Sweet, Hoffs Go Under 'Covers' For '70s Fun

For Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, recording some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s in 2006 wasn't enough to fulfill their rock 'n' roll fantasies, so they've decided to go back under the covers for some more musical fun.

Out Tuesday, "Under the Covers, Vol. 2" (Shout! Factory) gets in tune with some more classic rock 'n' roll music of the 1970s. The 16-track album includes covers of songs from the likes of The Grateful Dead, Rod Stewart, The Raspberries, Yes, Mott the Hoople and George Harrison.

In recent interviews, Hoffs and Sweet said the biggest priority in covering the new set of classic tunes was to maintain the songs' integrity.

"For Matthew and me, it is about capturing the emotion and the spirit of the songs," said Hoffs, the longtime lead singer and guitarist with The Bangles. "Matthew and I came to music because we're music lovers. This project has been is the music that we grew up with and we love, and it's what inspired us to play music ourselves."

Hoffs said she's been doing cover tunes as long as she's been singing and playing guitar, and doing them has been her greatest teacher.

"I'm completely self-taught and I don't read music, and I learned about music by singing along to them and trying to learn what those artists were doing. So it's been a treat to me to actually be able record versions that are hopefully exposing new audiences to music they may not know about."

Sweet, who previously played with Hoffs in Mike Myers' fiction band Ming Tea in the "Austin Powers" movies, said he's pained by groups skewing the vision of the original artists with re-interpreted cover songs.

"When some people do covers -- in my opinion, anyway -- they tend to throw out the baby with the bathwater. They want to put their own stamp on it," Sweet said. "There's a lot that goes into those classic songs that make them pop out and be special, so we try not to lose that stuff. We want to keep the spirit of the original, instead of willy-nilly change things for the hell of it."

While the pair tries to cover the songs note-for-note, Sweet said that he and Hoffs do take liberties from time to time with the vocals.

"Our voices are so specific, so in that way alone, it makes everything different," Sweet said. "Plus we tend to do harmonies for things -- we did that a bit more for the '70s records, because there weren't a lot of things that had as many harmonies. The ones that did have harmonies -- like The Grateful Dead ("Sugar Magnolia") -- really clicked for us."

Sometimes the differences on "Vol. 2's" came simply by reversing the role of the singer. On the cover of The Raspberries smash "Go All the Way" -- a tale of hot-and-heavy teenage romance first sung famously by Eric Carmen -- Hoffs sings the song from a woman's point-of-view.

"I got an e-mail from Eric Carmen at some point, where he was really excited to hear that we were recording the song," Hoffs recalled. "He said he had always been curious to see how the song would be interpreted with a girl vocal, because, let's face it, we know what the content of the song is about and girl singing puts a cool twist on it."

Sweet and Hoffs have an equal share of vocal duties on "Under the Covers, Vol. 2," but Sweet said that he almost prefers Hoffs to sing more, especially on the hits made famous by male singers, including the duo's covers of Eric Clapton on Derek and the Dominoes' "Bell Bottom Blues" and Rod Stewart's "Maggie May."

"I always want Sue to sing -- anything sounds cool when she sings it," Sweet said with a laugh. "I get my few in, but it's hard for me to resist making her sing unusual things. I talked with somebody yesterday who was going crazy over her singing 'Maggie.' I originally said to her, 'Ah, you have to sing that song' without even thinking about the lyrics. It just works with her singing it."

Sweet and Hoffs had unique opportunities in "Under the Covers, Vol. 2" in that sometimes, some of the principals involved with the original recordings made a cameo on the duo's cover. Lindsay Buckingham played guitar on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News," while Yes member Steve Howe broke out the 12-string guitar for Sweet and Hoffs' cover of "I've Seen All Good People: All Good People/Your Move."

For the cover of Harrison's "Beware of Darkness," Sweet and Hoffs were joined by the late former Beatle's son, guitarist Dhani Harrison, whom Hoffs first met a few years back while playing with the Bangles in England. More recently, Hoffs has sung with Harrison's band in Los Angeles.

"Dhani coming to the studio to play on his dad's song was an amazing experience. It was sort of like putting his blessing on the song," Hoffs said. "He's such a lovely person with this sunny, wonderful disposition. He's so kind and sweet. I just adore him."

Now that Sweet and Hoffs have covered the '60s and '70s, a cover album of some classics from the 1980s is certainly conceivable. But that would also mean that Hoffs would have to consider covering some of the songs she helped make famous with The Bangles. The parallel universe situation makes Hoffs smile; that is, if she can wrap her head around the idea that the group behind "Manic Monday" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" was actually an '80s band.

"Even in the 1980s, I distanced myself from the '80s scene. I thought to myself, 'I'm not in tune with what's going on around me,'" Hoffs said. "To this day, we Bangles are girls who are influenced by the '60s. We wear our love of the '60s on our sleeves and mini-skirts. We wear vintage gear and boots. We're like little kids looking up to the generation of the '60s and just being in awe of the whole Cultural Revolution."

And lucky for fans of Hoffs, there are more Bangles tunes on the way -- and a familiar name is joining them for the ride.

"I'm producing them right now in my house. We've done three songs so far and they're so awesome," a giddy Sweet said. "So I'm so excited about that record, too."