Prince was one of the coolest songwriters on the planet (though Mike Scott swears he didn’t write ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ about him, contrary to popular belief), and between 1978-1988 he was responsible for some of the greatest music on the planet between For You and Lovesexy. It did start to go downhill from the Batman soundtrack onwards, though…But when you listen to the first decade of his music, there were few who could touch him.

Glasgow based two-piece Midnight Lion (above)are Vocalist and Lyricist Stewart Brock and Lewis Gardner (production). They’ve taken on Prince’s awesome ‘When Doves Cry’ and down a version which strips it back, and reveals the song in a new light. Try this and see what you think…

Midnight Lion – “When Doves Cry (Prince cover)” from THE CULTURE OF ME on Vimeo.

This is in complete contrast to the version done by The Be Good Tanyas:

Be Good Tanyas -‘When Doves Cry (Prince cover).’ mp3

Other great cover versions of Prince songs have included ‘Raspberry Beret’ by the Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and everyone else in REM that wasn’t Michael Stipe)*, Soulwax’s take on ‘Pop Life’, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra’s version of ‘Condition Of the Heart’, Tori Amos’ reading of ‘Purple Rain’…think I can live without Tom Jones’ take on ‘Kiss.’ I’d love to get my hands on a copy of Dump’s Tribute album, tntiled, ahem That Skinny Motherfucker With The High Voice

Oh and most famously this. Don’t like it? Think that says a lot about you, frankly…and it isn’t good.

*No, that’s not REM in the clip but it is from the era so I linked to it.