A new David Byrne cover version of Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Drivers License” has been released to celebrate Thursday’s fifth anniversary of the release of her blockbuster debut single. It’s the first in what is promised to be a series of other artists’ interpretations of the songs from her first album, “Sour,” due in the months to come.
The new Byrne recording is out now on DSPs.
On 7-inch vinyl only, meanwhile, Byrne’s cover of “Drivers License” is being backed with the live duet of “Burning Down the House” that he and Rodrigo performed last year at the Governors Ball as a B-side. Target will also have a 4-inch vinyl edition of the Byrne cover as part of the chain’s “Tiny Vinyl” series, with Rodrigo’s original “Drivers License” as the B-side.
Both vinyl editions are up for pre-order (with the 7-inch listed as “translucent ruby vinyl” and the Target mini-disc coming in “fruit punch vinyl”). Don’t be in a hurry — the standard 7-inch won’t ship till April 3, and the “tiny” Target disc isn’t due till April 30, according to those releases’ respective pre-order sites.
Thursday’s announcement was hotly anticipated, with some fans hoping for a revelation about “OR3,” aka the third studio album that Rodrigo and producer Dan Nigro have acknowledged being at work on — although a “Drivers License” graphic in the singer’s tease for the date was a tipoff that this might not be that. The extended campaign of covers to commemorate her debut album’s anniversary suggests that new music is probably not immediately at hand. The full “Sour” album came out May 21, 2021, so while no timetable was given for the rollout of tribute material, it seems likely to extend till then.
If anyone has a commercial license to re-promote five-year-old music, anyway, it would be Rodrigo. As a signpost of just how well “Sour” performed, the announcement notes that it is “the first and only album in Spotify history to have four songs each surpass two billion streams.”
“Drivers License,” which launched Rodrigo to pop superstar status veritably overnight, is up to 4.7 global streams across all platforms, according to the announcement from Rodrigo’s label. The single is certified six-times platinum by the RIAA.
While Rodrigo has been taking some time off from the road following the conclusion of the “Guts” tour behind her second album, Byrne has been busy on the road following the release of his recent “Who Is the Sky?” album. In a year-end list, Variety cited Byrne’s Los Angeles tour date as the best concert of 2025; the former frontman of Talking Heads will be taking that tour back out this winter and spring. His “Here Lies Love” Broadway musical is set to open an L.A. engagement at the Mark Taper Forum in February.
