Jeff Parker and The New Breed featuring Ruby Parker Cover David Bowie

Photo courtesy Jeff Parker

"Soul Love" is kind of a forgotten classic off of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Every song on that album is a glam rock space age classic. For their cover of the song, Jeff Parker and The New Breed brought in Ruby Parker and transformed the song into a space age soul/R&B classic. Soul and R&B were huge influences on David Bowie, and this cover really illustrates that fact. I don't think I would have ever noticed how much soul was in "Soul Love" (despite the title, I know, I'm an idiot), but once you hear this song you'll never be able to listen to the original quote the same way. It's a roots based chilled out R&B version that truly accentuates the Bowie classic.

You can listen to Jeff Parker and The New Breed's version of "Soul Love" below. It will be included on Modern Love which is BBE Music's forthcoming David Bowie tribute album. You can pre-order/pre-save a copy here. For more on Jeff Parker and The New Breed, check out the artist's website.

We Are KING Cover David Bowie

Photo by Kanya Iwana

There are a quite a few David Bowie covers out there, for good reason. Bowie's music remains timeless, and his influence will always be felt in music. BBE Music has an upcoming David Bowie tribute album due out in May, but instead of the normal rock and pop oriented artists, this compilation will feature Bowie's connection to R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel.

The first song up is We Are KING's version of "Space Oddity." You've heard covers of Bowie's 1972 hit before, but never quite like this. We Are KING keeps the feel of Bowie's original, and even amplify the space feel of the song. This is a space soul/R&B version of "Space Oddity." It's unusual and unexpected, but everything about the man was, too, so this is a very fitting tribute to the late icon.

Amber and Paris Strother of We Are KING explain their choice of "Space Oddity": 

“There were so many amazing Bowie compositions to choose from but ‘Space Oddity’ has always been our favourite. It's so visual; it has always felt like time travel in a song. t tells such a vivid and imaginative story of Major Tom's trip through space and it was such a cool experience to reimagine what it'd be like on the voyage.”

You can listen to We Are KING's version of "Space Oddity" below. Modern Love, BBE Music's David Bowie tribute album, will be out May 28. It will also features covers from Khuangbin, Meshell Ndegeocello, Matthew Tavares, and more. For more on We Are KING, check out their website.