Because some people like to be dramatic. And a lot of these shows encourage oversinging EVERYTHING.

rogifan said:

I love Purple Rain just for it's beautiful simplicity. For whatever reason people think they need to sing it like a gospel song and they end up murdering it in the process. The most recent example was tonight on the UK version of The Voice. The woman who sang it obviously has a voice and can sing. But she murdered this song by over singing, screaming and unnecessary runs all over the place. It ruined the song for me. All the screaming and runs doesn't tell me you have more passion it just makes my ears hurt.

jennifer hudson oversang the hell out of it when jessie j sang it i think she did a nice job wasnt overdone just simple and to the point.

rogifan said:

I love Purple Rain just for it's beautiful simplicity. For whatever reason people think they need to sing it like a gospel song and they end up murdering it in the process. The most recent example was tonight on the UK version of The Voice. The woman who sang it obviously has a voice and can sing. But she murdered this song by over singing, screaming and unnecessary runs all over the place. It ruined the song for me. All the screaming and runs doesn't tell me you have more passion it just makes my ears hurt.

ya, i notice that too, i think it's almost impossible for anyone to really do Prince songs. His vocals were so sparse in that era his melodies were very very simple and didn't leave a lot of room for runs, vibrato, long held notes but singers are prima donnas and so, there we go.

PR isn't the only song, lets go crazy, and many others get too oversung because, frankly, this generation of singers/musicians are rank amateurs for the most part and yes that accounts for the "superstars" too.

PeteSilas said:

rogifan said:

PeteSilas said:

ya, i notice that too, i think it's almost impossible for anyone to really do Prince songs. His vocals were so sparse in that era his melodies were very very simple and didn't leave a lot of room for runs, vibrato, long held notes but singers are prima donnas and so, there we go.

They should take a clue from the man himself. Prince didn't over sing and he never overused runs (if he even used runs that much at all).

he used them all the time, but he did it right and tastefully. like i said, these kids are amateurs overcompensating, prince practically talks in some of his biggest hits, not everyone can understand that.

Agree. This has been going on way too long with many songs and it's not just women who oversing.

Doing it to Prince material is especially painful. And, if you can't do stage bidness like Prince, just sing. Don't wanna watch your hands flutter signaling what you think is your perfect note.

I've said it before, and I'll continue to do so: no one should cover "Purple Rain". Pull out another song to pay tribute, but no one has ever been able to sing it or do it justice (except maybe the Springsteen cover in concert). So folks need to stop. Prince was around how many years? And people and still singing that one song?!

Totally agree. I just checked the version you are referring to and I didn't like it either.

With Purple Rain, less is definitely more.

rogifan said:

I love Purple Rain just for it's beautiful simplicity. For whatever reason people think they need to sing it like a gospel song and they end up murdering it in the process. The most recent example was tonight on the UK version of The Voice. The woman who sang it obviously has a voice and can sing. But she murdered this song by over singing, screaming and unnecessary runs all over the place. It ruined the song for me. All the screaming and runs doesn't tell me you have more passion it just makes my ears hurt.

I totally agree, rogifan. People butcher the song by oversinging it. I like Jennifer Hudson and her voice is fantastic, but she oversang the song during the BET tribute in July 2016.

--

PR is a pretty simple song to sing by Prince standards. It's slow and there are not as many lyrics as in some of his other hits. This is an observation about the song, not an insult 2 it, and I would never insult PR because it's a great song and I love it. Also, a lot of people who cover PR omit the guitar solo. Covering both the singing AND the guitar solo would be extremely difficult. Diamonds and Pearls (tied 4 my favourite Prince song of all time) is a pretty simple song 2 sing by Prince standards (especially if 2 people are singing it). Cream is fairly simple. Kiss isn't simple, but it's easier 2 cover than a lot of P's other hit songs.

