With just five songs featured on this post it may appear to be an abbreviated episode of Cover Me! but I still think it’s worth your while stopping by. “Whenever You’re On My Mind” is one of my all-time favourite songs. For me, there’s just no way anyone is going to touch the transcendent beauty of Crenshaw’s original. Initially recorded during sessions for his debut album, the song didn’t quite fit and ended up the lead single on his fabulous second LP Field Day. Talk about making a good first impression, the track opens the album with one of the most seductive guitar hooks of all time, the vocals are a master class in power pop elocution, and the production is so brilliantly, sibilantly Steve Lillywhite good. Frankly, running the search engines on YouTube, Bandcamp and iTunes, it doesn’t appear that a lot of people have been up for the challenge of covering such a formidable composition and performance. But there have been a few worthy attempts.

We start with Marshall, of course. For a different take from the single and album cut you can find a live version of “Whenever You’re On My Mind” on his 2021 collection The Wild Exciting Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw. The 1983 video for the song is worth a viewing too, if only for its time capsule feel for an early 1980s look and ambience.

In terms of covers, we begin with the most inventive. Working with REM producer Don Dixon, Marti Jones put out a number of albums in the 1980s that saw her put her stamp on a host of songs from the likes of Elvis Costello, Dwight Twilley, David Bowie, and John Hiatt. Her cover of “Whenever You’re On My Mind” appeared on her 1986 album Match Game, which Marshall Crenshaw played some 12 string guitar on, though not on his song. What is striking on her cover is how she changes the vocal emphasis on the lines in the chorus. Girl group legend Ronnie Spector did a whole EP of Marshall songs on 2003’s Something’s On My Mind. She too added a few surprising twists and turns to the song’s melodic arc here and there that really work. I only know Zach Jones from his spot-on Monkees reincarnation track from 2020 “Must Be On My Way.” His 2016 acoustic approach to covering “Whenever You’re On My Mind” lightens the power pop intensity, gentling the vocals and guitar attack. The effect is reassuring rather than bracing. I really like the guitar tone and ramshackle vocal on Michael Fiore’s cover from the same year. There’s a rehearsal space Replacements vibe to this rendition. The Kavanaghs hail from Rosario, Argentina and put Marshall’s song on the b-side of their 2021 single “Going To The Beach.” The latter is more of a vamp-ish rocker so their cover shows they can’t handle the more melodic side of the street too. Why more people don’t cover MC is a mystery to me, given the results on display here with just these five submissions.

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