How to Nail a Classic Rock Cover

“I hope Jeff likes it when he gets to hear it, but you never know with cover versions.” Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: L. Busacca/Getty Images, Andrew Benge/Redferns

Duran Duran’s sequined cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Evil Woman” arrived just in time for cauldron season. Nick Rhodes, the band’s longtime keyboardist, says the idea arose when Simon Le Bon pitched it for the new deluxe edition of their 2023 Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre. It was an easy sell: All four members are “big fans” of Jeff Lynne’s work, according to Rhodes. But there was something “beautifully structured” about the specific 1975 hit that could easily be transformed into Duran Duran’s signature sound, with the help of a thunder-clap machine, bouncing synthesizers, and a conga-esque drum beat. Think of the cover as less ELO spaceship rock trip and more of a time-traveling bender to Studio 54.

“The beauty of music is to remain flexible and open-minded,” Rhodes says. “That’s at the heart of what has kept Duran Duran fresh.” Not everyone can nail such a classic-rock staple, but, fortunately, Duran Duran’s “Evil Woman” is much more aligned with Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me” than Riverdale’s “Mad World” abomination. Here, Rhodes breaks down all of the steps that brought their wildly funky version of the ELO single to life.

1. Learn from the past

We made a record in 1995 called Thank You, where we covered a lot of iconic songs — some of which have held up extremely well, like “White Lines,” by Melle Mel, which we still play in our live show, and “Perfect Day,” by Lou Reed. There was controversy around the album at the time, because a lot of people thought we shouldn’t have touched certain songs. But the artists responded very well. I was so thrilled when Lou actually said, “Wow, it’s a great cover. If I was able to sing like Simon, that’s how I would’ve sung it.” The ones that worked best were when we played them in our style but didn’t try to completely reinvent what the song was. With this whole Danse Macabre project, I felt we didn’t need do something so radical that people would say, “What is that song? Oh, goodness, it’s that.” Instead, we wanted to make our version of each track as if we’d written it.

2. Make it (vaguely) thematically appropriate

We used Halloween as a touchstone for Danse Macabre for picking a group of songs to cover and redoing some of our own songs that slightly fit into that theme. I mean, “Evil Woman” has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. It’s actually quite angry, bitter lyrics in what I imagine is a personal experience that Jeff must have had at some point in his life. There’s also dark humor in it. So does it really fit as a Halloween song? I’m not sure, but it sounds like a slightly spooky dance song, and that works perfectly well for the purposes of Danse Macabre.

3. Switch up the recording process

Electric Light Orchestra’s songs were so Beatles-esque. When you listen to them now, they’re beautifully produced, unusual, and unique pieces. So when Simon said, “I’d really love to do ‘Evil Woman,’” everybody responded, “Yeah, great song, why not?” As we Duranified it, it became obvious to us how we would’ve played it had it been our song.

Usually, we’ll all get into the studio together and jam something out until we find the strongest element. But when we did the deluxe, the songs, quite simply, already existed. John went into the studio with Simon in Los Angeles and they made a template. Simon was really keen to keep the rhythm-guitar part to the song as a main element, and they sent that to me. I went into another studio in England and pieced together all the synths and what I wanted to do. I changed the arrangement, which made me find all the sounds and architecture for it. Roger redid all these drums, Simon redid the vocals again, and we added all the other little bits up. It felt like we were gently moving it into a different time period. Dom Brown, our longtime guitarist, had a lovely and funky solo. One of our producers said to me, “Is that Nile Rodgers playing the guitar?” I told Dom what he said, and I think that made his year, since Nile is the greatest living rhythm guitarist.

4. Get freaky with the keyboards

I can always cook up a good storm sound if you need one. It’s finding samples of things. What I always find when I use a natural sound is if I don’t record them all myself, then I’ll go and find ones online that are good on their own. And you can combine them. That thunder that we open with is about two or three different thunderclaps.

5. Cross your fingers that the boss approves

I hope Jeff likes it when he gets to hear it, but you never know with cover versions. Anybody can perform somebody else’s song if they don’t alter it fundamentally. If we wanted to change all the lyrics and all the chord structures, then we would have had to ask for permission. We’ve had so many cover versions done of our songs. Some of them I’ve really liked. Other ones, not so much. But if an artist makes the effort to do it, I think generally the unspoken rule is to be polite and grateful that somebody liked the song enough to cover it.