Anthony Phillips: Discography: Cover Versions

Cover Versions

This page lists all the known cover versions of Ant's songs which have been recorded & released by other artists

For the purposes of this section of the Discography included here are versions of a song written (or co-written) by Ant which has been recorded by another artist and has been released on an album or single as a physical release.

	Charterhouse Choral Society: Take This Heart (1975) This recording by the Charterhouse Choral Society of Take This Heart, a hymn co-written by Ant and Mike Rutherford was included on Beyond An Empty Dream, an album of religious-themed songs (subtitled Songs for a Modern Church) released by Charisma Records in April 1975. With a vocal arrangement by William Llewellyn and Robin Wells playing organ, the recording of the hymn was produced by Ant and recorded by Brian Roberts in October 1973 in the chapel at Charterhouse. Ant and Mike had previously rejected an earlier studio recording that had been made of Take This Heart with producer David Hitchcock. That first version, which remains unreleased, had featured a full orchestra and the English Choral group the Ambrosian Singers under the direction of John McCarthy. The sleeve notes on Beyond An Empty Dream allude to Ant and Mike's rejection of the studio recording, stating that "both felt that the live recording held a much better atmosphere than the studio recording which was also tried". Take This Heart is included on the extra CD of the 2019 Expanded Edition of Seventh Heaven.

	Little Foxes: Golden Bodies (1983) Released as a 7" single in July 1983 (C&D CD 4), this cover version of Golden Bodies from Invisible Men was produced by Christopher Neil who amongst other acts would later go on to produce Mike & The Mechanics. The cover version of the song had originally been planned to be recorded by Sheena Easton but this did not come to fruition when Christopher was replaced as her producer. Little Foxes were a female trio who were the daughters of members of vocal group The Beverley Sisters.

	Bucks Fizz: Tears On The Ballroom Floor (1984) Between 1983 and 1985, Ant collaborated on a number of songs with singer/songwriter Roy Hill. One of the songs they co-wrote was Tears On The Ballroom Floor, which was subsequently recorded by pop group Bucks Fizz, with their version of the song featuring lead vocals by Cheryl Baker appearing on the band's fourth studio album I Hear Talk (RCA PL70397), released in November 1984. The Lost Masters, a double CD release of rare and previously unreleased tracks by Bucks Fizz (Sony/BMG 82876872882, released 2006) includes a previously unreleased 'long version' of the group's recording of Tears On The Ballroom Floor, which is 32 seconds longer than the original album track. A further release of rarities called The Lost Masters 2 - The Final Cut (Sony/BMG 88697316552, released 2008) includes "Tears On The Ballroom Floor (The Original Idea)", which sounds like an alternate mix of the original album track.

	Mania: El Último Tren (1986) In the autumn of 1984 Ant collaborated with singer/songwriter Julia Downes on writing some songs, one of which was called Battle of Love. Two years later the song - with Spanish lyrics by Sergio Aguado - was recorded by singer/songwriter Margaret Lorene Seidler, who performed under the name Mania. Retitled El Último Tren ('The Last Train'), the song was the opening track on Mania's 1986 Spanish album release La Ciudad ('The City') (Citra CTR-LP-035) and was also released as the A-side of a 7" single (Citra CTR-S-035). To promote the release of the single, Mania appeared on some Spanish TV shows where she mimed to the song.

	Cry No More: Tears On The Ballroom Floor (1986 - 87) Roy Hill subsequently teamed up with bass player Chas Cronk to form the band Cry No More, with the duo being joined by keyboard player Nick Magnus. Their first album Smile was released by Cold Harbour Records (COLDLP 003) in 1986 and included a version of Tears On The Ballroom Floor (dur 6:53), which was recorded live at the Mulberry Tree in Twickenham on 6th April 1986. Reflecting Roy Hill's sense of humour, a press release for the album stated, "Roy Hill and Chas Cronk have probably been around before but not as Cry No More and certainly not as Blue Oyster Cult" and added, "Their cohort on these recordings, Nick Magnus, was recruited via an advertisement in the Militaria section of Exchange & Mart". In 1987 the band signed to EMI Records and released their second album - the eponymously titled Cry No More (Parlophone PCS 7315, released September 1987) - which included a new studio version of Tears On The Ballroom Floor (dur 4:38). To promote the album the track was released in October 1987 as a 7" single (Parlophone R 6169) and 12" single (Parlophone 12R 6169) with the latter featuring an extended remix of the song (dur 7:07). The single release was also accompanied by a promo video. In 2008 the live recording of the 1986 gig at the Mulberry Tree (including the version of Tears On The Ballroom Floor released on the Smile LP) was given a private release as a CD-R on the band's own label Cry No More Records (CNMCD01) and has subsequently been made available on Bandcamp.

