Rhino’s Got You Covered: Peter Noone, Rumer, Panic! at the Disco, and Tamia

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?

1. Peter Noone, “Oh You Pretty Thing” (1971): Released as a standalone single on RAK Records, this Bowie cover by the once and future Herman’s Hermits frontman was a top-20 hit in the UK, climbing to #12. Bowe himself played piano on the track, by the way, so one presumes that he approved of Noone’s version.

2. Rumer, “Arthur’s Theme” (2014): Originally making its debut on a double-disc compilation called SOUNDS OF THE 80S (UNIQUE COVERS OF CLASSIC HITS, this Christopher Cross song was co-written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, with just the tiniest bit of help from Peter Allen, who joined the collaboration via phone from Australia. Rumer, meanwhile, impressed Bacharach and invited her to come to his house, resulting in RUMER SINGS BACHARACH AT CHRISTMAS in 2010. So the idea of her doing this tune wasn’t exactly coming out of the blue.

3. Panic! at the Disco, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” (2017): Taken from their live album ALL MY FRIENDS WE’RE GLORIOUS: DEATH OF A BACHELOR TOUR LIVE, this Billy Joel cover may not be what you’d expect to hear from the band – Queen, maybe, but not Billy Joel – but they have fun with it.

4. Tamia, “Careless Whisper” (1998): Hailing from Canada, this Quincy Jones protégé got her start with the help of Jones’s 1995 album, Q’S JOOK JOINT, resulting in a top-20 R&B hit (“You Put a Move on My Heart”) and a Qwest record deal for Tamia. Although released as a single, this Wham! cover from her self-titled LP failed to make any sort of impact on the charts, but Tamla managed to end up with a hit album nonetheless.