The 5 best covers of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”

Well-written songs draw covers like flies - and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” won many accolades as a single (I listed the stats in a previous post); sure enough, not long after its release covers were popping up out of the woodwork.

∞ Random Interest Snippet: Umbrella songwriter, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart was initially reluctant to have Rihanna record the song (it was originally intended for Britney). But when he heard her sing the “ella ella” refrain in the studio it apparently gave him goosebumps: he knew they’d nailed it.

The most important question about these versions is, of course: can they pronounce “um-buh-rella” correctly?

Link to guitar tab is at the bottom.

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Manic Street Preachers

In this rehearsal room version the Manics bust out a fairly straight interpretation of the song with very little in the way of rock star theatrics.

Can he sing “um-buh-rella”? Ole J D Bradfield does a pretty good job of singing “um-buh-rella” here, although he doesn’t quite nail it. He also sounds like he’s phoning it in just a little bit… Maybe doing the cover was all Nicky’s idea?

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Vanilla Sky

Italian pop punkers Vanilla Sky made this low budget video for the cover they recorded in their practice room. On Youtube the video went to number 1 as the most played stream in Brazil and number 64 worldwide.

Can he sing “um-buh-rella”? Almost flawlessly! He sings “um-buh-rella” like he’s an 18 year old Barbadian girl. Out of all the versions he’s also the only one to nail the delayed drop-off note at the end of each “ella”.

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Mandy Moore

It starts off slow - I thought too slow at first - but it picks up after a bit and turns into an adequate contemporary version of the song by the end. Watch for the creepy close-ups of Mandy’s intense stare…

Can she sing “um-buh-rella”? Nope - she doesn’t even try, which makes the pronounciation sound a bit rushed. Apparently the backing vocalist gets it though xD.

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All Time Low

Extra points for the new harmonies they’ve added to the song. And for their pretty haircuts.

Can he sing “um-buh-rella”? He doesn’t do too badly at all. The half-time feel in the chorus staunches the flow somewhat though, and the missing delayed drop-off in the “ellas” is even more pronounced with the choppy backing underneath.

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Alejandro Manzano

Alejandro’s solo acoustic version of the song is great. He turns a pop diva anthem into an introspective snag ballad. Apparently it’s quite popular too.

Can he sing “um-buh-rella”? Nope - Alejandro’s the worst of the bunch; he just kinda mumbles the word and doesn’t even pronounce the “B” clearly >_< : “uhmm… rella…”

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Lillasyster

This is my personal favourite. Heavier and phatter than All Time Low and the Manics, these guys rock and they keep more of the feel, if you ask me, given that All Time Low turn the song into a classic emo punk-pop “doo-bah” carnival and the Manics sound like… the Manics.

Can he sing “um-buh-rella”? This vocalist gets pretty close but suffers from the same affliction as everyone else (except for Vanilla Sky) when it comes to the “ellas”.

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Honourable Mentions

Plain White T’s - live acoustic version. He lost points for reading the lyrics off a lyric sheet >_<

Mixal - Heavy Metal version. A great metal reimagining with new chords and melodies (only excluded from the list - reluctantly - because of the radical change to the song itself).

Marie Digby - acoustic chick singer version. Not the most imaginative version - similar in style and feel to Mandy Moore’s (if Mandy hadn’t had a full backing band).

Update [20-07-08]:
ningmusic (Youtuber) - Piano & Cello cover. A nice classical take on the song :-).

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Download the complete Guitar Pro 5 file (.gp5) (including drums, synth arr. for guitar, vocal, lyrics, etc.) from here.

If you don’t have Guitar Pro you can download the demo here.

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