After two solo number ones apiece, it was surely inevitable that a Pop Idol Top Two duet was on its way…
The Long and Winding Road / Suspicious Minds, by Will Young & Gareth Gates (their 3rd of four #1s each)
2 weeks, from 29th September – 13th October 2002
And after two solo number ones apiece that I’ve tried to make the best of, and in some cases quite enjoyed, it was surely inevitable that my patience would run out. It’s not just that it’s the sixth Pop Idol #1 in barely six months, and it’s not just that they’re desecrating both the Beatles and Elvis. It’s both those things, but also the fact that both these songs are sooo very dull.
Their take on ‘The Long and Winding Road’ starts off as the sort of lounge-pop that male-female duos perform in the background of posh hotel buffets, under strict instructions to be as bland and inoffensive as possible so as not to distract people from their lobster. It picks up a little, and the harmonies are nice, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it before. Which is odd for a two-week number one in 2002, when I was amid one of my chart-watching phases. Or it’s entirely possible that I’ve just forgotten.
Interestingly – potentially the only interesting thing about this record – that song is a duet while the other is left entirely over to Gareth. His cover of ‘Suspicious Minds’ featured on the soundtrack to Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch’, and is bad in a completely different way. Although Gareth Gates is not vocally on a par with Elvis (newsflash!), it is upbeat, it is perky, and it sounds like he is having fun. But it has that classic, syrupy, karaoke production that reality TV singing shows will became famous for, with any potential edge polished away to nothing.
I’m not one for venerating the sacred cows of pop. I say have at them. One of my favourite covers of a Beatles song is Tiffany’s clattering ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. And of course Elvis’ and the Beatles’ back-catalogues is filled with covers, of varying quality. But for God’s sake, do something interesting. Add something to the conversation, for better or worse. It’s not as if ‘The Long and Winding Road’ is many people’s favourite Beatles’ song in the first place. And while ‘Suspicious Minds’ is an undisputed classic, Fine Young Cannibals proved that it was possible to reimagine it and not piss off too many people. Hell, even Will Young’s cover of a cover of ‘Light My Fire’ had something interesting about it.
But then ‘something interesting’ isn’t often in the remit of Simon Cowell and his production team. You do wonder if the choice of artists being covered here was intentional trolling, but I suspect it was just further proof of a lack of imagination. We’ll do Elvis and, um, The Beatles! This was still actually quite avant-garde for a Cowell release. If he had his way, he’d probably be happy with a never-ending parade of ‘Unchained Melody’ covers.
I imagine Gareth was happier than Will when doing these covers, but that’s probably based on the direction their careers went in the years after Pop Idol. 2003 will bring one final chart-topper for both, and these songs will give a clearer indication of what lay in store for either boy.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
The Long and Winding Road is one of my least favorite Beatle songs. I never liked it much and I really hated the Phil Spector produced one…the version on the Naked album without Spector is tolerable…but yes…this is just down right boring…Simon…leave the Beatles alone. The Elvis cover is alright…but no comparison.
Damn I can’t stand Simon Cowell…he has unleased some of the worst songs (too slick and no jagged moments to be found)..to me anyway. The Power Rangers music guy doesn’t impress me, in case I didn’t make myself clear lol…it looks like you feel the same.
As a kid I loved the Long and Winding Road, to the point that I claimed I wanted it played at my funeral (I was a weird child…) Now I’m with you on it.
With Simon Cowell, the scary thing is that I don’t think he does it for the money alone. That would be understandable, and he’d be far from the first person to unleash utter dross on the world in order to make a buck. But I suspect he genuinely has terrible taste, and thinks he’s actually had a worthwhile career.
You made me laugh. Sometimes I think I’m a bit harsh on songs or someone…but I’m jealous on this one… “genuinely has terrible taste, and thinks he’s actually had a worthwhile career.”… that is poetry and the truth.
There’s just something about him, smugly sitting on his judging panels with an air of believing that he’s leaving some sort of genuine cultural legacy… I mean, he is, but not in the way he thinks.
I know! He acts like he is huge and has always been. I did see one person tell him when he was in America…”all you have done is the Power Rangers theme” who are you?
I’m going to have controversial opinions on both especially considering I was lukewarm on a lot of their previous No. 1s.
