Well, 3 versions of the same song.
Dottie, I think your mad. Everything else in your million and one posts has always been quite sensible and good. But you did a boo boo in this one
hehe. Not a fan of that version. Don't like the production of the intro, don't like they didn't use a decent piano, don't like Barbara's alterations on jims spoken part. It's not altogether a bad song, but the other two imho are way better.
The other two version rate #1 and #2 on my favourite songs of all time by any artist alive or dead. With Meat sitting highest.
Compare and contrast:
Jims has the intro, Meat's doesn't. I like the intro, Jim gets a point.
Jims uses orchestra, Meat's doesn't, this is good, but I really like them both for this reason. I like Meat's for the Piano as the central instrument and the guitars and drums, and I also like Jims because of his great orchestra.
Jims has the wonderful "You'll Know Love Forever, You'll Know Love Forever Moooooooore" bit in, if you know what I mean.
Meat's has a better production. While you may not like how the musical arrangement is done, for the purpose of my point I'm speaking from a technical POV. e.g. there is more modern technology used in the Meat version and the sound to me is much clearer and whole than the Jim version. Had Jim's been done now, maybe I'd think different.
Jim's has Jim singing (or Rory Dodd, I lost track of the result of that debate which seemed to stray off just Surfs Up onto this) and Meat's has Meat. Meat, imho is the best singer and performer this side of the sun. Jim isn't. More good/average, but not by a long way described as bad.
On a slightly different note. I really liked DIMP video from jimsteinman.com but didn't particularly like the other two. BFG was wierdest and I only watched it a few times. Jim looks nervous on the video's, but I agree with evil_nickname. Jim would make a great comic, but acting maybe isn't his strongest point, or at least imho, certainly not above comedy.
Edit: You know, I really should have posted a score :)
Jim's : 9.5
Meat's : 10
Barbara's : 6