Covered: Just Like a Pill

Pink has always stood out among female pop singers — and famously took some jabs in her “Stupid Girls” video — and has built a career on an edgier image, with bright-pink hair early on, and songs that have a little attitude, like “Trouble” and “So What,” and some witty innuendo, like “U + Ur Hand” and “Blow Me (One Last Kiss),” plus lyrics that often focus on being different or an outsider. But one of her earliest, and one of her best to this day, is “Just Like a Pill,” with electric guitars that push it closer to rock than pop.

“Just Like a Pill” was released in June of 2002 and was the third single from Pink’s sophomore album, Missundaztood — the title an example of the theme of being an outside that pops up throughout her career. Even the music video leans into the song’s vibe and was described by Pink as “dark and artsy.” She’s clad in black — including her fingernails and hair, which has streaks of pinkish purple — a man looming in the background with skull makeup, and a man with a mohawk and tattoos, all of which fit in better with the early-2000's pop-punk bands than its pop stars. Lyrically, “Just Like a Pill” is about a bad relationship and the difficulty of escaping it, with the not-so-subtle metaphor of drug abuse.

In 2013, just over a decade after “Just Like a Pill” was released, Pink was honored at the Billboard Women in Music event, where duo Tegan and Sara put their spin on the track. In her introduction, Sara said her initial reaction to the track’s video was thinking it was “the coolest thing [she’d] seen ever.”

Despite being a more stripped-down take with acoustic guitars and a piano, Tegan and Sara’s cover is a faithful one, and it’s still packed with the attitude that makes the original — this isn’t a reworking of a pop-rock track into an indie ballad. Sara’s vocals shine, with a strong delivery that proves everything she said about loving the song is true.

“Just Like a Pill” was a commercial success when it was released, and it still stands out as one of the best in Pink’s career. It also endures, with younger, newer artists paying tribute to it.