Here's a new feature on the blog. It's called The Battle where I look at two different tracks and conclude which one was better. They could be two different versions of the song, two songs that were released in the same year that were a bit alike or just two songs that I like as much as the other and try to find out the better track.
For the first Battle I'm going to look at two (of the many) versions of the classic love tune, Can't Take My Eyes off of You.
THE COMBATANTS:
Gloria Gaynor
VS
Lauren Hill.
With this track, Gaynor brings her expected soulful excitment and divaish swing to this typically slow and folkish love song which gives the audience yet another side of such a well written song. However, Lauren Hill brings her own Hip Hop RnB aura to the joint that gained a whole new generation and demographic who got to love this classic 60's tune. Both women - diva's in their own right with unbelievable vocal cords brought something new to the table and added their own little touch but I do love Gaynor's version better - even though I first really started to dig this song as much as I do now when I first heard it as a bonus track on Hill's 1998 classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill .
Sometimes, the classics are the ones that always seem fresher. Maybe it's because I wasn't around in that time that I wasn't too used to hearing songs like that done like how Gaynor did it. Even though Hill brought her own originality to the song, it still felt like it was just another groovy hip love song done by a lady emcee. Age brings wisdom and groove and in my opinion, Gaynor brought it.
THE WINNER: Gloria Gaynor.
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