Rhino’s Got You Covered: George Benson, Death Cab for Cutie, Michael Martin Murphey, and The Head and the Heart

It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to take another dip into the Rhino catalog and trot out a new quartet of cover songs that you may or may not have heard before. Let’s get started, shall we?

•    George Benson, “Here, There and Everywhere” (1989): Whether Benson opted to tackle classic songs for his TENDERLY album because he wasn’t finding any new material that he liked or just because they were familiar tunes, we don’t know. But we do know that this Beatles cover is just on the right side of schmaltzy, hitting all the romantic notes necessarily to make it delightful.

•    Death Cab for Cutie, “World Shut Your Mouth” (2006): You don’t see a lot of artists covering Julian Cope, but this song was an alt-rock classic in its day – that “day” was the late ‘80s, by the way – and Death Cab do it just right.

•    Michael Martin Murphey, “What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ Round?” (1988): Okay, to be fair, this is less a cover than it is one of Murphey’s own tunes that was recorded and made famous by The Monkees, but since this version emerged about two decades after MMM originally penned the track, let’s agree to call it a case of Murphey covering his own tune.

•    The Head and the Heart, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (2017): This was strictly a single release, done ostensibly to celebrate how well their tour was going and to promote their Audience Network concert special, but either way, it’s a wonderful Crowded House cover.