Kelly Clarkson‘s latest Kellyoke is a smash. For the Tuesday (Feb. 27) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the three-time Grammy winner effortlessly covered the Smashing Pumpkins‘ nostalgic 1995 hit “1979.”
Though Clarkson and her band Y’all are no strangers to big production performances with flashing lights and show-stopping musical moments, this time, they kept things as simple and breezy as their song of choice. “I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues,” the talk show host’s voice floated over the track’s repeating mellow guitar lick. “And we don’t know just where our bones will rest to dust, I guess, forgotten and absorbed to the Earth below.”
Written by frontman Billy Corgan, the Smashing Pumpkins released “1979” as a single off the band’s third studio album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The track peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the band’s highest-charting song to date — and was nominated for record of the year at the 1997 Grammy Awards.
The band is currently in the process of releasing its latest project ATUM in three parts; Act I dropped in November, Act II arrived last month, and Act III is due in April. According to Corgan’s interview with The Guardian last fall, the completed record will serve as the final installment in a concept album trilogy set into motion with Mellon Collie.
“I believe we’re one of the great bands, and it starts with the conviction that we have something unique to say,” he told the publication. “We’re back to doing what we’re good at.”
Watch Kelly Clarkson perform the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” on The Kelly Clarkson Show in the above video.
