It’s a Great, Great, Great Cover

Already ranking #17 on the UK album charts, and #4 on the U.S. Billboard top R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart is Seal’s monumental compilation of soul classics aptly titled Soul.
In less than a month, the album has made a huge splash, even going Gold on the Swedish album charts, as it breezes into the number 6 spot.

Thus far we have covered the first two songs featured on the album, “A Change is Gonna Come” (Sam Cooke) and “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (Anne Peebles). The third song on this phenomenal album is “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” by recently deceased funk/soul hero James Brown.

Co-written by Betty Jean Newsome, “It’s a Man’s, Man’s Man’s World” was recorded on February 16, 1966. At the time, the single ended up reaching the #1 spot on the Billboard Top R&B Singles chart, and quickly became a focal point to James Brown’s live performances.

The title of the song is a parody on the title of the 1963 comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Though co-written by a female who used her own interpretations of the interactions between the opposing sexes, the song is perceived as incredibly chauvinistic by some, even said to be “almost biblically [so]” by Rolling Stone.
“This is a man's world, this is a man's world

But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”
Like most epic soul classics this song has been covered more than its fair share of times. Gov’t Mule and the Grateful Dead favored this song during live performances and Christina Aguilera sang it at the 2007 Grammy Awards in memory of James Brown, after his unfortunate Christmas Day death in 2006.

In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine praised “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” by ranking it #123 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Seal’s powerful version of the song features a string band, which accompanies his incredibly dramatic voice. It appears as if the weight and meaning behind the song flow through Seal as he is singing it, which fades out with the music in the last five seconds as he walks away.

Paying homage to a song that was a performance staple to a recently deceased soul hero can not be an easy feat, but Seal has definitely succeeded in honoring the late Mr. Brown.