On his cover of The Beatles's violin-heavy tune "Eleanor Rigby," shock-rocker Alice Cooper does a straightforward version of the song, which will be included on the tribute album The Art of McCartney.
"When you're singing a song like 'Eleanor Rigby,' you've got to put your own little spin bit in there because you can't ever do it better than Paul [McCartney]," Cooper said in a behind-the-scenes video, which can be viewed below. "I think I was singing about somebody in a grave. It's a little bit different, even though it is a McCartney song."
Rolling Stone points out that Cooper joins fellow big names like Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson and The Cure for an extensive, 34-track record that spans McCartney's years with The Beatles and Wings and his solo efforts. Eight bonus tracks will also be included, and Cooper was able to try out "Smile Away" from 1971's Ram for that batch of songs.
"We were way influenced by the Beatles' music, by the great songwriting of [John] Lennon and McCartney," Cooper said. "If you ask Ozzy and Steven Tyler the same thing, you'll find that there's a lot of melody in what we all do. We're always going to be a little more horse-powered than the Beatles were, but we always referred back to those melody lines."
Some interesting pairings from the album, due Nov. 18, include former Beach Boy Brian Wilson on "Wanderlust," Willie Nelson doing "Yesterday," Billy Joel trying "Live and Let Die" and Yusuf "Cat Stevens" Islam on "The Long and Winding Road." All the artists are backed by McCartney's current band, which includes guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr.
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