I have a confession that only the Gleekiest folks on the planet could understand. Sometimes I like the Glee cover of a song better than I liked the original. Not always, and I stick to the theory that liking a cover for its differences does not mean you have to dislike the first.
But if 2011 gave us anything, it was a nice hearty helping of some awesome covers on Glee. Let's take a walk back through some of the songs that made you run directly for your iPod to begin downloading:
Amber Riley and Naya Rivera have some of the show's fiercest voices, making them the only two cast members who could possibly do both Adele's Rumour Has It and the British singer's Someone Like You justice. The two came together as Mercedes and Santana in the annual Mash Off episode to prove the girl power of the Trebletones was a force to be reckoned with:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
If there was a Glee anthem, Lady Gaga's Born This Way would be it. Although it officially showed up on the small screen back in April when we got a taste of what it would be like to see Barbra Streisand face off against the Lady, the power of the kids singing the song on the road for its summer concert series proved this is what makes Gleeks out of all of us. Taped for the Glee Concert Movie that's finally been released on DVD (squeeee) to tide us over until the show starts up again in 2012, it's the way people scream their, well, Glee that shows Mr. Schue's crew was born to sing Gaga:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Toby Keith's Red Solo Cup may not be the most teen-appropriate song of 2011, but that just makes it all the more attractive for the kids! And Glee made us fall even more in love when they brought Chord Overstreet back to sing it. Trouty Mouth for the win:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
The first time I saw the Warblers, I wondered where Darren Criss had been all my life. The addition of their own album to the Glee covers available on iTunes was like manna from the gods. Too bad it came out too early to include the guys from Dalton Academy taking on the iconic Billy Joel and his Uptown Girl:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Friday may be the most mocked song of 2011, but teenager Rebecca Black was redeemed (a bit) when the New Directions sucked the peppy nonsense song into their prom episode and finally gave it some context in the world:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Kurt and Rachel singing Defying Gravity in season one made us all want to take in a showing of Wicked. And after pulling the original show's biggest star (ahem, Idina Menzel) into Glee, the writers' decision to return to the Broadway musical for the season two finale with For Good was pitch perfect:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
West Side Story got a lot of Gleek love this year as the McKinley High musical in season three, but its the season two mash-up of the musical's I Feel Pretty with TLC's UnPretty, sung by Quinn and Rachel, that gets my vote for capturing the anxious feelings of being a teenage girl struggling with her body:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Brittany S. Pierce did such a good send-up to Ke$ha (or as Principal Figgins calls her, Ke-dollar sign-ha) that the woman herself gave the New Directions a shout out. Heather Morris' version of Tik Tok is all that much cooler considering she had to pretend to be drunk and sound good at the same time:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
What was your favorite Gleeked song of 2011?
Image via Fox