As the old saying goes, ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’
New York trio Fun. are currently stalled at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind the all-conquering Somebody That I Used To Know with their own Janelle Monaé-featuring hit We Are You. But now they’re now joining the already bursting ranks of artists to cover the ubiquitous Gotye duet, which currently enjoying a record-breaking, month-long reign a the top of the US charts.
Fun. even enlisted Hayley Williams, the flame-haired singer of pop-punksters Paramore, to fulfil Kimbra’s role for their rendition. She joined the group via satellite link-up as they performed the cover on BBC Radio’s Live Lounge.
Much like the original though, it’s a duet that very nearly didn’t happen.
Speaking to NME, singer Nate Ruess said they were concerned about their take on the most streamed song of the year after band member and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Dost had to pull out due to food poisoning. “Suddenly we had no piano, which was the base of our version,” Ruess explains, “the fact that we got through it was unbelievable.”
“It was a pretty hectic morning,” Ruess added, “we were never sure how linking Hayley into the show was going to go, it seemed like a pretty daunting technological task.”
Williams, who does a suprisingly accurate mimicry of the NZ-born, Melbourne-based singer in her performance, was an obvious choice considering she’d moonlighted for the trio before, “she’d always come up and sing with us when we were on tour, so we’ve sort of worked together [before]” says Ruess.
If you’re not sick of the song yet, you can have a listen to Fun.’s performance below:
