Somebody’s Watching Me cover

Somebody’s Watching Me

Released

In his 2020 memoir, Lenny Kravitz admits to turning down the eventually omnipresent number-one hit, “Somebody’s Watching Me.” His loss was the gain of Kennedy “Rockwell” Gordy, fourth son of Motown mogul Berry Gordy, who recorded the track instead (with an appropriately paranoiac hook by Michael Jackson) and watched it soar into the Billboard Top 5. But the R&B synthpop of Somebody’s Watching Me went overlooked after his hit (and its follow-up, the Top 40 “Obscene Phone Caller”) crested. Rockwell’s capable cover of The Beatles’ “Taxman” is worth the listen, as is the pop confection “Foreign Country.”

Miles Marshall Lewis

Recommended by

Suggestions
A Flock of Seagulls cover

A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls
Deseo Carnal cover

Deseo Carnal

Alaska y Dinarama
1999 cover

1999

Prince
Make It Happen cover

Make It Happen

Smokey Robinson, The Miracles
Awb cover

Awb

Average White Band
Express Yourself cover

Express Yourself

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band