3 Unforgettable Nick Lowe Songs That Were Recorded by Other Famous Artists

Lauded British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe is celebrating his 77th birthday on March 24. The multi-talented musician first came to fame in the early 1970s as the principal songwriter, bassist, and co-lead vocalist of the U.K. pub rock group Brinsley Schwarz.

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After that band broke up in 1975, Lowe began working with Welsh rocker Dave Edmunds. He joined a re-formed version of Edmunds’ group Rockpile and also played bass on and wrote or co-wrote songs for Dave’s mid-to-late-1970s solo albums.

[RELATED: 4 Immaculate Weepers From the Brilliant Songwriting Mind of Nick Lowe]

Around this time, Lowe also established himself as an in-demand producer, notably working with such New Wave-era artists as Elvis Costello, The Damned, Graham Parker, and The Pretenders.

Nick also began releasing his own solo albums in the late 1970s. Contractual issues kept Rockpile from releasing an album until 1980. After issuing its sole studio effort, Seconds Of Pleasure, the band broke up, and Lowe has focused on his solo career ever since.

Over the years, quite a few noteworthy artists have recorded memorable versions of songs written by Lowe. In honor of his birthday, here are three great covers of tunes he wrote:

“I Knew The Bride” by Dave Edmunds (1977)

“I Knew The Bride” is a fun rockabilly-influenced rave-up written by Nick Lowe and first recorded in 1977 by Edmunds. The song appeared on Dave’s third solo album, Get It. It became a moderate hit in the U.K., peaking at No. 26 on the singles chart.

In a 2013 interview with Record Collector, Edmunds reflected on Lowe coming up with the enduring song for him.

“‘[The song] was just perfect for me, and we wrote a couple of other things together [for Get It,]” Dave commented. “I remember ‘I Knew The Bride’ was written really quickly, it seemed like Nick had knocked out this brilliant, fully formed rock ‘n’ roll song in about half an hour.”

Lowe recorded his own version of “I Knew The Bride” in 1985. It was and released on his studio album, The Rose Of England. The song appears under its full title, “I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘N’ Roll).” Nick was back on the track by Huey Lewis And The News. Lewis also produced the tune.

“(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1979)

Nick Lowe wrote “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding” in 1973, and the song was released on Brinsley Schwarz’s 1974 album, The New Favourites Of… Brinsley Schwarz.

Costello, of course, is a prolific songwriter in his own right, but his 1978 cover of “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding” has become one of the New Wave legends’ signature tunes.

Elvis and his group The Attractions, released their version of the song as a single in 1978. The track also was included on the U.S. edition of the band’s 1979 studio album, Armed Forces.

In a 2009 Vanity Fair interview, Lowe admitted that in writing “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding,” he stole a bit of the melody of late American singer-songwriter Judee Sill’s 1971 song “Jesus Was A Cross Maker.”

“The Beast In Me” by Johnny Cash

Nick Lowe has an interesting connection to country icon Johnny Cash. From 1979 to 1990, he was married to Carlene Carter, the daughter of Cash’s second wife, June Carter.

Nick began writing the dark, melancholy folk song in the early 1980s. He recalled showing it to Cash then, although Johnny wasn’t initially interested in recording it.

Lowe finally completed it about 12 years later and recorded a version for his 1994 solo album, The Impossible Bird. As he explained in a 2009 interview with Mojo magazine, reposted by Songfacts, Nick sent his recording to Cash and was happily surprised when Johnny included a cover of it on his own 1994 release, American Recordings.

“When he sent me a copy of American Recordings I was absolutely thrilled,” Lowe recalled. “It really is a good song, and the fact that he dug it so much is something to be really proud of.”

Lowe’s version plays over the credits at the end of the first episode of HBO’s classic mobster series The Sopranos.

(Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Redferns)