	Rog Patterson: Bleak House (1987) Ant's friend and fellow musician Rog Patterson recorded a cover version of Bleak House from Sides, which was included on his 1987 cassette-only release Talking To The Weather (Brainworks BWK 104).

	Quique Berro Garcia: Nocturne, Field of Eternity (2003) Ant's friend and collaborator Quqiue Berro Garcia recorded a number of guitar pieces between 1994 and 1999, including his versions of Ant's pieces Nocturne and Field of Eternity. Both tracks were included on Quique's solo album Suenos, which was released by Voiceprint in 2003 on their Blueprint label (BP352CD)

	Daevid Allen: Moonfield (2004) A version of Moonfield from Movement Two of Tarka with Gong's Daevid Allen adding his trademark glissando guitar to the original orchestral recording. Recorded some time in the mid 1980s, a shorter version of this track (dur 1:10) first appeared on the 1988 Gong Appreciation Society's members-only cassette release under the title of Gliss. For an expanded 2 CD version of the compilation Histories and Mysteries of Planet Gong (which featured a miscellany of Gong-related recordings) released by Voiceprint Records in 2004 (as VP279CD), a longer version of the track (dur 2:06) was included. Harry Williamson gave some background to this recording in the album sleeve notes: "Daevid always liked the chordal construction of this part of 'Tarka' recorded by a real orchestra and badgered me to to let him do a gliss with orchestra piece, which he finally did in the mid-80's".

	Guill & Jem: Silver Song (2004) A version of Silver Song was included on the double CD Two Suns by Guill and Jem (Guillermo Cazenave and Jeremy Morris), which was released by Guillermo's Astral Records (GC 1727) in 2004. The same recording of the track was also included on Jeremy's album Lost and Found (Jam Records JCD-7775) released the same year.

	Marco Lo Musico: Lute's Chorus (2009) A Grand Piano version of Lute's Chorus from Henry: Portraits From Tudor Times was included as the opening track on Italian musician and composer Marco Lo Musico's 2009 album release Dark and Light (Drycastle DR-026)

	Big Big Train: Master of Time (2010) Progressive rock band Big Big Train recorded their interpretation of Ant's song Master of Time as their first ever cover version, which was released on the 2010 EP Far Skies Deep Time (English Electric Recordings EERCD009).

	Marco Lo Musico, John Hackett & Carlo Matteucci : Fanfare / Lute's Chorus (2013) In 2013 Marco Lo Musico teamed up with John Hackett and Carlo Matteucci to record Playing The History, an album of instrumental Progressive Rock pieces. It includes an arrangement of Fanfare and Lute's Chorus from Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times played on flute, pipe organ and bass guitar. The album was released on John Hackett's Hacktrax label (HTRX006) in June 2013.

	Algebra: God If I Saw Her Now (2019) A cover version of God If I Saw Her Now from The Geese & The Ghost was included on Deconstructing Classics, the third album by Italian band Algebra which was released in September 2019. The band includes includes the journalist and writer Mario Giammetti who is the editor of the Italian Genesis magazine Dusk and also the author of Exile, the 2008 Italian language biography of Ant. Recorded in March 2010, the cover version of the song was first released on the digital-only tribute to the Genesis solo albums In The Land of Geese, Ghosts and Confusion - Tribute To The Genesis Solo Careers (Mellow Records MMP 533 A/B) in December 2014, where it was credited to a spin-off group from Algebra called Marigiam.

	Whistlebow: God If I Saw Her Now (2021) Classically-trained musicians Patricia Hammond, Rupert Gillett and Will Summers teamed up in the autumn of 2020 to form the trio Whistlebow, which in their own words perform a "swirly, folky, jazzy, proggy mish-mash with early music thrown in". Their eponymously titled debut album was released on October 3rd 2021 (International Crumhorn Day) on Cabin Creation Records (CC06) and includes their arrangement of God If I Saw Her Now from The Geese & The Ghost.

	Gereon Schoplick: Lute's Chorus, Field of Eternity, Postlude: End of the Season, Study No. 1 in E Major (2023) Guitarist Gereon Schoplick (who is also a member of the Ant Band from Germany, which produced the 2022 tribute album A Light On The Hill) released his own album in 2023. Alongside some of his own compositions, Horizons (UT-7008) features his interpretations of works by a number of other composers including Ant's tracks Lute's Chorus, Field of Eternity, Postlude: End of the Season and Study No. 1 in E Major. The last track (an earlier version of which Gereon recorded for the tribute album) is a study for classical guitar which to date has not been released by Ant on one of his albums.