Can Scarlett Johansson improve Waits' songs?

The debut album from Scarlett Johansson, "Anywhere I Lay My Head," has been given an official track list, which was unveiled at a press event in New York last night. As noted earlier, the album sees the actress-turned-singer tackling 10 Tom Waits songs (and one original, "Song for Jo"), and now has a guest spot from David Bowie, according to Billboard.com, which covered the event.

For those wondering, Johansson has released music before. A while back, we wrote about her turn on the 2006 benefit CD “Unexpected Dreams -- Songs from the Stars,” in which she tackled "Summertime."

To try to get a sense of how Waits might sound once given the Scarlett-treatment, here's a clip from "Summertime," as well as a clip of one of the Waits songs she covers, "Green Grass." She gives the George Gershwin-composed "Summertime" a rather graceful approach, and colors her vocals with just a hint of femme fatale slyness.

But will such grace destroy the Waits songs?

Is their very appeal dependent upon Waits' crazy-guy-in-the-woods vocals, much like the Pogues lose their zest without Shane MacGowan's drunk-guy-in-the-pub approach? Since many of the songs Johansson covers are rather sparse in their original form, there is plenty room for interpretation, and I'm actually betting on the actress to hold her own with the Waits catalog.

"Summertime:"

"Green Grass:"

And the track list for "Anywhere I Lay My Head:"

1. "Fawn"
2. "Town With No Cheer"
3. "Falling Down"
4. "Anywhere I Lay My Head"
5. "Fannin' Street"
6. "Song for Jo"
7. "Green Grass"
8. "I Wish I Was in New Orleans"
9. "I Don't Want To Grow Up"
10. "No One Knows I'm Gone"
11. "Who Are You?"

Photo: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Me]

As much as a love her - she will never (nor will anyone for that matter) "improve' on Tom Waits.

She may, however, take his music and give it her own sound. She's a great singer and it is awesome that she even knows who Tom Waits is to cover his songs. She is light years ahead of the Lindsay's and the Hilary's and their pop acts. They will never reach her with anything they do.