Miley Cyrus comes in like a wrecking ball in her cover of ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’
Miley Cyrus, pop singer and actress notorious for her twerking and swinging naked on disco balls, took on the challenge of singing Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” after winning Video of the Year for “Wrecking Ball” at the MTV VMAs.
The 21-year-old posted her version of the song on SoundCloud calling it, “Baby, I’m Gonna Leave You.” Moments after she posted a link on her Twitter instructing her followers to “Check dis shit out.” The singer currently has had 779,271 plays on SoundCloud and 5,351 likes.
Anne Bredon wrote the folk song “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” in the late 1950s. Years later in 1962 Joan Baez recorded her version, however it became more popularized in 1969 by Led Zeppelin.
Cyrus was putting her vocals to the ultimate test when trying to reproduce the high-powered voice of Robert Plant. Plant’s voice soars with dynamic range and precision, while Cyrus just screamed. While the singer did a decent job in capturing the emotion of the song, her singing left a lot to be desired.
It seems that Cyrus just belted out the song with no concern for quality. One would have to be tone-deaf to consider her rendition as well-done. The recording in itself sounded as if it were being played through blown-out speakers. There was no range, just screaming or whispering.
SoundCloud user RickArseneaultVoiceOvers left a genuine comment for Cyrus.
“Now I know why Sinatra was pissed when Sid Vicious covered ‘My Way.’ A woman could sing this but her voice is just not right for it. That’s as nice as I can be.”
Fellow SoundCloud user TrevorFales said, “Not a Miley fan, but tried to come into this unbiased because this is one of my top 5 favorite songs. You sing this song from your heart, and I didn’t feel any connection with the tone of her voice and how she sang it, the low parts have no soul, the high parts are screaming just to be raspy. Didn’t capture the essence of the song.”
There is a fine line between pop and classic rock that should not be crossed. It takes a bluesy voice with great range to even try to make a comparison.
While Cyrus gave it a good attempt, she didn’t quite meet the bar.