Having recently revealed that he thinks Billie Eilish is “fucking great”, Paul Weller has now paid her the ultimate compliment and performed one of her songs, What Was I Made For?
Asked to play a cover by Jo Whiley for one of her Sofa Sessions on BBC Radio 2 (skip to 1:21:00 for the performance), Weller chose the track that Eilish contributed to the soundtrack to the smash-hit 2023 movie, Barbie.
“Everyone’s going to know this… I heard it through my youngest daughter, Nova,” he says by way of introduction. “She’s a big fan of this next artist, and it’s a Billie Eilish tune and it’s called What Was I Made For?”
Weller’s version is pretty faithful to the original, but hearing it sung by one of rock’s elder statesmen lends it an even greater sense of pathos.
“She’s incredibly talented, I think, and her brother as well,” Weller says after his performance. “That’s such a beautiful song and the melody’s incredible - and the words. I think it’s just a great tune.”
This isn’t the first time Weller has expressed his liking for the song. In an interview with Mojo last month, he said: “I’ve got to say, man, Billie Eilish is fucking great. What Was I Made For? is an incredible tune. It’s lovely to see my little girl playing the record on vinyl and singing along to the words because I’m thinking: that was me and The Beatles. Those early inspirations stay with you for the rest of your life.”
