There were many highlights during last night’s All Hearts club date with Robyn and Kelis (both women were flat-out brilliant), but one standout was Kelis’ cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Sign Your Name.” I was super-elated to hear the song (which I guess she recorded but never released) since I’d already planned on featuring Sheryl Crow‘s new take on the very same tune today.

“Sign Your Name” is one of three covers on Crow’s new LP, 100 Miles From Memphis, released last Tuesday. The title refers to the distance Crow’s childhood home in Kennett, Missouri, was from the storied city, with the album her homage to the homegrown R&B sounds committed to wax by local labels Stax and Hi Records.

Though Crow seems blissfully unaware, it’s not the first time “Sign Your Name” has been covered on record, or even in recent memory; Michael Bolton also picked the song for an album he released only this May. But unlike his and others’ covers of “Sign Your Name,” Crow’s version doesn’t hew quite so closely to the original, a #2 R&B/#4 Pop hit in the summer of 1988 for D’Arby, who now goes by Maitreya Sananda.

Instead keeping with the conceptual sound of 100 Miles From Memphis, the arrangement is a slinky slice of Al Green-inspired soul. And thanks to a fortuitous studio run-in with longtime Green admirer Justin Timberlake, who offered to contribute backing vocals after hearing what Crow and her crew were creating, “Sign Your Name” has never sounded so sexy. (No word on whether the two became Facebook friends though.) Here here:

Crow performed “Sign Your Name” (sadly sans Timberlake) during her Live On Letterman web concert from the Ed Sullivan Theater last Tuesday. Watch the near 60-minute set here.

Purchase Sheryl Crow – “Sign Your Name” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.