The BodyguardWhat better way to breathe new life into a song than by giving it to a new life-breather? In the second part of our look at those songs that owe a debt to both the big and small screen for their renaissance, we take a look at some seriously good cover versions of some rather uncool songs.

Some songs will never be able to escape their big screen outing and some movies will never be able escape the songs that scored their most memorable moments. So it is with The Bodyguard, one of the classic weepies of our time. Spoiled, selfish singer meets stoic, silent bodyguard and through each other, they find solace – what’s not to love? Well, there are many things not to love, but one of them is not Whitney Houston’s incredible version of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You. She took a slightly hokey country song and gave it the full diva makeover. While Dolly Parton’s original topped the country charts in the U.S., Whitney’s 1992 version went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Another song whose reincarnated version went on to out-perform the original was Mad World by Tears for Fears. Michael Andrew and Gary Jules’ haunting cover version sound-tracked the haunting and perplexing Donnie Darko to great effect. When the soundtrack was released in 2001, the song received much attention, eventually convincing the duo to release it as a single proper in 2003 when, rather bizarrely for a song that features the line “the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had”, it became the UK Christmas No. 1. It reached the No. 2 spot in Ireland.

In October 2003 an unknown Swedish singer, songwriter of Argentinian lineage released his debut album ‘Veneer’ in Sweden, and, outside of that country, no one noticed. Then, two years later, Sony decided to use his cover of The Knife’s Heartbeats in their Bravia advertising campaign, which featured coloured balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco, and suddenly the world took notice. Said Swedish singer-songwriter re-releases ‘Veneer’ for the European and U.S. markets et voilà: José Gonzalez has arrived (two years late). The album goes platinum in the UK and Heartbeats reaches number 9 in the singles chart in January 2006. Safe to assume that the financial controllers at Sony were happy with the cost: benefit ratio on this ad.

More recently, and more Irish-y, was the Lovefilm advert in 2011 which featured James Vincent McMorrow’s version of Steve Winwood’s song, Higher Love. The original was a modest success for Winwood, reaching no. 13 in the UK charts. When the Lovefilm ad was released with JMV’s version it triggered thousands of smitten TV viewers desperately Googling who the singer was. In Ireland, we sat smugly back. We knew. Those distinctive vocals couldn’t belong to anyone else: one of ours. Like Mad World, it was striking due to its distinction from the original. While Winwood’s upbeat rendition featured synths, horns and dancing, McMorrow plaintively appealed for a “higher love” over simple piano chords. Originally recorded for a charity album to benefit the charity ‘Headstrong’, it topped the UK indie chart after its use in the advertising campaign.

While Sonic Youth are, for some, the epitome of cool, the Carpenters, for many, definitely were not. So in Juno it made their rival versions of Superstar for an ideal clash between the pregnant protagonist and the proposed adoptive father of her unborn child, Mark. While Juno loved the Carpenter’s original, Mark preferred Sonic Youth’s breathy version – it provided the perfect allegory for their characters’ similarities and differences. Despite Mark being a dick in the movie, the Sonic Youth version got a new lease of life due to being featured on the soundtrack. It is now the most searched Sonic Youth song on the internet.

To finish, we’ll go back to where we started in part one, with one of the main exponents of the stand-alone soundtrack, Quentin Tarantino. In Pulp Fiction, one of its darkest and most humorous scenes features Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vince Vega (John Travolta) arriving back at Mia’s place. Vince is in the bathroom giving himself a pep talk on how he is just going to have one drink and then leave. Meanwhile in the living room Mia is putting on Neil Diamond’s song Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon, only it’s the gothic Urge Overkill version, and cutting herself a chunky line of whatever drug she finds in Vince’s jacket pocket. She immediately overdoses with the ominous tone of Urge Overkill providing the necessary tones of black irony. While Urge Overkill’s version didn’t especially trouble the charts, the song will forever be associated with that scene, much as Stuck in the Middle will be inextricably linked to the gruesome scene from Reservoir Dogs.

In the last ten years, we have witnessed the power that television and film enjoys in the making of musical careers. Big TV shows now have their own musical selectors. Hopefully, in addition to bringing us new music, they can continue to re-ignite our love for forgotten music and change our view of unpopular music. That way no one will stop believing that they might have a second day in the sun. And that can only be a good thing.