springsteen covers out there that deserve more attention!
