I'm A Believer - Other Versions

Other Versions

A cover by British singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt was an unlikely hit in the UK in 1974, with a version featuring Fred Frith on violin, Andy Summers (later of The Police) on guitar, and drums by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, who also produced the recording. It was Wyatt's first recording after the accident which left him a paraplegic.

In 1995, British comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer teamed up with then-popular band EMF for a version which reached #3 on the UK singles chart. Reeves & Mortimer's insertion of an "Oi!" after the first line of each verse has since become a regular feature of cover versions of the song.

This song was also covered by Smash Mouth and Eddie Murphy in 2001, as part of the soundtrack to the movie Shrek (the band also released the song on its self-titled album). Eddie Murphy, portraying the character "Donkey", also performed a rendition of the song in the film. The song was chosen for its opening line, "I thought love was only true in fairy tales," which matched the fairy tale theme of the film. Subsequently, the song was played as exit music for the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, for comic effect. A year into the show's run, it was inserted into its finale.

A nod to the version by Reeves & Mortimer with EMF is included in Shrek; though the "Oi!" does not appear in any album version of Smash Mouth's cover, it is inserted into the song when it is played in the film's finale, shouted by Snow White's Seven Dwarfs. A different cover, by Weezer, appears in Shrek Forever After.

In 2010, Neil Diamond recorded a stripped down, slow tempo version of the song on his Dreams album, and Paije Richardson performed an I'm a Believer/Hey Ya! mash-up on series seven of The X Factor.

In 2012, the group Emblem3 performed an uptempo version on The X Factor to mixed reviews from the judges.