No Doubt’s cover to Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life” is so much fucking better

The INFERIOR original

Both are "meh"

The No Doubt version is whiny - original is much better.

The original is much more atmospheric and sounds more ...mechanical. Something about the original sends a chill down my spine.

But...Gwen's vocal might sound good over the original instrumentation and backing vocals.

[quote] Me and a group of friends just got into this argument

Are you millennials?

R5 yes

I like both versions. But if forced to choose, I'd opt for the Talk Talk version.

Talk Talk was a favorite group in the 80s and this was my favorite of their songs.

I enjoy both!

OP is an idiot.

Love the ND video for this.

OP is Stefani

RIP Mark Hollis. OP should be ashamed of himself.

OP is an ignorant heathen.

I like No Doubt but their version is too whiny and one-note. Talk Talk’s version just washes over the listener so beautifully.

It’s a good cover but doesn’t bring anything new to the song

But Gwen looks like a cute Madonna Jr/Express Yourself version in the video.

If Gwen Stefani could actually sing, this would be a different argument.

Talk Talk is among my favorite bands of all time but No Doubt's version is remarkably faithful to the original while adding a more traditional rock sound. I prefer the 80s production though. That album had a really unique and otherworldly sound that was unlike anything out at the time. It's a must for fans of synth pop.

The Original vs. The Cover – “It’s My Life”

The original, with the moving vocals by Mark Hollis, is a really interesting example of that time and genre of pop music. Even the video, made at a time when videos in general weren’t yet sophisticated, has aged well. Hollis seemed like a stand-up guy, a good dad, an more of an experimental musician who was very principled. I was sad to learn that he passed away in 2019. That song, the emotional quality of it, transports me back to my school-age years, all the things I struggled to figure out. It’s really a beautiful old song.

I like both, but I prefer the original - I love synth pop and Mark Hollis' vocals. The ND video is a disturbing.

The ND video is great and Gwen really was a great actress in it.

Talk Talk waaay better.

Most millennials will prefer the No Doubt version, this song is up there with Crazy In Love, Toxic, etc in terms of early 2000s nostalgia

I like both renditions of the song, but I hate both videos.

TalkTalk’s version is far richer instrumentally and vocals. ND version is one of their weaker efforts.

A group of my friends and I didn’t argue about it and agree the original is better.

Op ewwdwin just makes threads about any stupid thing that pops in it’s fat head.

The original is far better - no question about it.

The OP video is vintage Erika Jayne

She wasn’t channeling Madonna there. Ew. She was channeling Jean Harlow

[quote] doesn’t bring anything new to the song

Other than the music video adding the overt text of the singer being a sociopathic serial killer.

Best Gwen has ever looked, but she can't sing. She was filming The Aviator playing Jean Harlow around the time of this video.

No Doubt Gwen's version sounds like it would be one of the better performances on Karaoke Night, but that's about it

ND made the song their own while still being faithful to the original

omg she is so busted....LOUSY

Uh no. It has an interesting music video, but without the music video it's really just 'meh'. So decent many songs from the MTV era were artificially lifted by good music videos. Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel also comes to mind.

Oh please. It’s great on the ears. It was a RADIO hit

Comparing Talk Talk to No Doubt is like comparing The Beatles to Herman's Hermits.

talktalk so dam awesome!!!!!

I enjoyed both versions, but the original is better.

This version was my very first personalized ring tone!

R42 really? Mine was Hey Baby by ND

Too much bass in the No Doubt version.

Video is stylish.

I like both versions. I esp. like the ND vid. The original is a bit like Roxy Music on steriods.

Love Gwen and she is so much easier to look at than the twerp with stuck out ears.

R27 I see what you did there.

"A group of friends and I" is gramatically correct!

R48 The OP Ewwdwin in Brooklyn is a fat illiterate moron.

Guys the original lacks energy

OP, No Doubt covering Talk Talk is like Sixpence None The Richer covering The La’s. Inexcusable, really.

I like the original, and I really like the cover. The arrangement of the latter is just so lush. It takes me back to early 2004 and being on the road. My touring partner was a massive Gwen Stefani fan and The Singles album came out about that time.

How anyone can stand to sit and listen to her irritating baby voice singing is beyond me. No Doubt's cover sucked because No Doubt sucked.

