Tonight is the first game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals. For once, I'm actually pulling for one of the teams, instead of just jumping on the bandwagon of whichever team is hot like I usually do. I'm nearly a lifelong Royals fan and am happy to see them finally returning to the Series. In honor of the occasion, I present to you 13 different renditions of the hit song "Royals" by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. For those of you who aren't familiar with the song, Lorde's original version is included first. For those of you who appreciate a bit of commentary with each song, you'll be happy to find it here as well. Enjoy! ~ JH
"Royals" ~ as sung by Lorde
1) Craig Campbell (This guy makes the song sound like it was written AS a country song! Well-played, Craig. Well-played.)
2) Pentatonix (This group ALWAYS nails their cover songs – with nary a musical instrument in sight, aside from their amazing voices!)
3) Puddles, The Sad Clown With The Golden Voice (He's a 7-foot-tall clown named Puddles. And he croons like a lounge singer. Of course he does…)
4) Walk Off The Earth (I love this band! They manage to make their cover songs sound entirely unique, while somehow retaining the overall flavor of the original song. Plus, their music videos are top-notch performance art!)
5) Sarah Stone (The creativity and talent of YouTubers never ceases to amaze me! Check out this version, which uses a red Solo cup and two busy hands for its percussion.)
6) Clean Bandit (This one was definitely re-imagined, not at all a sound-alike cover like many of the ones you'll find on YouTube. It's not my favorite, but it's certainly unique.)
7) Jason Derulo (Real talk: This guy's got such a smooth voice that he could make any song sound good.)
8) Mayer Hawthorne (The singer promises to "funk it up" a bit here, and indeed he does. Nice cover, "unexpected" or otherwise.)
9) Ed Sheeran (He learned the song in two-and-a-half minutes and OWNED it! Yep, Ed's pretty amazing like that.)
10) Tyler Ward (This veteran YouTuber's version of the hit song is uncharacteristically sunny – figuratively and literally – and leaves an entirely different taste in one's mouth. Which isn't a bad thing. It's just different.)
11) Jim Cheek & Scott Jenkins (To all of you who were waiting with bated breath for a saxophone cover of this song, your wait is over! And you're welcome.)
12) Pixie Lott (Take a catchy pop song, add a sassy "blue-eyed soul" singer, honey-throated backup singers, and a great jazz backing band, and you get this. Magic!)
13) Dave Days (What "Royals" would sound like if Avril Lavigne sang it…in 2002…and she was actually a guy. End result: Well…it's kinda crappy.)
BONUS TRACK: "Weird Al" Yankovic ~ "Foil" (Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a great "Weird Al" parody of the song!)
