This particular Gloria really came into its own a few years ago, when Atomic Kitten’s “The Tide Is High (Got The Feeling)” was number one. Not many people (apart from the quite a lot of people buying it) liked the Kittens’ track. “It ruins the Blondie original”, some said.
Cue Gloria.
“Of course the Blondie version was a cover too – the original was a reggae version by The Paragons”.
I have heard the effect rather spoiled by the knowledge-dispenser remembering that there was a reggae original but not knowing who it was by, or perhaps assuming that all reggae ever is done by roughly the same people viz Bob Marley and his mates.
Rarely is a qualitative judgement implied by people who cite the original, it’s a pure show of expertise. But for the sake of this feature we’ll pit all three versions against one another in the factual crucible of the Poptimizer. So – comments box people – the Paragons’ “Tide Is High”, the Blondie hit, or the Kittens parenthetic version? Over to you.