Poopot's Cover Challenge #35 - the letter V

flying_pie

Welcome to the 35th Poopot's Cover Challenge


The winner of our last challenge was me. And me has deliberated and chosen a song.

I've thought about going with something very personal. Something that really resonates and is of huge significance not just to my musical influences but also to my whole appreciation of music. But in the end the song I picked means nothing to me.



Vienna by Ultravox


or Vienna by Billy Joel because it's also a good song with the same name and why not?



If you want to cover something different then you can choose any song beginning with V or The followed by V. But if you cover the chosen track you will automatically receive a bonus 5pts as a head start (and that can come in very handy when you win by 1 point). There is also special bonus rule for this challenge - if anyone covers Valerie by the Zutons as ruined by Mark Ronson then you'll be awarded -100 points


* RULES:

Entries to be sent in mp3 format to the following Email address:

covers@thefretboard.co.uk

Please comment in the thread when you've sent an entry as it often ends up in my spam folder. And feel free to submit more than one entry if you want. The more the merrier!

You may wish to submit artwork to go with your entry. It brightens up the playlist and might subliminally get you more votes but it's not mandatory

Entries close at 11.30pm on Friday 29th May 2026 so get going!!!!
 

A playlist of all the entries will be posted below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/poopots-cover-challenge-v


Good luck!

viz

Lolled at the Valerie comment as that's what I instantly thought of!

Jfingers

I'd love to hear one of you you lot do Virginia Plain.

thecolourbox

I've never actually listened to Vienna by Ultravox before. I knew the title line so I must have heard that bit, but definitely no memory of the verse. 

Never heard the Billy Joel one either, he's very much one of those I can largely respect as long as I never really have to listen to him  

IMC1980

Ultravox missed a trick doing a version of this track for a "Vienetta" advert. Could have been massive....

flying_pie

IMC1980 said:

Ultravox missed a trick doing a version of this track for a "Vienetta" advert. Could have been massive....

4 extra points if anyone does a perfect replica musically of Vienna but with lyrics all about Vienetta ice cream

Bezzer

Your scoring system is starting to sound like Trump's tariff "plan"

flying_pie

Bezzer said:

Your scoring system is starting to sound like Trump's tariff "plan"

Any more of your insolence @Bezzer and I'll send you a pair of ill-fitting shoes to wear at all times

idiotwind

I'll kick it off with Victoria by The Kinks. 

Used the Les Paul for the electric parts on this one.  I started trying to use BBC Symphony for trumpets and trombones but they were a bit too classical sounding (not enough attack, too "grand" sounding) so I switched to Rotary by Orchestral Tools.  These were much punchier.  Quite enjoyed transcribing out the brass lines.  Switched to the fretted Jazz bass for this one as it's quite fast in places.  All in all quite a fun one to do.

flying_pie

@idiotwind starts off the playlist

fnpt

Sent one in. I'm seriously considering using some sort of AI for the vocals. The level of butchering I did on this one is off the scale. I ask you all to please be clement.

flying_pie

@fnpt in the playlist

idiotwind

I've sent in Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground. 

I initially thought about going somewhere else with it and created a more complex drum part.  But then I actually ended up doing it as quite a faithful cover.  The guitar part is my Gretsch hollowbody tuned down 1/2 a step, with the top string then down a further tone to C#. 

For the viola part I was thinking of doing some kind of synth thing, but then I worked out what was actually being played and realised how straightforward it was, so instead just played it on a viola (my son plays violin and  viola).  Basically it is the open top 2 strings droned with hammer ons at the octave.  Then the chorus is just x-x-3-3 | x-x-3-1 | x-x-1-1 | x-x-3-3 looped a few times, so that was simple enough as well.  Then all I had to do was use software to pitch it down a semitone to match the rest of the track.

thecolourbox

Ooooh you bugger! That was the one I was intending to do as well haha looking forward to hearing it.
FWIW I got a cheap and nasty ebow clone to try and do the droning (but also i quite like an ebow so it wasn't just for that)

flying_pie

@idiotwind in the playlist

idiotwind

thecolourbox said:

Ooooh you bugger! That was the one I was intending to do as well haha looking forward to hearing it.
FWIW I got a cheap and nasty ebow clone to try and do the droning (but also i quite like an ebow so it wasn't just for that)

My original plan was for some kind of Gary Numan style thing but I just drifted back into a more straight cover, especially when I realised I could play the viola part.

skunkwerx

I'm hoping to get one in for V..

flying_pie

skunkwerx said:

I'm hoping to get one in for V..

Me too!

stratman3142

Sent mine in. An instrumental version of Vegas Two Times.

flying_pie

@stratman3142 in the playlist

flying_pie

And I've added one

It's blatant cheating so feel to ignore it in the voting but I couldn't resist it. This is my attempt at acoustic Vanilla Ice