Rhino’s Got You Covered: All Paul (Weller) Edition

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. Today we’re putting Paul Weller in the spotlight, first by bringing you three covers of songs from his solo career, and then we’re closing things out with Weller taking lead vocals on Noel Gallagher’s cover of a Beatles anthem.

Let’s get started, shall we?

• Cultured Pearls, “Uh-Huh Oh-Yeh” (2003): This jazz-funk band from Germany never found much more than cult success in their native country, let alone anywhere else, but they had a rabid fanbase. During their live shows, lead singer Astrid North delivered this tune from Weller’s debut album so well that it led to a live version being released as a B-side, with a studio version making its way to their 2003 best-of, PEARLS OF A DECADE. Sadly, North – who went on to work with the band Soulounge and also released two studio albums as a solo artist – died last year from pancreatic cancer.

• Eliza Carthy, “Wildwood” (2000): Carthy, an English folk singer who’s been playing around the UK since her early teens, is a pretty big deal in the UK, having twice been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for Album of the Year. 2000’s ANGELS AND CIGARETTES wasn’t one of those albums, alas, but it did provide us with this version of the title track from Weller’s 1993 album.

• Rod Stewart, “The Changingman” (2009): Although it made its debut on the 2009 compilation THE ROD STEWART SESSIONS 1971-1998, one presumes that it was one of the tunes recorded for Stewart’s 1998 album of covers by more recent artists, including Oasis (“Cigarettes and Alcohol”) and Primal Scream (“Rocks”). The original version, which appeared on Weller’s 1995 album STANLEY ROAD, was a top-10 hit in the UK. This version, obviously, was not.

• Noel Gallagher featuring Paul Weller, “All You Need Is Love” (2009): This live Beatles cover was recorded during Gallagher’s charity concert for Teenage Cancer Trust on March 27, 2007, with the performance ultimately being released two years later as THE DREAMS WE HAVE AS CHILDREN – LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL. In addition to this tune, Weller also appears on Gallagher’s cover of the classic Jam single, “The Butterfly Collector.”