The weather’s deeply insane in Washington, and I’m spending a bunch of the day inside a theater watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II (the sacrifices I make for this job). So in honor of the brain-melting heat and to keep you amused while I’m gone, a playlist of gender-flipped covers, where the singer of the cover is different than the gender of the person who originated the song.

1. Xiu Xiu’s awesomely creepy-sounding cover of Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In the World),” which inspired me.

2. Nothing beats the fragile version of “God Only Knows,” that the Beach Boys laid down on their “Live in London” album. But Petra Haden’s version has a lovely serenity to it:

3. And where Haden brings calm to the Beach Boys, Dolly Parton adds a nervous energy to the Beatles’ “Help”:

4. While in turn, Sisters of Mercy turn “Jolene” into a horror movie (HT: Zack Stentz):

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