10 Rare Smashing Pumpkins Songs You've Probably Never Heard

10. Never Let Me Down Again (BBC Session) (Depeche Mode Cover) (12 September 1993)

Featured On: Rocket – Single (B-Side), and For The Masses (Depeche Mode Tribute Album)

A cover of one of Depeche Mode’s most enduring hits. The band swaps the synth of the original for crisp guitars and a drum pattern with subtle marching band hints. Corgan’s vocals are particularly restrained and pronounced giving the Pumpkins’ version a more lamenting mood compared to the lustful original.

When asked about the meaning of the song, Depeche Mode songwriter Martin Gore recalled a meeting with two fans. ‘One of them thought it was a gay anthem and the other one thought it was a drug anthem. They both loved the song, so that's fine by me.’

The song was recorded at the request of the Pumpkins’ bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, who remembers being ‘intensely into Depeche Mode’ when she was seventeen. DM vocalist Dave Gahan, in an interview with MTV, heaped praise on the cover as it was ‘the opposite of what you’d expect the Pumpkins to do’. He stated he preferred the cover to the original.