30 of the Best Gender-Bending Songs

The most effective factor about rock ‘n’ roll is its potential to turn out to be one’s personal.

Musicians have at all times constructed on no matter got here earlier than. Even when conventional songs had been handed down from era to era with out the help of tape recorders and different such units, artists have at all times sought to reimagine the work of others. The development solely heightened through the rise of High 40 radio within the ’50s, and reinterpretation has since cemented itself on the coronary heart of well-liked songwriting and recording.

This contains songs written from female and male views. A easy shift in pronouns can immediately remodel a tune, making it appropriate for one more gender to sing. On the similar time, some acts usually select to go away gendered lyrics intact, creating a brand new sense of that means within the tune even when the phrases are the identical.

We’re having a look at 30 tracks which have had their unique lyrics adjusted — from male to feminine, or vice versa – to higher match the attitude of a singer.

1. “King of Ache,” Alanis Morissette
Unique artist: The Police

“King of Ache” was first launched by the Police because the fourth single from 1983’s Synchronicity, and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart. Alanis Morissette coated it almost twenty years afterward Sept. 18, 1999, for launch on her MTV Unplugged album, switching a pair – although not all – of the gendered “king of ache” lyrics to “queen of ache.”

 

2. “Home of the Rising Solar,” Bob Dylan and the Animals
Unique artist: Conventional

This people quantity a couple of down-and-out individual in New Orleans dates again many years and has been recorded by quite a lot of musicians, together with Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Nina Simone and Pete Seeger, amongst others. Apparently, “Home of the Rising Solar” has at all times gone forwards and backwards between genders. The Animals’ chart-topping 1964 model discovered Eric Burdon memorably lamenting that the home was “the wreck of many a poor boy – and God I do know I am one,” simply a few years after Dylan had used the phrases “poor lady.”

 

3. “Respect,” Aretha Franklin
Unique artist: Otis Redding

Most listeners affiliate “Respect” with the Queen of Soul, who launched it in 1967. However the tune was written and recorded two years earlier by Otis Redding, whose unique lyrics included the strains “hey, little lady, you are sweeter than honey – and I wanna offer you all of my cash.” He recorded an admirable model, however Franklin took the tune to a brand new stage, altering the aforementioned strains to higher swimsuit a loving lady who’s however in control of her future: “Your kiss is sweeter than honey – and guess what? So is my cash.”

 

4. “Then I Kissed Her,” The Seaside Boys
Unique artist: The Crystals

This observe was referred to as “Then He Kissed Me” earlier than the Seaside Boys recorded their model with Al Jardine singing lead vocals. Written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, “Then He Kissed Me” was launched by the Crystals in 1963 and featured each the Wrecking Crew and Jack Nitzsche’s well-known Wall of Sound strategy to arranging. The Crystals reached No. 6 within the U.S., whereas the Seaside Boys’ “Then I Kissed Her” shot to No. 4 within the U.Okay. in 1967.

 

5. “Boys,” The Beatles
Unique artist: The Shirelles

Ringo Starr’s first recorded lead vocal was a single-take replace of “Boys,” recorded roughly two years after the tune was launched by the Shirelles. The Beatles’ 1963 model switched a couple of lyrics: “Mama says whenever you kiss my lips / I am going to get a thrill via my fingertips” turned “My lady says after I kiss her lips / Will get a thrill via her fingertips.” However they opted to maintain the title. “We by no means thought we must always name it ‘Ladies,’ simply because Ringo was a boy,” Paul McCartney later mentioned in 2002’s Anthology. “We simply sang it the way in which they’d sung it and by no means thought of any implications.”

 

6. “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” The Beatles
Unique artist: The Teddy Bears

“To Know Her Is to Love Her” was one of many first songs the Beatles practiced and carried out of their earliest days as a band. It had been written by Phil Spector as “To Know Him Is to Love Him” in tribute to his father after which recorded in 1958 by Spector’s vocal group, the Teddy Bears. Their model spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart. The Beatles shifted the lyrics in 1963 for the BBC radio program, Pop Go the Beatles. Then Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris modified them again in 1987 and scored a No. 1 nation hit.

 

7. “The Tide Is Excessive,” Blondie
Unique artist: The Paragons

Blondie was well-known for experimenting with totally different kinds of music, pulling parts from rap, hip hop, rock, punk, new wave and – as proven with “The Tide Is Excessive” – reggae. The observe was written by Jamaican singer John Holt, who recorded it together with his group the Paragons in 1970. A decade later, Blondie added extra strings and horns to their model, switching the lyrics from “man” to “lady” for Debbie Harry to sing.

