Exclusive Stream: Rhett Miller Reinterprets David Bowie's 'Queen Bitch'

Rhett Miller

Jason Janick

Click to listen to Rhett Miller's 'Queen Bitch'

The Interpreter, the first live solo album by Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller, finds the songwriter offering up his own versions of songs by the Pixies, the Kinks, Wilco and the Ramones at Largo in Los Angeles. In this preview from the set, Miller plays an acoustic rendition of David Bowie's "Queen Bitch." "Bowie is my all-time, number-one favorite," says Miller. "In many ways I do what I do because of him. His songwriting features such nuance and depth. Subtext abounds. 'Queen Bitch' in particular is so juicy and weird. It's a pleasure to perform it, especially with Jon Brion on piano."

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Song Stories

“Push It”

Salt-N-Pepa | 1987

Originating as a B side to their cover of the Stax classic “Tramp,” Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandi “Pepa” Denton and Dee Dee “DJ Spinderella” Roper came up with the goods on this career-making, Grammy-nominated platinum single about working it on the dancefloor. “Push It” has been sampled and spliced to death since it debuted in 1987, yet the original track is as fresh and fly as when SNP — among the few original women of hip-hop — debuted it. “Most men will never believe ‘Push It’ was never about sex,” said James. “And that’s why the record went to Number One,” said Denton. “Everybody thought it was about sex.”

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