Teenage Dirtbag

A lovely friend of mine bought me the '40 Years of Radio One' cd for Christmas which has hardly been off my cd player since I got it. The Gossip version of Careless Whisper is brilliant, as is Hard-fi's rendition of Britney classic Toxic. They have both taken very distinctive songs and made them their own - and in the case of the latter at least, far far better then the original. Plus, I adore Beth Ditto, so anything she does I think I'm predisposed to love anyway!
Perhaps my favourite cover on the album though came as somewhat of a surprise to me; it's Girls Aloud doing Teenage Dirtbag. Girls Aloud do have a special place in my heart - everyone needs a good girly singalong from time to time! And for nostalgic reasons Teenage Dirtbag always has a special place in my heart. But Girls Aloud covering Teenage Dirtbag? It works bloody well! There's one bit when one of the girls shouts the line "why don't you give a damn about me?". I like to think this is Sarah Harding - I think she's the trashiest of the girls and I love her for it. She also seems like the one most likely to atucally have a clue who Iron Maiden actually! I only really have one gripe about this version of Teenage Dirtbag, and this is because they change the gender of the 'dirtbag' from female to male. What would have been so wrong with Girls Aloud singing about their affection for a girl?

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