And I’m not saying that the original is bad. You have to have a good song to have a good cover in my opinion. But sometimes the cover artist just understands the mission and takes what the original song did and expands on that a hundred times over.
What’re some of your guys’s favorites?
Last Resort by Falling in Reverse. This band has quickly become one of my favorites. Them and I Prevail can really throw down some emotions.
Cardigans, Burning Down the House with Tom Jones. Of course the original is incredible, but this version slaps.
I find the original Talking Heads version to be too whiny. I don’t find it enjoyable to sit through. The Cardigans/Tom Jones version I have one note, one change I’d make: Nina’s vocals seem to have a band-pass filter applied, it sounds like she’s literally phoning it in. I wouldn’t have done that.
Tool’s cover of No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. Page was channeling future Adam Jones with those riffs. It’s s a shame that the only official release of that song is on Tool’s coveted “Salival” album which is notoriously hard to get ahold of for anything even resembling a decent price if you can even find a good copy. Damn, I wish they would re-release that album.
faith no more’s easy
Obediah Parker – Hey Ya (Originally Outkast)
Megan McDuffee’s dark synthwave cover of Blink 182’s song Dammit
Erasure - Take A Chance On Me
My personal favorites that I like better than the originals and I LOVE the originals:
Whiskey in the Jar - Metallica
Take On Me - Reel Big Fish
99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
Land of Confusion - Disturbed
La Isla Bonita - Twilight Guardians
Spaceballs - Majestica
Black Betty - Spiderbait
Thriller - Scandroid
Electric Avenue - Skindred
The Z-Trip remix of I Want You Back, which is more of a demix than a remix or cover. It strips away a lot of the production and emphasizes the subtle guitar riff really nicely
Elbow’s cover of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Mercy Street’
MC 900 Ft Jesus’ cover of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Stare And Stare’
Gypsy Kings’ Spanish cover of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’
Elbow are so good!
Crooked Fingers - Long Black Veil
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Ween’s version of All of My Love. Which I’ve only ever heard through a crappy phone recording of a live event. Despite that, it’s still better than the original.
Aretha Franklin - Bridge Over Troubled Water (originally by Simon and Garfunkel)
Sly & The Family Stone - Que Sera, Sera (originally Doris Day)
The Isley Brothers - Love The One You’re With (originally Steven Stills)
Nirvana did a bunch of great ones during their brief time together.
The Man Who Sold The World has already been mentioned, but their versions of Turnaround by Devo, Plateau and Lake of Fire by Meat Puppets, and Where Did you Sleep Last Night and They Hung Him On A Cross by Leadbelly are all beautiful renditions in their own ways.
Of those, I’d say that Where Did You Sleep Last Night and both of the Meat Puppets covers are just as distinctly re-stanked by that Nirvana magic as their Bowie cover was. I like their version of They Hung Him On A Cross more than the original too, but tbh it always made me feel a bit weird hearing a white man singing that one. I get that it came from a place of reverence and compassion, but…idk man. I am both mixed race and have mixed feelings on that one lol. At the same time though, if any white man was to cover that one, I’m glad it was him since the hurt inherent to Kurt’s voice was a perfect match for the vibe and tone.
A-ha’s acoustic version of Take On Me is wonderful and very different from the original.
I’m all about Reel Big Fish’s cover
Is that what Ellie plays in TLOU2?
