Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ Covers Collected

Soul- and funk-ified cover songs are almost always a blast, because of the level of passion and energy pumped into the interpretations – think Stevie Wonder’s take on “We Can Work It Out,” or Otis Redding’s supercharged run-through of “Satisfaction,” or Aretha’s definitive version of Otis’ own “Respect,” for that matter.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings sprinkled a couple of cover songs onto their early albums, but for the most part concentrated on packing those with rock-solid original compositions. However, they certainly weren’t averse to putting their spin on other folks’ material for special projects like TV commercials, tribute albums or motion picture soundtracks.

Now 13 of Sharon and the boys’ scattered cover versions have been assembled for the cleverly-named Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In), out digitally on Daptone Oct. 23. Their remake of The First Edition’s big hit referenced by that album title is included, as are cuts originally by Dusty Springfield, Bob Marley, Shuggie Otis, Bad Medicine, Gladys Knight, Woody Guthrie, Prince and more. Most of the tracks are rare, and five of them have never been previously released.