Rhino’s Got You Covered: Joe Cocker, Echo & The Bunnymen, David Lindley, and Brownsville Station

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?

•    Joe Cocker, “Tempted” (1984): Ever since belting out his interpretations of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” and The Box Tops’ “The Letter,” Cocker has been known as someone who shows no fear when it comes to covering other people’s material. In the case of this Squeeze tune, it’s a perfect pairing with his soulful vocals.

•    Echo & The Bunnymen, “Paint It Black” (1985): Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, and company have never been afraid to cover songs by the bands that inspired them, hence the appearance of versions of The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” and The Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” in their live sets, so it’s not much of a shocker that they’d tackle this Stones tune.

•    David Lindley, “Bye Bye Love” (1981): Known as much for his work as a session musician and sideman as anything else, anyone who wants to hear some really fun music should investigate the solo material of David Lindley, who turned in this reggae-inspired take on an Everly Brothers classic.

•    Brownsville Station, “Sweet Jane” (1973): Over the years, these guys have become known more for the fact that one of their songs was famously covered by Motley Crue (“Smokin’ in the Boys Room”) than anything else, so now you can remember them for something else: being cool enough to cover a Velvet Underground song.