Atlantic City (Live) – Randy Brown

Atlantic City is far and away my favorite song by The Band, which is of course a Bruce Springsteen cover from his critically acclaimed album Nebraska. The Band added some country twang to Springsteen’s somber anthem about New Jersey gangsters and the sentiment of memento mori. Honestly, the Boss’s version and The Band’s cover are two of my favorite songs of all time, and I separate the two because of the totally different vibe that each gives off. I listen to some iteration of this song pretty damn often, so I decided to feature a pretty cool honky-tonk style cover by Texas troubadour Randy Brown.

This is probably one of the most covered songs of all time, and I really had a plethora of versions to choose from. I went with Randy’s mainly because of how much I love pedal steel guitars and the tasteful use of fiddles. Not overly flashy, but the boys in Randy’s band here add a ton to the song with their highlighted moments and really drive the song along. I also have a real thing for “true” country covers of songs. Certain songs work really well with a twang; Cher‘s “Believe” is a great example of this, believe it or not. I’ll link a cool version below.

Link to Randy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZtNEoDlb7g

Link to Bruce – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3eu1gW-bQ8

Link to The Band – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxXTO1t5yo

Cher cover – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QjFcSHv2gs