In the Summer of 1988, I met a girl named Lulu while at summer orientation for college. It seemed to me that Lulu was the coolest of the cool. She was Kim Gordan, Niko, and Janis Joplin all rolled into one. She was tall and intellectual, and I felt like a poseur around her.

After school started, I was really surprised that she would even still talk to me, and even more surprised when one night, she invited me up to her dorm room for coffee.

In retrospect, I think in my naiveté, I missed a golden opportunity, but it was still a very cool night. She read some of my poems, and asked me if she could try to set them to music. She pulled out a bass and started playing.

Later she played a song for me that, although it was twenty years old by that time, and had been covered by everyone under the sun, I had never heard it. That song was “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” by Iggy and the Stooges.

She played it super slow, and soulful. Her voice was deep and sexy like Chrissie Hynde.

It was one of those moments that sticks with you forever. Because of that night, I Wanna Be Your Dog is always on my list of “All time favorite songs.” And because of that night, even the original can’t match up for me. When I hear it, I hear Lulu.

So anyway… this long rambling trip down memory lane serves no other purpose but to tell you that a (spanish language) site called “Amasté” has put up no less than 27 versions of the song, including the original.

Of all of the versions, the one by The Swans is the closest to Lulu’s, but still nowhere near it.

The list is pretty amazing and includes a really great live cover by Bowie and Charlie Sexton, a very poorly recorded live set by Nirvana, and excellent versions by Joan Jett, Sonic Youth, and a whole lot more.

Really, really fun stuff.

I found the site by way of the Oddio Overplay blog, BloggioOddio, which has a great list of sites that have multiple covers and variations on a theme up right now.

So I’m putting an extra two links up that don’t fit into the usual Sunday theme.

• The Original
• The Swans