The Best "Let It Go" Covers
Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 4:30PM HELP ME!!!
I've fallen in a YouTube hole of "Let it Go" covers. And really, I have so many more important things to do and articles to write and encroaching deadlines. There are a lot of terrible off-pitch covers all over YouTube though "The Worst" of the covers is obviously Demi Lovato's. Many covers are kind of good but i'm not quite sure about them and there's even a drag version or two one with very hit and miss jokes (but the "the fears that once controlled me" bit in Dixie Lynn Cartwright's is priceless)
But these six I find impressive.
Elizabeth Saw with just the piano and played by ear... which is so cool because it's not exact but the flourishes feel right
Jun Sung Angh with just a violin
And the best vocals I've heard apart from Idina...
Sonnet Son - no mic, editing, no autotuning but very strong
Caleb Hyles has some impressive control of the vocal shifts between his higher register and normal voice
And the best mega-budgeted version is this Africanized Tribal Cover. Seriously someone spent lots of bank. Sets, a huge choir, costume changes.
And finally the best multi-voiced cover from the always delightful Christina Blanco who we've raved about before.
What was your last YouTube bender about?
Reader Comments (24)
I wound up in this same hole the other night. The clear winner is Caleb Hyles, whose range and passion are mesmerizing. I listened to him about five times in a row. And I don't really even like this song!
Sorry, but his high notes were too much for me.
I really want Lea Michele to sing this song.
The most sincere is "Fuck it all" www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DlZdZYLCfU
Sorry but I didn't like Caleb's cover.
My last YouTube bender was watching soldiers coming home and surprising their kids at school. If ever you needed to know whether your tear ducts are working or whether you have a heart, this is the bender for you.
I went down the YouTube rabbit hole a couple days ago watching interview after interview with the cast of Orange is the New Black. I started at Laverne Cox and ended when only Jason Biggs interviews were left. No thank you.
That girl has a gorgeous piano in the first video. I'm jealous. I almost got to do a promotional gig last spring for a musical on a piano like that at an elementary school. It hurt when I realized very quickly while setting up that the thing hadn't been tuned in years; it was wrecked beyond repair.
I'm going through an Adele music video YouTube hole myself.
That lady sure can sing! That London concert in 2011 was quite something. She sounds better live than 90% of musicians in music videos/radio singles.
the joke premise is simple enough, but DAMN if i didn't laugh through this whole cover; http://prozdvoices.tumblr.com/post/75912416125/goofy-sings-let-it-go-im-no-singer-but-i-like
Have you heard Caleb Hyles' rendition of BRING HIM HOME from Les Mis? It's very, very good. Ii may even like it more than Jackman's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIOiwEPPhAM&list=PLIDn91pIwQC87p1FAUV-RXbHm-g7sBcSv
Jtagliere, I was just watching the troops returning home videos as well. I think I cried for a whole hour LOL
tonight, I came across a wedding video of the groomsmen doing the Single Ladies dance by Beyonce, so I ended up watching a bunch of Single Ladies wedding renditions haha It still remains to be the best music video of the past 20 years
My ongoing bender on Youtube is watching the 1950-1965 tapes of the TV game show, "What's My Line?" The panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Bennett Cerf and especially my favorite Arlene Francis are just so droll and urbane. The moderater John Charles Daly is always sharp. But the mystery guests are incredible. Bette, Joan, Anthony Perkins, Woody Allen, Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Eartha Kitt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ethel Barrymore, Elizabeth Taylor, Liberace, The Supremes, Streisand, on and on and on. Everyone who was anyone in show biz. What a great way to view the fashion and humor of the era. I am addictied. Also notable is the last appearance of Dorothy Kilgallen on 11-7-65, She was dead within 5 hours of filming that episode under mysterious circumstances. Some say she was murdered because she had been the last person allowed to interview Jack Ruby and had criticized the Warren report. Fascinating stuff.
I posted this cover in the comments of the "Happy" post from last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXEHA7BOlgQ
She has an incredible voice and control. Whew!
I also fell through a YouTube hole with Frozen/Let It Go a few weeks ago, but mostly seeking translations of the song in other languages. There are tons of good ones out there. And just FYI, while Lovato's version is far inferior obviously, the rhythm of her version totally works much better for Japanese Pop.
Something tells me Caleb Hyles has starred as the Beast in a community theater production or two of "Beauty and the Beast".
Well, apart from Oscar acceptance speeches, which I'm confident is a hole we've all been down before, my most recent Youtube everlasting rabbit hole experience was watching videos of the Kennedy Center Honors. I especially love Yolanda Adams bringing down the house in the Diana Ross tribute and how moved Julie Andrews was during her segment, with extra awesome points for having Kristin Chenoweth doing Mary Poppins "Mary Poppins would have found this very cheeky, but I'm gonna do it anyway!
On the Let it Go covers, I like Caleb the most, especially when his voice goes super high and it sounds like a crazy man's AC DC doing Broadway. Which an album I would totally buy, just for WTF of it.
I'm on the Let It Go bandwagon. I constantly look up covers.
this is my fave by far https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMDUdR22KeQ
Chloe
So it's probably safe to say "Let It Go" is on your Film Bitch shortlist... when will we know for sure??? Along with all of your other nominees!
Ugh, I'm so tired of this song. I don't think I've felt a song was this overrated in yeeeears.
However, if I had to listen to someone's version, that one by Sonnet Son would be the one. She had a nice brightness to her voice.
Caleb Hyles though? His voice is straining on the chorus and can't hit the low notes on the verse.
Bobby -- i'm trying! I have 21 days left to do EVERYTHING.
Ugh, this is pet peeve territory, but the violin cover really bothers me b/c it is obviously recorded in an environment that produces quite different sound than the environment depicted visually. I.e. no way someone playing violin in the open air sounds anything like that. It's why I stopped watching Glee.
Great vocals on the Sonnet Son video.
omg. now I'M down the 'let it go' youtube hole....
and holy damn, sonnet son.... WOW.
Patryck, I've been down that "What's My Line?" rabbit hole and it's never wanted to come back. I want to live in a world where Arlene Francis wears a endless variety of eyeshades and Bennett Cerf asks if I currently have a motion picture opening on BroadWAY. It's a sheer delight and an insight to a more witty and glamourous era of entertainment.
I have to say Caleb Hyles' may sound strained to his limits, but his is by far the most impassioned version I've heard which outweighs the technical side of it all - his emotions are absolutely spot on and even if you weren't a fan of his Let It Go, his Mulan cover and his Les Miserabales covers were nothing short of amazing. This guy is pure talent, a shame some people can't see it.
Oh look, here's a new one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAJYk1jOhzk
This version with Caleb and Idina is terrific!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RwNzSg_sTU