Track of the Day: 'The Promise' by Sturgill Simpson
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021.
A reader goes country:
To your series on transformative cover songs, I’d like to submit “The Promise” by Sturgill Simpson. It took me several listens to even recognize this plaintive country ballad as a cover of When in Rome’s new wave hit.
Digging the Notes section, BTW.
And I’m digging the song stuck in my head now. I also remember it—the original version—featured in the closing montage of Napoleon Dynamite.