Hopelessly Devoted to You

Yes, that one.

On Saturday my 10 year-old had a bunch of her friends sleep over for her birthday, and they watched Grease.
When I was a kid and saw this movie, as soon as this song came on it was your chance to pee or get a coke. But hearing it the other night, I realized that it's a pretty dark song, almost stalker-ish. I kinda thought it would be fun to cover.
I initially wanted to record it really spare and grimey, but then I couldn't stop adding stuff. Here is the more spare version if you're so inclined.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by chococat (24 comments total)

Jeezy Chreezy. This is utterly awesome. Now if someone could do a version of "There are worse things I could do." my life would be complete.
posted by Jofus at 1:59 AM on November 8, 2007

I like the 'full' version better. I don't remember the original, but I like how yours sounds. Do you mind if I ask you if you record into a computer or into a studio?
posted by micayetoca at 8:51 AM on November 8, 2007

The vox version hates me, and will only work if I continuously move my mouse over the player bar. I have no idea.

When you take it out of the context of Grease it certainly turns into something different.
posted by that girl at 9:01 AM on November 8, 2007

mica, no I don't mind. Into a powerbook through an Alesis io14 with Cubase and various mics in my basement.
posted by chococat at 9:48 AM on November 8, 2007

And would you mind a couple more?

Those guitars... do you record them straight into the Alesis or do you amplify them and record them with mics?

The second question, once the song is recorded and mixed, do you "master" it somehow? or do you just render the mix you did?

I ask all this because a) I really like the sound of your recordings and b) I think you get a really clear sound and it is pretty "consistent" no matter what you play it in - while my recordings sound awfully different in the computer and a cd player. Thx for taking the time to answer
posted by micayetoca at 10:12 AM on November 8, 2007

Ya, guitars are mic'd amps most of the time.
I'll master stuff that's "for keeps" or for a cd or whatever, but in this case it was just a fun little quick thing that was just a mix. I suck at mixing, I just wing it and half the time I'm disappointed later on, but I kind of like doing stuff quick and dirty. Maybe, like you say, check out your mixes on different systems before you commit to them and never do the final mix on headphones.

And, if I may take this liberty...I'd like to use this opportunity, on behalf of all of the contributors to MeFi Music past, present and future, to ask that everyone please, please listen to Music on headphones or through a half-decent stereo. The idea of people hearing the songs through a shitty computer speaker makes all the musicians cry.
posted by chococat at 2:21 PM on November 8, 2007

Thx for the tips. I think you are absolutely right on the "never do the mix on headphones" thing, though that's exactly what I've been doing. I'll try it the other way. I'm sure it will make a huge difference.

As for your petition to listeners to use headphones or a decent set, I join you. I only use them to test my own songs in a different player (to the stereo or the iPod). But there's a lot of good stuff here on Metafilter Music, and if we listen to it thru the machine's speakers, we'll be missing a huge part of it.
posted by micayetoca at 2:40 PM on November 8, 2007

Hey man, I love this rendition. It's funny because your voice and guitars kinda bring it up to date and make the song more relevant, for me anyway.

Thanks for the commentary too guys. Some nice little tid-bits in there!
posted by snsranch at 5:28 PM on November 8, 2007

First time I hear this song so I don't know the others but I really felt the song so I am gonna just say spot on and keep on the good work.
posted by Adrian M. at 4:14 AM on November 10, 2007

Excellent cover. Thanks choco!
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:05 PM on November 10, 2007

This song has been stuck in my head since last night and is showing no signs of going away. Thanks.

(good job tho)
posted by itchylick at 11:02 AM on November 12, 2007

I've said it before, but I love your voice (at least I think I've said it before - maybe out loud, to a friend). It's low, lazy, confident - kickass. And I mean lazy in a good way.
posted by ORthey at 10:39 AM on November 13, 2007

my god. this is fantastic.
posted by thepressdelete at 8:14 PM on November 14, 2007

This is why you make a cover. Take something old and bring something new to it. Very cool.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:15 PM on November 18, 2007

Simply terrific. I like the layers of slightly reverb-y guitars, and the weepy slide riff, and your voice reframes the tune effectively. It would work as the credits roll in a good small budget film.

This is so good that it jolted me out of my cowardly lurking and inspired me to post a song too.
posted by umbú at 7:37 AM on November 21, 2007

I really like most of your music, and I loved this cover version of one of my favorites of all time. It's been stuck in my head all day. Thanks for some great music!
posted by gemmy at 4:22 PM on November 29, 2007

Great stuff. More spare is more better, though.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:21 PM on November 30, 2007

FABULOUS! Can't think of much else to say. Thanks.
posted by purenitrous at 9:39 PM on December 7, 2007

I've had this same idea, too, on my back burner for years. The cuteness of "Grease" detracts from the obsessiveness of the lyrics, and that it's also such a good song--it has an "Abbey Road" type of creepiness to it. I never got around to recording it. You've done a great job actually doing it! Thanks.
Hey... That means now I don't have to record it! I can just refer friends to this post when I tell them what an awesome song "Hopelessly Devoted To You" is! Doublethanks!
posted by not_on_display at 6:54 AM on December 14, 2007

This. Is. Awesome.
posted by misha at 8:33 PM on January 2

This was absurdly good. I was somewhat reminded of Cracker's take on "Rainy Days and Mondays", in a very good way.
posted by psmealey at 4:34 AM on January 3

You do know this is a perfect pop song, right? :)
posted by By The Grace of God at 7:05 PM on January 5

Profoundly lovely.
posted by spherical_perceptions at 7:32 AM on January 6

Wow, this is really amazing. This is the first time I've ever listened to anything in MeFi Music. If even a fraction of it is this good, I'll be checking it out a lot more.
posted by Locative at 12:19 AM on March 4