 

8. “Huge Yellow Taxi,” Bob Dylan / Counting Crows
Unique artist: Joni Mitchell

“Bob [Dylan] isn’t genuine in any respect,” Joni Mitchell memorably argued in 2010. “He’s a plagiarist, and his title and voice are faux. Every little thing about Bob is a deception. We’re like night time and day, he and I.” However his model of Mitchell’s “Huge Yellow Taxi” from 1973’s Dylan is generally devoted to her 1970 unique – aside from altering “an enormous yellow taxi took away my outdated man” to “an enormous yellow bulldozer took away the home and land.” Virtually 30 years later, the Counting Crows launched an replace that modified the lyric to “took my lady away.”

 

9. “Satisfaction and Pleasure,” Bonnie Raitt
Unique artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan

If there’s anybody who may give Stevie Ray Vaughan a run for his cash on a guitar, it is likely to be Bonnie Raitt. Living proof: She took the searing 1983 favourite “Satisfaction and Pleasure” and made it her personal at 1995’s Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan live performance. Raitt made some changes – tweaking “She’s my candy little child / I am her little lover boy” to “I am his candy little child / he is my little lover boy” — after which merely turned up the warmth.

 

10. “Ticket to Journey,” The Carpenters
Unique artist: The Beatles

The Beatles had been on high of the world in 1965, as “Ticket to Journey” turned their seventh consecutive No. 1 hit within the U.Okay., and their third within the U.S. The Carpenters gave the tune new life 4 years later. “I occurred to listen to the Beatles’ ‘Ticket to Journey’ being performed as an oldie someday in early 1969,” Richard Carpenter later defined, “and upon listening to it this specific time, determined the tune would make a pleasant ballad.” The Carpenters’ extra contemplative rendition noticed Karen Carpenter switching out the “lady that is driving me mad” for a “boy.”

 

11. “Strolling in Memphis,” Cher
Unique artist: Marc Cohn

The principle character in Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit tune goes right down to see a pianist named Muriel one Friday night time on the Hollywood in Memphis, whereas the pianist turns into a man known as Gabriel in Cher’s 1995 replace for the fittingly titled It is a Man’s World. Cher’s model did not match Cohn’s success on the pop charts, however that did not cease her from commonly performing “Strolling in Memphis” on tour.

 

12. “Sweetheart Like You,” Chrissie Hynde
Unique artist: Bob Dylan

Chrissie Hynde and Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne started casually revisiting a few of their favourite Dylan tracks through the COVID-19 quarantine. Fairly quickly, that they had a whole album of covers – however not earlier than Hynde reworked a couple of strains, significantly in 1983’s “Sweetheart Like You.” “There was one second verse that mentioned ‘She used to name me candy daddy after I was solely a toddler,'” Hynde mentioned, “and I believed, ‘That is gonna be actually awkward.’ I could not work out tips on how to make that mine. So I went via the archives of various variations he is achieved and located a Spanish translation that had a distinct verse, so I simply used that one.”

 

13. “Ladies Simply Wanna Have Enjoyable,” Cyndi Lauper
Unique artist: Robert Hazard

It is troublesome to think about anybody aside from Cyndi Lauper singing “Ladies Simply Wanna Have Enjoyable,” not to mention somebody of one other gender. But Lauper’s well-known 1983 hit began as a 1979 recording by Robert Hazard through which he sang from the male perspective: “The cellphone rings in the course of the night time / My father says, ‘My boy, what would you like out of your life?’” “It was initially about how lucky he was,” Lauper later instructed Rolling Stone, “‘trigger he was a man round these ladies that wished to have ‘enjoyable’ — with him — down there, which we don’t converse lest we go blind.”

 

14. “I am going to By no means Fall in Love Once more,” Elvis Costello
Unique artist: Dionne Warwick

Famed duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote “I am going to By no means Fall in Love Once more” for the 1968 musical Guarantees, Guarantees, which was based mostly on Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s 1960 movie The Condo. The most effective-known model was a 1969 single by Dionne Warwick that went to No. 6 on the Sizzling 100. “I am going to By no means Fall in Love Once more” initially discovered Warwick singing about kissing a man and catching pneumonia, solely to have him by no means cellphone her. Elvis Costello’s 1999 replace with gender-swapped lyrics appeared on the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

 

15. “Right here, There and In every single place,” Emmylou Harris
Unique artist: The Beatles

Emmylou Harris did not have to do a lot to this exquisitely candy love tune, other than altering a couple of phrases — “her” to “his,” “she” to “he.” She included “Right here, There and In every single place” on her third album, 1975’s Elite Resort. On the time, Harris was nonetheless making an attempt to determine herself within the music business. “I wished to be a rustic artist,” she later instructed Uncut, “however I used to be being true to who I used to be – significantly influenced by the Beatles and Dylan. … So the eclecticism of these early information was very actual for me, as I used to be discovering my voice.”