I actually dig their cover of “The Long and Winding Road”. It’s one of my least favourite Beatles song, though I still like it, but it’s more like a 7.5/10 whereas most of their songs are between 8-10. I used to really dislike it, but the melody is really gorgeous (as typical of most McCartney Beatle songs) and I can’t deny I love Spector’s strings (I actually don’t like Paul’s intended version with just piano because it’s so much more boring – the Long and Winding Bore Paul’s intended version is). Though I think Spector’s string/orchestration overwhelms the original at point, here, it actually doesn’t overwhelm the track so good on you whoever produced hte track. It sounds shockingly similiar to the original even with the tacky cheesy synths. The orchestration sounds like it was sampled directly from the original lol. Will Power is a pretty good singer. If he had just done it himself, I wouldn’t be missing anything.
I actually do remember hearing Gareth Gate’s version of “Suspicious Minds” during the 2000s, though not when it came out. Lilo & Stich was a big part of the Zillennial childhood expeirence. I actually like it. Nowhere near as incredible as the original which is actually my favourite Elvis song, but it’s a good cover IMO. It’s surprisingly faithful to the original. I like the use of the organ.
It helps the songs they’re covering are good songs (the Elvis one is one of the best) that can survive any interpretation as long as you’re actively trying to fuck it up.
Although I said in the post that I have no problem in people covering the classics, and I don’t, my problem with these two songs is that they’re too similar to the originals. Even though TLAWR isn’t a great song in a Beatles context, it’s still decent, and this cover adds nothing. And then there’s Suspicious Minds, an all-time classic, which GG’s version simply tries to replicate. Whats the point? At least it maybe pointed some younger folks towards the original, but that’s the best that can be said about it, like so many recent cover version #1s… A1’s ‘Take on Me’, Geri’s ‘It’s Raining Men’ etc. etc.
In the days of streaming, doing a carbon copy is pointless because anyone can look up an original, but I think back then – again, I’m a Zillennial so I don’t remember much before the digital download/streaming era – doing a carbon copy was a way to bring attention to the original as well – and this is the most likely reason – to have a greater chance of a hit because the song is already most likely a proven hit and you can also appeal to the demographic that originally heard the song if it’s an older song. Very calculating move, and Simon Cowell is a pretty calculating dude. Cover songs being hits isn’t a thing that exists anymore – the most you’ll get is remixes or heavy interpolations/samples.
That is a good point. Cover versions did really die out from the mid-2000s onwards, when iTunes took over. Though they lingered on through reality TV show winners, novelties and charity releases, most of which were uniformly awful.
On the one hand I was happy that two songs that should have been UK number ones finally got that kudos. OTOH, The Long & Winding Road (the side that got the airplay) is a fairly flat rendition of one of my fave Beatles non-singles. I lived in Singapore in 1970, where the Western radio music was as likely to be American-led as UK-led, especially non-threatening, easy-listening, and I mostly missed out on Elvis’ UK number 2 until 1974 or so, but I was mad on the US chart-topper with the Phil Spector strings. I was appalled when I found out it wasnt a UK single, anything Phil Spector was classy to me, and I loved the string arrangements – it upped the emotional ante, and worked well for families living abroad, I can vouch. The only link to home were batches of Daily Mirror’s bundled into a mega-magazine every few weeks, 2-Way family Favourites on Sunday afternoons radio, and letters. Oh and some TV shows like Doctor Who 60’s repeats and UFO.
So, I also am not that fussed with the Naked Let It Be, to the dismay of many Beatles fan friends not keen on lush strings! Neither side of this hit is great, but I’m fine with it getting to number one if only to pull people back to the originals. The best cover of Suspicious Minds? That’ll be Pnau’s reworking of Suspicious Minds and Elvis’ fab B side Any Day Now as a mash-up – that should have been a hit in it’s own right in 1969 as follow-up to In The Ghetto – the A side, and the 2nd single I ever bought. Don’t Fly Away the remix was called.
I went through a phase of adoring The Long and Winding Road, to the point of announcing that I wanted it played at my funeral… I was twelve or something. So now I can’t tell if my current feelings towards it are more to do with embarrassment! I do still like it. I’m not sure there’s any Beatles song I’d say I didn’t like.
Suspicious Minds almost works, I reckon. The Beatles one is just treacle.