Umbrella by the Manic Street Preachers

Last year I did an article on strange cover songs. I included the unusual phenomenon of male artists remaking songs originally female artists--namely, male rock groups remaking pop songs originally recorded by women. These songs included "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" by Aerosmith, "Then She Kissed Me" by KISS, "Like a Prayer" by Bigod 20, and "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by no less than three male bands (Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa, Bowling for Soup, and The Fountains of Wayne). Now we can add another to that list. Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers remade Rihanna's hit song "Umbrella" earlier this year. Now, I never could stand Rihanna's version, but Manic Street Preachers did the same thing that Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa, Bowling for Soup, and The Fountains of Wayne did with "Hit Me Baby One More Time"--they took a bad song and made it good! For those of you who've never heard it, here's Manic Street Preachers' "Umbrella."