--

The fact is that a lot of P's hit songs are difficult 2 cover. It's a heck of a lot easier 2 sing PR than some 1999, Let's Go Crazy, Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry, 7, I Would Die 4 U, If I Was Your Girlfriend, or Raspberry Beret. I Wanna Be Your Lover is fairly simple only if you can sing falsetto. So besides being 1 of his signature songs, I suspect that the simplicity of PR is why so many people choose 2 cover it.

CherryMoon57 said:

Totally agree. I just checked the version you are referring to and I didn't like it either.

With Purple Rain, less is definitely more.

PeteSilas said:

TrivialPursuit said:

rogifan said:

TrivialPursuit said:

I've said it before, and I'll continue to do so: no one should cover "Purple Rain". Pull out another song to pay tribute, but no one has ever been able to sing it or do it justice (except maybe the Springsteen cover in concert). So folks need to stop. Prince was around how many years? And people and still singing that one song?!

I don't know why people liked the Springsteen cover other than it was Springsteen and it was cool to see him pay tribute in that way. Another is Adam Levin's cover at Howard Stern's b-day bash. It's got like 30M views on YouTube. While it was good the first thing that comes to my mind is Prince would smoke you on guitar any day of the week.

adams' was superb and surprising as i didn't know he played guitar. there are some ok ones on youtube, you know, these kids with all the musical talent in the world but no clue how to use it really. Maybe I'm getting old but it irritates me. There is this really good version by some philipino kid and his cousin on piano and guitar, they do fine but it's just too modern for me, you know, he's trying to look like bruno mars and show his big teeth alot and the sound is too clean.

rogifan said:

I love Purple Rain just for it's beautiful simplicity. For whatever reason people think they need to sing it like a gospel song and they end up murdering it in the process. The most recent example was tonight on the UK version of The Voice. The woman who sang it obviously has a voice and can sing. But she murdered this song by over singing, screaming and unnecessary runs all over the place. It ruined the song for me. All the screaming and runs doesn't tell me you have more passion it just makes my ears hurt. [Edited 4/1/17 16:17pm]

Couldn´t agree more. This is the most annoying thing ever . If you can sing you don´t need to scream like an agonizing cockatoo to show it.

And to choose Purple Rain among sooo many options...just shows how little she probably knows about his career.

[Edited 4/1/17 17:12pm]

Yeah Jennifer Hudson did oversangi Purple Rain but thats Jennifer.

But when I hear artists sample Prince's songs I try to treat it as their own version.

ladygirl99 said:

Well, it is in fact a gospel.

Tom Jones did it kinda OK, he overdoes it but overdoes it well, in the Tom Jones tradition : operatic on the verge of ludicrous, but oddly honest and fiercely unapologetic.
But then David Gilmour ruins it with one of the most unimaginative and clunky solos ever (some people should never quit smoking weed).

But Prince butchered his own creation as well. Circa 20Ten, Purple Rain played live had these über-dramatic drums stop-and-goes that lasted forever ("one more! Sing it!"), as if Purple Rain was the ultimate creation, the Song of songs, ruining the who-hoos for everyone (by the 20th encore, I dare anyone not to be disgusted with it).

Prince himself made a caricature of the song. But you have to give him credit. He sang the bloody thing at every concert, year after year, and always tried to perform it with generosity, even though at this point one of the geminis in his head probably screamed "enough already with this stadium shit!".

bonatoc said:

Well, it is in fact a gospel.

Tom Jones did it kinda OK, he overdoes it but overdoes it well, in the Tom Jones tradition : operatic on the verge of ludicrous, but oddly honest and fiercely unapologetic.
But then David Gilmour ruins it with one of the most unimaginative and clunky solos ever (some people should never quit smoking weed).

But Prince butchered his own creation as well. Circa 20Ten, Purple Rain played live had these über-dramatic drums stop-and-goes that lasted forever ("one more! Sing it!"), as if Purple Rain was the ultimate creation, the Song of songs, ruining the who-hoos for everyone (by the 20th encore, I dare anyone not to be disgusted with it).

