Image Credit: Andrew Eccles/The CWIn a case of two great tastes that taste slightly less than great together, The Vampire Diaries‘ bewitching Kat(erina) Graham (who plays Bonnie, the enchanted BFF of heroine Elena) has recorded a cover of Paula Abdul’s genius 1989 pop-trash classic “Cold Hearted” that is streaming today at RadarOnline.com. Don’t get me wrong: I strongly approve of a second helping of “Cold Hearted” getting served up to today’s youth. After all, the original composition and its hot-ass, racy-for-the-times video are older than any Seinfeld rerun currently stored on your DVR. Or to put it another way, Graham herself wasn’t even born back when Paula laid the squeak down for the original “Cold Hearted” vocals. That said, the slowed-down tempo and completely overhauled verses of Graham’s rendition do nothing to improve on the original composition. Ever worse, Graham performs a rap-ectomy here, completely nixing The Lady Abdul’s furiously spat wordplay (which so famously/ridiculously ended with “Take a take another ‘nother look into his eyes and you will only see a rep-tile”) and instead chooses to coo “He’s nasty, like a fake tan. Heart-break-er don’t give a damn.” I understand that times change, and cheese isn’t the commodity it used to be, but you wouldn’t throw a pair of skinny jeans on the Botticelli’s Venus just to make her more demographically alluring, would you? (Oh yeah, I went there.)
What do you think of Graham’s “Cold Hearted”? Share your feelings in the comments. And because I’m already halfway to cray-cray, I’m going to use the fact that Graham’s Vampire Diaries grandmother was played by none other than Jasmine Guy as an excuse to embed the latter diva’s 1990 track “Another Like My Lover” after the jump. Now quit trying to act like I haven’t piqued your currrrriousitaaay, and jump!
He’s c-cold as ice.
I love the original Cold-Hearted Snake (and the video is one of my all-time faves). This is? Not that song. It’s just, why even bother keeping the chorus if you’re changing/taking away everything else?
Alright don’t hate me but I kind of like it! Lol no it’s no one of hose deep songs. It’s just FUN u know
It was cute, but let’s call it what it was- she sampled the chorus, essentially and didn’t really cover the song.
Man, I had been hoping that someone would take on that rap- as a kid it was the only one my mom would let me listen to! I think I even have my VHS of the video for it!
This new version has almost NOTHING to do with Paula Abdul’s ’89 original, so why is it being called a “cover”? It’s not. Graham’s song sounds like a typical, empty 2000s dance song and uses “Cold Hearted” purely as a sample. I repeat: this is not a cover; please stop calling it that.
Not even close! She wishes she can half the pop career Paula had.
OMG whitley gilbert! i remember starting out as a music journalist back in 1990 and having to review her cassette! the whole full force/l.a. reid/babyface dance-R&B movement was in full affect back then and her album was rocking it big time! i still love “try me”, especially the 2:25 mark on her video when she drops the line: “you got a little taste/now back to the bass” and then proceeds with a running man dance off against a glamazonian sista. i’m sure i still have her tape in a box somewhere… meanwhile, michael, here’s another blast from the past – nia peeples and “street of dreams”. go on, i dare you.
horrible! couldn’t listen to the whole thing. that’s right, it’s a sample not a cover.
death to autotune!
Amazing song and LesbianMatchmakers was good
I do not disagree with you.
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