I've often wondered how people like Gwen, Britney, Stevie et al. initially got record deals. Did execs mainly think that their prettiness would be the whole reason for investment, or did they suspect that their strange stuffy-nose, baby and bumblebee voices would catch on because they are so distinctive? All of them have lasted beyond their cute-ingenue years despite not having pretty voices, which seems both counterintuitive and reasonable in different ways.

R54, You wondered how Steve Nicks got a record deal? ...

Really queen?

R55 Yes, really. She has a strange voice. I know people love her voice and that it's 'legendary,' but I don't think it's an immediately likable voice and someone at some point had to decide she has a good sound. Most pop singers have a very standard vocal quality and she does not have that quality. Uniqueness is what makes an artist a standout, but that also usually counts against them insofar as executives buying into them in the music business until they make it big.

Marry me R23! Talk Talk is my favorite.

No Doubt’s version is kind of flat without real emotion. It feels like a show piece for retro starlet hair styling, not a honest tribute to the song. Close you eyes and listen to the original version with good ear buds or headphones. It takes you to another place. It's full of emotion and richness in music.

^It's Muzak for grocery stores, basically. Just like that version of Roxy's "More Than This," which permeated grocery stores for a decade or more. I hope Bryan Ferry made a fortune off of it, but it's not much more than mildly annoying to listen to.

R47 Thank you! I couldn’t stop myself.

I love Gwen's voice. It always reminded me of Martha Davis from The Motels.

I love all the voices mentioned on here. They got record deals because their voices were different than what was on the radio at the time. When Britney got signed they said she had a distinct voice, and they liked that because when someone hears her on the radio they will know it’s Britney Spears without being told it’s her because they recognize her voice.

I’m sure the same can be said for others like Shakira and Gwen.

Anyone can record a half-decent cover of a hit song. Not impressed.

That Hollis solo cd and the last 2 Talk Talk discs are viturally unknown masterpieces. It's such a shame (to coin a phrase) that Hollis didn't do anything after Watershed, it was nearly 30 years ago...

Yeah, who was it that covered More Than This? Was it Dani Minogue? It was somebody lame like that.

For the record, I would just like to state that Gwen Stefani screeching It’s My Life is NOT music.

Back in the 90s, I had to import Mark's solo CD as you couldn't find it anywhere in America.

[quote]but I don't think it's an immediately likable voice and someone at some point had to decide she has a good sound. Most pop singers have a very standard vocal quality and she does not have that quality.

One might say the same about Grace Slick, I guess? She didn't seem to have a standard voice either. Polydor seemed to like Nicks' voice pre-Fleetwood Mac. And then Fleetwood Mac came along, who were already pre-established. And then, of course, her solo career flowed out of that. And it didn't hurt that she had songwriting skills. I guess it was weird to see her grouped with Britney Spears who came up thirty years later and was more manufactured by a committee of executives and marketed in a much different way.

R67, yep I had to buy a copy from the UK someplace, and I knew 2 guys who owned record stores at the time. I've lived in a big music town for 30 years and have only had 2 friends who ever mentioned Talk Talk or M. Hollis at all.

Both songs kind of go no where but the original RECORDING is better in my opinion. The cover's MUSIC VIDEO, however, is more impressive.

Gwen Stefani never improved anything.

R71 well she made Gavin Rossdale stop sucking Marilyn's girldick

Do you consider that an improvement, R72? I'm sure Gavin doesn't.

I don't care for either version. I also don't think that just because something was the original, it was superior.

R74 100%

^^Case in point: I prefer Lauryn Hill's "Killing me Softly" to Roberta Flack's.

R76 it’s a much better song, agree. Also, Whitney’s “I Will Always Love You” to Dolly’s

He speaks like Lizsha

Original is so much better. ND sounds like bad karaoke

No Doubt later massacred yet another new wave classic: Stand and Deliver. Adam Ant's version was fucking perfect, while ND's take on it was barf-inducing.

I’ve always found No Doubt so interesting.

Starting in 1995 with “Tragic Kingdom” they became big and household names, and the album went to #1 but none of the singles were big despite always being on the radio. Don’t Speak didn’t even crack the Hot 100 (despite hitting #1 on the Top 40 airplay songs). Yet it’s a song everyone knows and remembers and is still played today.

Their first Hot 100 top 10 was “Hey Baby”, peaking at 5 and it won them their first Grammy. They became Uber mainstream after that song.

