Cover Me, The Mandrillos: Cross My Heart

When it comes to covers, the rule here on the Shuffle is: Do it different, or do it better.

Given that the covered artist is Bruce Springsteen, pretty much every Cover Me entry leans toward the “different” end of the spectrum. Rarely do I encounter a cover that I actually like better than Bruce’s original.

But here’s one.

It’s not surprising (at least not to me) that the track in question comes from Human Touch. That album is full of great songs that go underappreciated, largely due (IMHO) to the album’s over-the-top production. “Cross My Heart” is one of the rare Human Touch tracks that doesn’t suffer from over-production–it’s actually pretty spare.

It’s also pretty slow.

“Cross My Heart” features some of Bruce’s most graphically sexual lyrics. Musically, though, while the original track sounds like it’s aiming for steamy and sultry, it never gets past a mild, meandering smoulder. The song doesn’t get its due as a result.

Enter The Mandrillos.

I know very little about this three-man combo. I have no idea where they’re from, and their barely-a-year-old social media pages don’t give many clues.

But I do know that they absolutely nail “Cross My Heart,” preserving the original’s bass backbone while taking the pace up a notch and filling in the instrumental breaks with some terrific guitar solos.

I always knew that “Cross My Heart” had the potential to be a solid rocker, and The Mandrillos prove it.

Now if only we could hear what the E Street Band could do with it…