Fan Fare » Reuters

Celine Dion tops poll for world’s worst cover version

Belinda Goldsmith — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:49:18 +0000

Celine Dion has come top of a magazine poll on the world’s worst cover versions. Total Guitar magazine said the Canadian singer’s rendition of AC/DC classic “You Shook Me All Night Long” put her in the No. 1 slot of the list published in its July issue.

Dion never released the song as a single but performed what the magazine called the “offence” against music at a Las Vegas concert six years ago in a duet with Anastacia.

In second place was a Sugababes and Girls Aloud version of “Walk This Way” which was a huge hit for Aerosmith and rappers Run DMC. Third was Westlife’s version of Extreme’s “More Than Words.”

Will Young’s cover of The Doors’ ”Light My Fire” came fourth, while The Mike Flowers Pops’ reworking of “Wonderwall” by Oasis was ranked fifth.

Jimi Hendrix’s cover version of the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” came top of the contrasting list of most successful cover versions. This was followed by The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” which was first recorded by The Top Notes.

Guns N’ Roses version of the Wings’ song “Live and Let Die”, Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World” that was first sung by David Bowie, and Muse’s “Feeling Good” were also featured in the top five.

Where would Bond be without Reuters?

Mike Collett-White — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:27:48 +0000

Visiting the Ian Fleming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum London this week, it was interesting to see how important he and his relatives thought his time as a reporter with Reuters was. His niece, Kate Grimond, suggested his stint with the news agency helped him settle down after leaving school and taught the writing skills that would serve him well when he came to write the hugely successful James Bond series. Fleming himself once said: “Reuters was great fun in those days … above all, I have to thank Reuters for getting my facts right.”

It was a slight shame that the company name in the quote, printed in large letters on one of the exhibition walls, was misspelled as “Reuter’s”. One of the press officers promised to have that put right, so I shall go back and check some time.

Reuters correspondents today would struggle to recognise some aspects of the world of reporting in the 1930s, but a few things appear to have changed little over the 70-odd years between then and now. While many would continue to maintain that life with the company was “great fun”, they may also understand why Fleming switched to the world of finance before taking up writing novels. In the words of Grimond, he “changed career because he wanted to earn more money”.