American and British pop songs have been immensely popular in Korea for years, often being included in Korean movie soundtracks, with top Korean sirens covering them ….some with better results than others. Above is the late Lee Eun-joo’s sultry performance of the Corrs “Only When I Sleep,” at the Blue Dragon Film Awards in November, 2004. This song was on the soundtrack to her last film The Scarlet Letter. She also performed this song in the movie but as far as I know, this is the only live recording of her singing it.
Lee Hyori (first featured here) doing Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” during her solo spot at a 2000 FinKl concert. She definitely doesn’t have the vocal prowess of Christina, but she makes up for it in other areas.Baby VOX’s Shim Eun-jin covering Britney Spears’ cover of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” at the groups’ first concert in Seoul in 2002. The other four members were off stage, giving Eun-jin a solo spot for this one. Or perhaps they they just wanted to distance themselves from this number. To her credit, she was brave to attempt this song in English.
Yuni Kwak (also know by Korean fans as “Keyspiano”) doing a unique but good, version of the Rolling Stones’ “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”
Kim Ah-joong doing a version of Blondie’s “Maria” from the soundtrack to the Korean movie 200 Pounds Beauty [sic]. The Korean lyrics were not directly translated from the original, English lyrics to this song, but the music is the same. She doesn’t sing bad but she really can’t hold a candle to Deborah Harry.
Park Mi-kyung making it seem like she was the one who originally sang “Hot Stuff” rather than Donna Summer.
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Thanks CEC but apart from the first one, none of the videos are viewable to me (sigh).
Listening to the words of that Corr’s song made me sad to think Lee Eun-joo is no longer around. Her performance is/was quite credible and she looks/looked nice too.
Terrible. Why not feature great Korean artists like 2NE1, T-Ara, Girls Generation, Chi Chi…
Interesting version of Satisfaction (but the piano sucks as a rock instrument) I would be willing to help her find some.
Luke72, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elton John (among others) might disagree with you. Or do you mean the piano on that version of ‘Satisfaction’?
I gotta disagree about Kim Ah-joong’s cover of “Maria.” As much as I like Debbie Harry, Debbie Harry sounds like she’s “phoning in” her performance while Kim Ah-joong sounds like she’s giving it her all.
If anyone doubts it, just check out Blondie’s version on youtube. Oh, and play it loud.
I love Jerry Lee Lewis! but I don’t think it works well with that song. I think the simplicity of the chord progression doesn’t translate well.
Luke – you should see Million Dollar Quartet (if you’re Stateside.) Not much of a plot, but the music is fantastic.
In Australia unfortunately, I have never heard of it/ them. Is it a movie or band?
While watching Park Mi-kyung’s version of “Hot Stuff,” I can’t help but to think about the movie “The Full Monty.” 🙂 Indeed, some of her dancers seem to have been using a few dance moves from that movie.
For most of these videos I feel the same way I feel about karaoke: Marginally talented singers performing songs I have no use for even by the original artists.
With that said, the version of Satisfaction is interesting. And at least Yuni Kwak can play the piano pretty well.
Here’s a pretty damn good cover by a Japanese siren of a fantastic song (IMO, of course):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQxF8z9fjww
Luke – Million Dollar Quartet is a musical loosely based on a impromto jam session at Sun Records by Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins in the 50’s. The meeting was real as someone made a recording of the (mostly) gospel music that was played. The musical features hits of the times by each of the artists. It was worth my 75 USD.
It sounds good, hopefully if it is successful it will tour in the future. I’ve heard some of those recordings now that you mention it. Absolute legends!
i like it! girls that can sing are hot