Throwback Thursday: Billy Corgan Covers the Bee Gees on ‘The Tonight Show’

When Billy Corgan released his first and only solo album, no one seemed to pay much attention. That's a bit of a shame, as TheFutureEmbrace holds plenty of great songs among its 12 tracks.

One of those tracks is a cover of a classic soul ballad written and originally recorded by the Bee Gees. Corgan's version manages to hold on to the emotional gravity and soulfulness of its inspiration while making it uniquely his own.

Appearing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, his live lineup looks like they could have formed in Germany in the late '70s just as easily as they came together in 2005, as can be witnessed in the video above.

Instead of the '90s guitar grunge that one might have expected of Corgan, he used a sparse electronic arrangement to underpin a wall of treble-y, fuzzed-out wall of sound. While he still used lots of guitars, just like in the Smashing Pumpkins' early days, the result sounded more like shoegazers My Bloody Valentine, as opposed to arena rockers like Jeff Beck and Boston.

For the album version, Cure frontman and perpetual needer-of-a-hairbrush Robert Smith played guitar as well, so it's no wonder Corgan's version of this soul song sounds so droney.

While promoting TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan also stopped by The Late Show With David Letterman. There, he and his band performed the original tune, "Mina Loy (M.O.H.)":