 

16. “Black Canine,” Coronary heart
Unique artist: Led Zeppelin

After all, no vocal efficiency compares to the one Robert Plant gave on Led Zeppelin’s 1971 tune “Black Canine,” however Ann Wilson of Coronary heart does a imply model herself. Sung from a lady’s perspective, “Black Canine” now begins with “hey hey, mama” reasonably than “hey hey, child.” Wilson later emphasizes that the tune’s topic ought to look elsewhere for love: “you want a lady gonna maintain your hand / let you know no lies, make you a cheerful man.”

 

17. “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Unique artist: The Arrows

Joan Jett reportedly first heard “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 1976, a 12 months after the tune was recorded by an all-male British band known as the Arrows. It could be one other three years earlier than Jett may persuade anybody to document the observe together with her. She initially enlisted the assistance of Steve Jones and Paul Prepare dinner of the Intercourse Pistols, switched the pronouns and launched it as a B-side single. “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” did not turn out to be a success, nevertheless, till Jett recorded it once more with the Blackhearts in 1981.

 

18. “Me and My Uncle,” Joni Mitchell
Unique artist: John Phillips

You may not consider Joni Mitchell as a rough-riding cowboy however she however did a 1965 rendition of a tune about a few outlaws touring to Texas. Written and recorded by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas in 1963, “Me and My Uncle” turn out to be a staple of the Grateful Useless’s set lists and was additionally coated by the likes of Judy Collins, John Denver and others. In Mitchell’s model, she neatly modified “I am as trustworthy as a Denver man might be” to “Denver gal.”

 

19. “Then She Kissed Me,” Kiss
Unique artist: The Crystals

Kiss put their spin on the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me,” greater than a decade after the Seaside Boys. “Then She Kissed Me” discovered its place on the finish of 1977’s Love Gun – their final album with co-founding drummer Peter Criss on each tune but additionally the band’s first to succeed in the High 5 on the Billboard 200.

 

20. “I Heard It By the Grapevine,” Marvin Gaye
Unique artist: Gladys Knight and the Pips

The Miracles recorded this tune in 1966, however their rendition wasn’t launched till 1968. That opened the door for Gladys Knight and the Pips, as she confronted a dishonest companion in 1967: “Between the 2 of us ladies, you realize I like you extra.” Marvin Gaye’s male model of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Sturdy’s Motown traditional turned the best-known after topping the charts in 1968. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s epic 11-minute replace adopted in 1970.

 

21. “Run for Your Life,” Nancy Sinatra
Unique artist: The Beatles

There may be an undeniably threatening vibe to “Run for Your Life,” a Beatles tune that seems to advocate for the demise of a lady versus her departure from a relationship. Nancy Sinatra determined to flip the script for her 1966 album Boots, merely altering the pronouns to create a kind of “see the way you prefer it” tone: “I might reasonably see you useless, little boy than to see you with one other lady.”

 

22. “Gloria,” Patti Smith
Unique artist: Them

“Gloria” was a storage rock staple a few years earlier than Patti Smith included a revamped model on her 1975 debut album Horses. Penned by Van Morrison when he was within the Irish band Them, the tune initially started: “Like to inform ya about my child / You recognize she comes round. She about 5 toes 4 / From her head to the bottom.” Smith stored the title “Gloria” on the coronary heart of her model, however as an alternative of being a couple of feminine companion, the tune turned extra like an ode to Smith’s energy: “My sins my very own,” she sings, “they belong to me.”

 

23. “(You Make Me Really feel Like) A Pure Man,” Rod Stewart
Unique artist: Aretha Franklin

It might sound inconceivable to shift the gender of a tune titled “(You Make Me Really feel Like) A Pure Girl” — or on the very least, it would make the rhythm of the refrain clunkier sounding. Rod Stewart however took on the problem. Co-written by Gerry Goffin, Carole King and Jerry Wexler, the tune was particularly meant for Aretha Franklin, whose unique recording went to No. 8 and have become considered one of her signature songs. King additionally recorded her model for 1971’s Tapestry, earlier than Stewart’s cowl appeared on 1974’s Smiler.

