They’ve slaughtered it!
The Boys of Summer was former Eagle Don Henley’s lead track and single from his 1984 Building the Perfect Beast album. It was a huge hit and an anthem to times gone by – don’t look back, you can never look back - sung with energy and feeling in Henley’s inimitable vocals. By contrast the Ataris cover version is girly, lame and totally destroys any sense of loss or pain which Henley created.
Why does this make me so sad?
Because sometimes it is far better to celebrate and revere the original than to create poor cover.
A notable example is Madonna’s lame version of American Pie – she sold millions of copies, but failed to strike a chord with her emasculated version of Don McLean’s amazing overview of America’s coming of age “the day the music died”.