Oh God this is terrible:

[wordnat]

The Scarlet Tide by Elvis Costello, Renee Fleming, Rufus Wainwright, et. al.

(Sorry -- can't link to the UTube clip -- please go check it out. But you were warned...)

[Santi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6b-3xP8 ... L&index=57

[Ypsilanti]

Yeah--I was there that night and The Scarlet Tide didn't go too easy. Rufus had a really hard time with it. He started it, then faltered and asked Elvis to sing it for him--twice, I think--to give him a clearer idea of how it should sound. Elvis seemed a little taken aback by this, but he did it. Then the whole ensemble attempted to sing it, at least 3 times as I recall. You could see in Elvis' eyes & body language that he really wanted Rufus to get it right (in an encouraging way), but in the final version Rufus still sounded like he was singing a different song. I've read since that he was very ill and feverish that night, so maybe that accounts for it. And Renee? I don't know...she might love rootsy, Bluegrass music and aspire to sing that type of song, but her voice is so big and her manner is so grand, it just wasn't a good fit. That song really requires a modest, simple approach and opera divas are, by definition, sort of the opposite of that. Kate and Elvis probably would have sounded fine on their own, but the addition of Rufus and Renee was a little painful to watch. That poor song! They really butchered it. If I remember correctly, this was the big finale and I thought at the time that it was a shame because it would obviously never make it on the show...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Rufus I can handle on it, though his stretched phrasing isn't really right for the song, but Renee is verging on unlistenable here.

[Miclewis]

Still my favorite version of Scarlet Tide.

Short, simple and great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFZx-lsbxqI

[so lacklustre]

Nice one miclewis. That is how I saw him do it live in Bournemouth in 2004.