For her latest in an ever-expanding list of cover versions, Rita Wilson has teamed with Leslie Odom Jr. for an emotional version of the Bee Gees’ 1968 classic “Massachusetts.”
In a statement about her duet, Mrs Tom Hanks said “The Bee Gees’ songs are so beautiful, and I had never heard ‘Massachusetts’ as a duet.” “I like the idea that these lovers had to split up for a while, go their own ways, and then eventually come back home to Massachusetts.”
Her latest offering is one of 10 songs on Wilson’s forthcoming album, Rita Wilson Now & Forever: Duets which includes collabs with Elvis Costello, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, and Jackson Browne.
About the full length Wilson stated “I wanted to honor where I came from with songs from the Seventies.” “It was really about showing enormous appreciation for the songwriting of that period—how these songs are still relevant even though they’re 50 years old. This album is really a continuation of sharing who I am musically, and what it is that I want to say.”
Performing their cover together at Radio City Music Hall earlier this summer, Wilson and Josh Groban unveiled their re-imagined version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird.”
During the pandemic, Wilson’s take on Naughty By Nature’s 1992 hit “Hip Hop Hooray” went viral when she posted her solo version on Instagram, after which she and Naughty By Nature’s Vin Rock began talking online and eventually teamed up for a “Hip Hop Hooray” remix to benefit the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
About her decision to social the song after recovering from Covid-19, Wilson told Rolling Stone “I though to myself, ‘Maybe this could be a way to tell people that I’m doing okay and I’ve come out of the worst of it and that life is going back to normal and I’m getting healthier,’” “And so I thought I’d just make a little narrative of it. I had absolutely no idea it was going to take off the way that it did. Then when Naughty By Nature posted it and gave it their stamp of approval, I was really excited and somewhat relieved.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Warren Elgort