Ms. Aguilera, I'm Singing a Song for You

A successful remake of a song that has been done by an artist whose version is so timeless and classic that it will be forever associated with him/her can be very difficult to achieve. The list of failures includes some that are not too surprising like Michael Bolton's rendition of "When a Man Loves a Woman," but it also includes artists like Alicia Keys who remade Gladys Knight and the Pip's "If I Were Your Woman," in an interesting but not so successful way. The problem is that the original is the gold standard against which every other version is measured and so the remakes had better be made of something a little different and be just as incredible, a brilliant diamond to match the gold. Few have achieved equally great renderings, but some of them would include Jodeci's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Lately," the Fugees version of Roberta Flack's immortal "Killing Me Softly," and Dave Matthews Band's version of Jimi Hendrix' "Watchtower."

An infectious remake that has been released this year is Christina Aguilera's version of "A Song for You" on Herbie Hancock's "Possibilities" compilation album. The song, written by Leon Russell, has been covered by such greats as the Temptations and Ray Charles, but for me, Donny Hathaway still has the version (As an aside, the “A Donny Hathaway Collection” is a soul album must have and one that if you love soul music you can’t go wrong with). Ms. Aguilera's rendering of the song sends chills down the spine when you listen to it just as does Hathaway's. She has always had a voice with power that rivals Whitney's in her heyday, but what she has lacked has been the vocal maturity not to flaunt her tremendous gift on every note that she sings. However, on "A Song for You" her vocals are sufficiently reigned in where appropriate and allowed to soar at many other points to give her ownership over the song to display her range and inject her own creative flare into the tune. What a beautiful song she has graced with her voice, and what a beautiful product she has produced along with Hancock. I continue to believe that she is one the most vocally accomplished artists out in the mainstream today and that, given the right writing and production team, she has a classic cover-to-cover album or two in her ala Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, or Sade.

If you so choose, go get the album, a pretty decent one in the easy listening genre or download on iTunes a choice few tracks, mainly the ones featuring Aguilera, John Mayer, Annie Lennox, and Damien Rice along with Lisa Hannigan.