Rick Rubin Recalls Adele's 'Lovesong' Cover: 30 Takes, Every One Astounding

Producer Rick Rubin has been revisiting his role on Adele's 2011 album 21, focusing on its only cover track, 'Lovesong'. The song was originally written by Robert Smith and released by The Cure in 1989 — and it was Rubin who suggested Adele take it on. He recalls her singing it over and over in the studio, each pass impressing him anew. The comments were gathered and reported by Far Out Magazine.

"About 30 times in a row, and every one was astounding"

Rubin described Adele as needing almost no direction once she was in the room: "You just have to set up a mic." While the band ran through the arrangement, he says Adele kept singing along — "she probably sang it about 30 times in a row, and every one was astounding."

He also praised her interpretive range, calling her an exceptional "vocal actor" capable of taking a song with a completely different vocal register and mood and translating it into something entirely her own.

Why 'Lovesong' fit on '21'

Most of 21 traces the arc of a bitter breakup, and in the tracklist 'Lovesong' functions as the calm after the storm — Adele lets her guard down to sing about the steadiness of connecting with someone. That emotional turn, Rubin suggests, is part of why the cover earned its place on the record.

Rubin's instinct for cover songs

Picking unexpected covers for artists has long been part of Rubin's method. He previously had Johnny Cash record songs by Depeche Mode and Soundgarden, working not from genre fit but from whether a singer could "translate" the song into their own voice.

The same logic runs through his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Far Out Magazine notes that 'Under the Bridge' was not originally the direction Anthony Kiedis wanted to take, yet it became one of the band's most iconic songs. Rubin's consistent approach, per the report, is to get artists to drop their guard and put the most personal part of themselves into a song.