Original: (1977) Written by Eric Clapton, and Produced by Glyn Johns
Cover: Written by Eric Clapton, Arranged by Khalil Fong, Produced by Edward Chan, Charles Lee and Khalil Fong
This song, Wonderful Tonight is a very famous song that has been covered by many people. I chose to compare Khalil Fong to the original artist, Eric Clapton. At the same time the tempo, melody and lyrics are the same, the timbre of the voice, layers of instruments and the way they sang and are totally different that make the song have different style.
Subconsciously, both singers sang the song like telling a story of a couple goes out a party and expressed the how much they loved each other. Also the lyrics can tell us the images of this story. As listening to the song consciously, there are a short movie goes around in my mind: everything the singer sang becomes slower because of the slow tempo: she brushes her hair slowly, they get out the car slowly and they danced in the party slowly. In affinity, the melodies of both songs are in major and wide range. Because is a cover, the melody does not change much or at all.
In contrast, because they are different people, their voice is certainly totally different. More specifically about the voice is the timber. Both of their voices are perfect for the song, but different timber of their voice make the songs’ emotions turn out very differently. Clapton’s voice is older and raucous like and feels like very wide while Fong’s voice is younger and more like focused on a point. As result, The couple in Clapton’s version has been married for a long time, been through many difficulties and still very love each other, and they can’t be apart as they are each other’s soul mate; the couple in Fong’s version, however, they are younger and seems like they just got together and they are in the most excited part of each other’s life. Maybe is the years of recorders because Clapton’s song was recorded in 1977. Additionally, Clapton’s version have accompanied female voice in the background while Fong sang the song all by himself along with the accompanied instruments.
Actually, even though two versions sounds almost identical, they are different kinds: Clapton’s is rock genre and Fong’s is R&B genre. Consequently, if we listen very closely and listen a few times, the ways they sang are slightly divergent. When Clapton sang the original one, some part of his lines have been twisted a little bit and some notes are connected. On the other hand, Fong sang the song as the rhythm goes, like he sang the syllables on the beat while Clapton sometimes sang before the beat. Also, some of their ending phrase were sung differently: Fong have stress on the end of the phrases which Clapton does not. For instruments, the songs have different layers of instrument, and have different sources. There are more layers in Clapton’s song than in Fong’s. The original version has beats, a small part of electric sound, and used different drums while the cover only have an electric guitar, guitar and the drum.
If I just listen to these two songs for fun, I would not see these differences and similarities between them, because they just sound same except the singers are different. I like the cover better, because for me, this song should be very quiet and calm. Clapton’s version has too much layers which the song become a little noisy with the beats and electric sounds. In contrast, Fong expresses the quietness and calmness perfectly. This is what I feel right now because I am tired. Maybe sometime I will like the original better when I have more energy.
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