Colin Farrell
Jeff Bridges
Ryan Bingham
This one's a departure from what I've been talking about, since all three versions of "The Weary Kind" included above were done at the same time, for the same reason, a film called Crazy Heart.
It's just interesting, to me, that even that's possible, that we so seldom think of how radically different a song can sound if a different person is singing, not merely in a rearrangement but in the vocals themselves. Jeff Bridges sounds completely different than Colin Farrell, Bridges playing the cagey veteran who gifts Farrell the song, which in the real world was composed by Ryan Bingham, who later became a little better known for a supporting role in Yellowstone, where he sometimes sings, too (his introduction merrily jokes about how depressing his music sounds).
And I've loved the song, regardless of who sings it, since I first saw the film. I was reminded recently of how canned music written for movies has become in recent years, but "The Weary Kind" is a considerable exception. Much of what Bridges sings to represent a legendary career is a little on the nose (written sometimes to comment on the state in which we find him rather than to reflect on a heyday). "Weary Kind" is a song that eclipses this fictional output and sounds like it could easily have landed on the radio in real life. Maybe it did? I don't know.
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