 

24. “I might A lot Reasonably Be With the Ladies,” Ronnie Spector
Unique artist: The Rolling Stones

Ronnie Spector confessed to the BBC in 2015 that she did not know “I might A lot Reasonably Be With the Boys” was an often-covered ’60s-era rarity by the Rolling Stones, a band she’d recognized effectively again then. She merely shifted the gender for 2016’s English Coronary heart and stored on shifting. When requested why she chosen this observe, Spector supplied a veiled reference to her late ex-husband Phil Spector, whom she constantly accused of abusing her throughout their marriage. “You recognize my previous life. I believe everyone is aware of who I’m singing about,” Ronnie Spector instructed the BBC. “There’s a line within the tune, ‘I do not want you anymore.’ By listening to the lyrics, I believe you may perceive why I might a lot reasonably be with the women.”

 

25. “Piece of My Coronary heart,” Sammy Hagar
Unique artist: Erma Franklin

Sammy Hagar solely needed to swap a couple of strains within the first verse of “Piece of My Coronary heart” to make it work for him: “Did not I make you are feeling such as you had been the one man?” and “Did not I offer you almost all the things {that a} lady probably can?” turned “Did not I make you are feeling such as you had been the one one?” and “Did not I offer you all the things I may?” respectively. “Piece of My Coronary heart” was first launched in 1967 by Erma Franklin, the older sister of Aretha Franklin, earlier than Janis Joplin’s 1968 recording took it to new heights. Hagar’s cowl earned a spot on 1982’s Standing Hampton.

 

26. “Candy Youngster O’ Mine,” Sheryl Crow
Unique artist: Weapons N’ Roses

Sheryl Crow’s gender-swapped 1999 rendition of “Candy Youngster O’ Mine” was recorded for the soundtrack to the Adam Sandler automobile Huge Daddy, and is not usually cited as considered one of her finest musical choices. Nonetheless, the Rick Rubin-produced observe gained her a Grammy Award for Greatest Feminine Rock Vocal Efficiency.

 

27. “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Sinead O’Connor
Unique artist: Prince

Nothing compares to Sinead O’Connor’s interpretation of this Prince observe, which appeared on her 1990 album I Do Not Need What I Have not Acquired. Her highly effective model swaps genders throughout a verse a couple of go to to the physician: “He mentioned, “Woman you higher attempt to have enjoyable, it doesn’t matter what you do.” Prince did not usually take kindly to folks masking his songs and reportedly wasn’t a fan of O’Connor’s recording. She was unmoved, telling The New York Instances in 2021: “So far as I am involved, it is my tune.”

 

28. “Underneath My Thumb,” Tina Turner 
Unique artist: The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones weren’t the primary rock ‘n’ roll band to jot down and launch an objectifying tune about girls, nor had been they the final. Nonetheless, “Underneath My Thumb” stands out of their catalog as considered one of their most aggressive, rejoicing in a companion that “does simply what she’s instructed.” A number of artists have issued their renditions, together with Tina Turner for 1975’s Acid Queen. A 12 months later, Turner left her husband Ike Turner then accused him of being abusive. However she’d already spoken her freedom into existence with the Stones cowl: “It is right down to me, the change has come / He is beneath my thumb.”

 

29. “Chief of the Pack,” Twisted Sister
Unique artist: The Shangri-Las

“Chief of the Pack” was first recorded by the Shangri-Las in 1964, and focuses on a lady named Betty as she describes assembly her motorbike beau. Their first encounter occurs, innocently sufficient, on the sweet retailer – however they later cut up at her father’s insistence. Then the boy meets his finish in a wet motorbike crash. Quick ahead to 1985, and the lady turns into the chief of the pack in Twisted Sister’s replace, assembly her demise in a automotive accident as depicted within the accompanying music video.

 

30. “Anyone to Love,” W.A.S.P.
Unique artist: Jefferson Airplane

“Anyone to Love” was penned in 1965 by Grace Slick’s brother-in-law Darby Slick, once they had been members of a San Francisco group known as the Nice Society together with his brother Jerry Slick. They recorded the tune as a single in 1966, nevertheless it didn’t turn out to be a success till Grace introduced it together with her to Jefferson Airplane. W.A.S.P. included “Anyone to Love” on 1995’s Nonetheless Not Black Sufficient, altering “your eyes, I say your eyes could appear to be his” to “hers.”

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