Throughout their career, All Saints struck gold with a handful of cover versions, but according to Shaznay Lewis they had one very specific “rule” about the songs they picked.
Speaking to RETROPOP’s June 2024 edition around the release of her second solo album ‘Pages‘, the singer-songwriter revealed one of the girls was keen to avoid “too many compaisons” and shied away from tackling songs by other female artists.
“When I was with the girls and we used to do covers, one of the girls had this rule that we should never do a cover by a female artist because there’ll be too many comparisons to draw upon,” she shared.
Of course, the four-piece did release a heavily reworked version Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, but tracks like Under The Bridge (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and Message In A Bottle (The Police) were originally by male acts.
When it came to her BBC Piano Room performance, she considered a handful of songs but eventually went with No Doubt’s Don’t Speak.
“I started to worry about it and then I thought: ‘Well actually no, just do you’,” Shaznay adds. “I chose that song because Gwen’s voice is quite unique and it’s quirky. It’s not conventional and I don’t think my voice is conventional.
“There’s also an ever so slight undertone of reggae in some of the things that she does and, being from the Caribbean, I can relate to that. I find that stuff easy. It’s like when [All Saints] did a cover of Message In A Bottle. So yeah, I was really pleased with how it turned out.”
