On Friday, I shared a few of my favorite tunes from the summer of 1984. One song left off that informal list was The Cars’ “Drive,” which hit radio that August and became the group’s highest charting single, when it reached #3 in October.

I intentionally excluded “Drive” because a few days prior I’d come across a cover by Ruth Ann Boyle, vocalist for the defunct English trip-hop trio, Olive. The group’s 1997 album, Extra Virgin, remains one of my very favorite albums, having earned a permanent spot on my iPod.

Though they’d had a #5 club hit with “You’re Not Alone,” the band was dropped by RCA. But Olive found a fan in Madonna, who signed the band (now a duo) to her Maverick Records in 2000. A cover of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love,” featured on The Next Best Thing soundtrack, reached #1 on the dance charts, though the subsequent album, Trickle, did just about that, sales-wise. Olive then went on “extended hiatus.”

Back during the preparation of Trickle, Enigma mastermind Michael Cretu approached Boyle and invited her to contribute vocals to 1999’s The Screen Behind The Mirror. She sang on two tracks, including single “Gravity Of Love,” and later did so again for 2003’s Voyageur. Comfortable with each other in the studio, Boyle and Cretu turned their energies toward recording her solo album.

What About Us was released exclusively via iTunes in June 2007, though it was only last week that I stumbled upon it. If, like me, you loved Olive, hearing Ruth-Ann’s distinctive voice again is like unearthing a treasure long assumed lost, though you’ll kick yourself for somehow not hearing her solo album sooner. (Really? Two years?!)

Alongside 11 originals (most written by or with Cretu) is a single cover, The Cars’ “Drive” (the point of today’s post). Saying it’s a song she’s always loved, Ruth-Ann doesn’t deliver a dramatic reinterpretation—in fact, the arrangement rides the original pretty closely—but her voice is such a lovely fit that I’m a willing passenger. Hear here:

Purchase Ruth-Ann – “Drive” via iTunes.