Aside from "Holiday," "Crazy For You," and "Live To Tell," I'm not really a fan of Madonna's music. Playing a strong cover of another Madonna tune recently reminded me that I should add a fourth song to that list.
Jon Auer shows that one of Madonna's strongest uptempo hits, "Beautiful Stranger," works just as well acoustically with a voice, a guitar, and a slower tempo. Madonna's version is more about the tune's beat. Auer's version makes the listener pay more attention to the lyrics, as Neil Finn does in his cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."
Alas, I've only heard Auer's version once on the radio. KDHX played it in 2001, but I haven't heard it on any station or stream since then. On the strength of that one listen, I bought the EP. It's unfortunate, though, that Auer's strong reworking of the tune didn't receive more widespread attention.
