Sunshine on a rainy day

It was fiercely sunny this morning as I exited at an unexpectedly early hour to visit the lovely Elaine for some much overdue depilation. I didn't have a hangover -- almost unprecedented for a Saturday -- and the whole street was twinkling with frost. And it felt good, especially as for the last week we have had nothing but darkness, floods and pestilence.

So, having checked that the street was empty, I started singing Sunshine on a rainy day. But in my head, the next line was "makes my soul drip, drip away". I don't remember caring too much when it came out and I used to sing it in the rain, mostly, but today it didn't feel quite right. Surely we need all the soul we can get?

So when I got home I decided to check. Couldn't find my dodgy early 90s tape with it on, probably left it in the car when I sold it. So went online to check it out -- and then I got Angry. Because if you search Google on Sunshine on a rainy day you'd think it was a bloody Emma Bunton song. And it bloody isn't.

I get kind of pissed off with girl and boy band cover versions at the best of times -- too often they are soupy massacres of songs that weren't that wonderful first time round -- but I fucking hate Emma Bunton.

Partly this is because she has covered songs that I actually like and turned them into a flouncy pouty gingham and cleavage slice of hell, and partly it's because she's such a big name that people think these songs, including, to my great distress, Edie Brickell's What I Am (off the wonderful Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars) are *hers*. As if.

Anyway, cut a long story short, the Zoe lyrics sites tell you that it's "makes my soul trip, trip, trip away", while the Emma Bunton lyrics sites opt for "drip, drip, drip". Couldn't put it better myself.

joella