All very interesting.

"Hey Baby" was riding on that Teen Pop wave. It feels like a sellout type of song, much like The Black Eyed Peas' work around that period.

No doubt had one good/decent song, “don’t speak” and I think it was just pure luck.

R82 I was actually gonna say most of their fans felt they sold out with that album. It was their biggest period besides their 2003 greatest hits album.

Maroon 5 fans say they sold out with Moves Like Jagger

Gwen’s “What You Waiting For?” Is more interesting than anything No Doubt did

[quote] Don’t Speak didn’t even crack the Hot 100 (despite hitting #1 on the Top 40 airplay songs).

That's only because Billboard had always insisted that a song had to have an actual commercial release as a single in order to be included on the Hot 100.

By the mid 90's, the single was all but dead. A lot of newer acts didn't bother to release singles at that point. Why bother, when you could put out a video, promote the song to radio the same as if it were a single, have it become a hit anyway, and force people to buy the whole CD if they wanted to own it?

That's why there are a number of huge hits from that era that never appeared on the Hot 100. It doesn't make them any less of a hit. It just means that Billboard was a bit behind the times by stubbornly clinging to the concept of the single, while the industry was moving away from it. They eventually changed their rules in 1998.

[quote] I love Gwen's voice. It always reminded me of Martha Davis from The Motels.

You're insane, or deaf, or something. There's got to be an explanation for such a strange statement.

Talk Talk defined a genre. No Doubt just copied.

Even as a No Doubt "doubter", I concede that they were better than a lot of shitty 90s ska acts. Gwen's solo has always been awful and she's basically a republican now.

Gwen grew up in Orange County, no wonder she's become Trumpian in her theft of other people's work.

Must be a generational thing. The original reeks of the 80s. Too much keyboard.

The original reeks of originality R91. You don't like it, no big deal but you miss the point entirely. It's like saying that rap song is too wordy.

R54 They were all attractive white blonde women. It's not really hard to figure out that record companies are willing to overlook a less marketable voice if it's attached to a thin, blonde, white woman. Black women (and Adele) have always had to be x10 as talented.

R93 Not if you have the right last name.

This is a waste of my time. The original is WAAAAAAAAAAAY better! Fuck off, you tone deaf faggots!

R95 I'm not surprised that many on DL like the cover with the female vocals. There is a certain segment of gay men that only recognize female diva types as legitimate singers.

The only losers who prefer the cover are the Ed/wins of the world.

No r96. It's that these songs are the "soundtrack" of our high school years. (If you lived in Los Angeles.) Most people relate to their teens through music.

For instance, I don't relate to Elton John, because he was before my awareness to pop music. I can't stand his music and It was only a few years prior to the British new wave invasion (in fact, he overlapped.)

I've read many sad things on DL, but r98 writing off the essential works of Elton John just because they born a few years after the classic music was released is truly worthy of feeling pity for them

Sure, grandpa @r92. Shall I get the hell off your lawn, too?

80s music has a very particular style that I don't think has aged well at all. I listen to music from just about every decade from the 60s forward, but the 80s are a black hole for me. It's plastic and fake.

While I don't hate the cover, I find the original more atmospheric. The one thing I really hate about the cover though is that instrumental "dun-dun-dun" that comes out of nowhere after the chorus. It feels like it becomes a different song altogether from the intrusion.

1985 I'm a closeted gay teenager walking down a high school hallway after getting sent to the principals office for saying my math teacher was full of it after he said Portuguese kids don't go to high school and drop out in the forth grade. He clearly didn't understand how the school system works in Portugal.

I spot Clayton, the epitome of New Wave high school boy with his painters pants and Depeche Mode t-shirt standing at his locker, wearing headphones and singing along to the original Talk Talk version of this song.

I stop and watch him in awe of his openness and fearlessness at being himself. He turns around and spots me and starts singing even louder and dancing with a huge grin on his face.

I smile and keep walking and as I pass him he shouts out, "I'll make you a mix tape. You'll fucking love it!"

I still have that tape to this day. The only other thing I have from my high school days is the grade 10 year book because there's a big picture of Clayton standing in the middle of a bunch of girls and they're all blowing kisses to the camera.

Needless to say this song holds a special place in my heart.

No Doubt simply copied the original, note for note, except with Gwen singing. Why are we even talking about this?