David Guetta’s ‘Shot Me Down’ isn’t actually his.

Okay. You’ll be knowing this David Guetta hit, ‘Shot Me Down’. Actually, you’ll know this version only if you’re born later than 1995 (random year). Guess what. It’s a cover.

Guetta, one of the great pop DJs (is that a term?!) of our time, did this song with Skylar Grey. It was released in Feb 2014 as a single. By the way, Skylar Grey is also probably known for her Dr. Dre/Eminem collaboration, ‘I Need A Doctor’, and for the song she did for the (unfortunately) famous Fifty Shades of Grey movie, ‘I Know You‘.

It would interest us fledgling fans to know that the Guetta song is a cover. The original song, ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, was sung by the old pop diva Cher. (It was written by her (then) husband Sonny Bono.) The same year she released the song (1966), it was covered by Nancy Sinatra (Frank Sinatra’s daughter, for those of us born in this century). This is a really amazing version, and it suddenly jumped into the limelight after being featured in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1. (According to Wikipedia.) It’s been covered and sampled by other artists a number of times, including Stevie Wonder, will.i.am and Lady Gaga. (In fact, the will.i.am song, ‘Bang Bang’, is quite interesting, provided you can withstand his amazing rap.) Sinatra’s cover is cool–it features Billy Strange playing tremolo guitar. (I stumbled upon this song from a post on another blog, which you can read here.)

Cher released a rocked-up version of this song in 1987. Interestingly, the Cher lyrics say ‘I wore black, you wore white’, but Nancy sings ‘He wore black and I wore white’. I prefer the latter–it makes ‘him’ evil, which suits the rest of the song.

Incidentally, the Guetta version is significantly dumbed down–it features only one of the original four verses. It shows–in the Guetta, we’re sitting and waiting for the story to climax, but we’re left unsatisfied with the same verse repeating itself. The only good thing about it is the EPIC guitar. He’s retained that, and he’s also managed to get that ‘melancholy’ voice by using Grey. (Divided opinion about the electronica elements–you’d probably like it if you’re into that kind of thing. And if you were born in this century, you probably are into that kind of thing.)

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By the way, what’s with our super-dumb lyrics (and song titles) nowadays? There’s probably a thousand songs named ‘Bang Bang’, what with Jessie J and will.i.am and all those genius songwriters out there.