Prince himself made a caricature of the song. But you have to give him credit. He sang the bloody thing at every concert, year after year, and always tried to perform it with generosity, even though at this point one of the geminis in his head probably screamed "enough already with this stadium shit!".

even in the original, there are some bombastic moments, particularly at the end and they are great, falsetto runs, amongst the best of it's type he's done I think. It was gospel, but it was also kinda country, i think Big Chick called it a Willie Nelson type tune, it's true, Prince in those days covered all kinds of ground, who else could take country, stadium rock, gospel, heavy metal, into one tune?

Fantasia oversings Purple Rain to perfection.

Unfortunately she doesn't get asked to perform it much, especially during tribute season.

PeteSilas said:

bonatoc said:

Well, it is in fact a gospel.

Tom Jones did it kinda OK, he overdoes it but overdoes it well, in the Tom Jones tradition : operatic on the verge of ludicrous, but oddly honest and fiercely unapologetic.
But then David Gilmour ruins it with one of the most unimaginative and clunky solos ever (some people should never quit smoking weed).

But Prince butchered his own creation as well. Circa 20Ten, Purple Rain played live had these über-dramatic drums stop-and-goes that lasted forever ("one more! Sing it!"), as if Purple Rain was the ultimate creation, the Song of songs, ruining the who-hoos for everyone (by the 20th encore, I dare anyone not to be disgusted with it).

Prince himself made a caricature of the song. But you have to give him credit. He sang the bloody thing at every concert, year after year, and always tried to perform it with generosity, even though at this point one of the geminis in his head probably screamed "enough already with this stadium shit!".

even in the original, there are some bombastic moments, particularly at the end and they are great, falsetto runs, amongst the best of it's type he's done I think. It was gospel, but it was also kinda country, i think Big Chick called it a Willie Nelson type tune, it's true, Prince in those days covered all kinds of ground, who else could take country, stadium rock, gospel, heavy metal, into one tune?

I heard a country singer covering Purple Rain on an alternative station last week. It does sound pretty good as a country tune.

purplethunder3121 said:

rogifan said:

purplethunder3121 said:

I heard a country singer covering Purple Rain on an alternative station last week. It does sound pretty good as a country tune.

Oh no now I've this in my head. Yuck!

At least he didn't over sing it.

[Edited 4/1/17 18:29pm]

PeteSilas said:

rogifan said:

I love Purple Rain just for it's beautiful simplicity. For whatever reason people think they need to sing it like a gospel song and they end up murdering it in the process. The most recent example was tonight on the UK version of The Voice. The woman who sang it obviously has a voice and can sing. But she murdered this song by over singing, screaming and unnecessary runs all over the place. It ruined the song for me. All the screaming and runs doesn't tell me you have more passion it just makes my ears hurt. [Edited 4/1/17 16:17pm]

This was under the video I just saw of her performance:

Michelle's coach Will said: "I had the pleasure and was blessed to work with Prince and I know he'd have loved this version of Purple Rain."

She's got talent, but this version of Purple Rain gave me a headache.

To be fair, it's far from my fav P song unless he's doing it live...and I'm not a big fan of other folks doing his songs in general anyway. I appreciate folks wanting to pay tribute, but I just wish they'd stop already...it's enough.

Dez Dickerson actually did a good job last month

Wendy did really good during the 2012 show

Pattie Labelle is another that overdid the song during the BET tribute in 2010 along with Treyzongs

OldFriends4Sale said:

Dez Dickerson actually did a good job last month

Wendy did really good during the 2012 show

Pattie Labelle is another that overdid the song during the BET tribute in 2010 along with Treyzongs

ya, i didn't want to bring up patti because she's one of my fave singers but Patti labelle and oversinging are inseparable, usually that's a good thing.

PeteSilas said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Dez Dickerson actually did a good job last month

Wendy did really good during the 2012 show

Pattie Labelle is another that overdid the song during the BET tribute in 2010 along with Treyzongs

ya, i didn't want to bring up patti because she's one of my fave singers but Patti labelle and oversinging are inseparable, usually that's a good thing.

Yes, Patti definitely oversings, but I love the look on P's face during her performance...and when he caught her shoe and showed it to the audience. Lol