The Beautiful Ones

Funky

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I felt like having a chat about this song. Listening to Butterfly in full for the first time has certainly brought it back to my attention, but it has to be said, for someone who has made some questionable choices for cover ballads, she absolutely nails this.

I’ve always loved it to be fair, always been one of my highlights of a brilliant album. But it needs a lot of credit. For someone who is an enormous Prince fan, probably my favourite artist ever, I actually think I prefer this version. And I LOVE the original.

There’s just something very special about it....

 
I really like it, but I don't think it is better than the original (unlike Sinead's "Nothing Compares 2 U" or Cyndi's "When You Were Mine" which I think outshine even Prince).
 

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Admittedly Prince’s live versions of When You Were Mine blow ALL others out of the water. I like Cyndi’s version but it’s just different, not superior.

As for Mariah’s TBO, I can’t listen to it. It’s just dreadful. Beyoncé’s Glastonbury version is however amazing.
 
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I absolutely love it and was quite DISMAYED to see that it wasn't universally liked. I don't know the Prince version don't @ me so this is the definitive one for me. She and Sisqo sound incredible. It's overlong in the best possible way and the ad libs which I can recreate at a moment's notice are the cherry on top of a VERY NICE CAKE THAT TASTES NICE
 
Admittedly Prince’s live versions of When You Were Mine blow ALL other LS out of the water. I like Cyndi’s version but it’s just different, not superior.

As for Mariah’s TBO, I can’t listen to it. It’s just dreadful. Beyoncé’s Glastonbury version is however amazing.

Beyonce was very respectful of the original. Mariah’s slowing of the tempo was a bit of a rework; it allowed her to ad-lib more freely without it becoming a screamathon. I think she sounds sexy as fuck on it, honestly
 
I also love how it creeps in towards the end of the preceding track
 
Nobody tell me to listen to the Prince version, I don't want to
 
I absolutely love it and was quite DISMAYED to see that it wasn't universally liked. I don't know the Prince version don't @ me so this is the definitive one for me. She and Sisqo sound incredible. It's overlong in the best possible way and the ad libs which I can recreate at a moment's notice are the cherry on top of a VERY NICE CAKE THAT TASTES NICE

Including the whistle note at the climax?

I think the climax of the song, which is amazing in both versions, is also better on the Mariah version (sorry again @Ellie). The duet just comes ALIVE at that moment

I GOTTA KNOW
I GOTTA KNOW BABY
 
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The vocals are superb and the climax is one of the bests on Butterfly. But the song overall is somewhat of a HEAVY listen. It's a long and super packed track, so I have to be in the mood.
 
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It is heavy but that’s what makes it special. It’s a different atmosphere to the original, but the fact that it has, for me, retained as much atmosphere as the original is an achievement in itself. And she has made it fit within the sultry confines of the album. I just think it’s one of many examples from Butterfly of a songwriter in her creative peak.
 
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Definitely a mood piece as KC says
 
I actually chose this to be the song I listened to as I turned 30 :D

for 40 next May it's gonna be Now United tbc
 
I mean, she literally didn't write it. But werk.

About 90% of the adlibs are different to the original. I think that deserves a bit of credit. If a pianist had reworked the riffs that would be classed as songwriting, I don’t know why her vocal arrangement is any different.
 
Incredible cover of an incredible song.

I don't think there's much point asking if it's better than the original. She took a song she obviously loves and adores and made it sound like a Mimi original, while still being very respectful to the original. A triumph.

It's also a very welcome breath of fresh air once you get to the final stretch of Butterfly, being perhaps the breeziest song on the album.
 
Breeziest? Girl. It's about a fucked up relationship and comes just after Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise), literally a club track about freedom and flying away. :basil:
 
In my Mariah Top 10. I also think Dru works on it perfectly too.

I'm assuming she has never attempted it live? That would be quite a TASK
 
Breeziest? Girl. It's about a fucked up relationship and comes just after Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise), literally a club track about freedom and flying away. :basil:
:D

sonically, babe. it floats like silk.

listening now - the bit from 4:45 on where it starts to crescendo and they're adlibbing for their lives, volleying back and forth, really just GOING FOR IT is everything. their voices compliment each other perfectly and the way her vocal is just a touch scratchy and rough on her lower harmonies? *chef's kiss*
 
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It faithfully, sincerely and spiritually recaptured all of the original's dazzling memories. It's a glittering Mariah snow globe of emotion. Sisqo doesn't deliver enough in places though - now if Prince had stepped up (was he asked?) this would have been a global sky of wigs only just beginning to fall down.
 

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