No Rock And Roll Fun

COVER SCHTICK: We've mentioned - more than once, actually - that someone should really start a listing system for songs similar to the practice of listing buildings, so that when, say, Girls Aloud announce their intention to cover The Pointer Sisters a panel of experts would ask them how they intend to improve on the original, and why they feel their version won't undermine the status and standing of the original. We've always viewed this as being a process that would work akin to the odd householder wanting to put UPVC windows in Anne Hathaway's cottage. Now, though, we've got the equivalent of an entire village being bulldozed to build an Ikea: A bunch of modern acts cover a slew of 80s classics for the new Drew Barrymore movie. Thus, to aid 50 First Dates, we're being treated to Seal bringing his deep, deep emotion to Echo and The Bunnymen's Lips Like Sugar, 311 tinkering with the Cure's Love Song. We have to be honest and say we're quite looking forward to The Black Eyed Peas doing Spandau's True, but that cannot excuse Ziggy Marley retouching The Car's Drive or, most hideously of all, UB40's fish-finger cod reggae version of Every Breath You Take.

Happily, you can blame all this on Adam Sandler, who's also in the movie, rather than Drew herself. But we would like to ask her if she's happy with this soundtrack and, if she is, if that means she'd be equally laid back with someone remaking ET with Jim Carrey and Christina Applegate?