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Cover Versions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
“Dawg, you really made that your own!” Every American Idol contestant beamed when they heard Randy Jackson say that.
Of course, some covers are just awful, like the Jonas Brothers totally destroying the 80s’ classic “Take On Me.”
Oh brother. That was painful. Ruined a perfectly good memory for me. I spent more than my share of quality time feathering my hair and slathering on makeup to that song.
And then there’s this abomination—Candy Flip’s cover of “Strawberry Fields Forever.” (You have to watch this, just to experience its awfulness.)
Truly cringe-worthy stuff. Someone please send Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr a sympathy card.
But, thankfully, there are covers that are absolutely brilliant. One of my favorites is Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Rufus Wainwright also does a great job (his version is in Shrek), but no one sang with heart like Buckley. It was a great loss to the musical world that he died in 1997 at only 30 years of age.
Jeff’s version was played during the tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings at Fenway Park.
Another cover I’ve recently found that deserves acclaim is Sturgill Simpson’s country version of “The Promise.” (As you listen to the 80s’ version, don’t be surprised if you have images of llamas named Tina, fried steak, and Glamour Shots by Deb dancing in your head.)
Sturgill’s cover would make Randy Jackson proud. As a traditional country singer with a silky baritone voice, he truly makes the song his own. Anyone who loves the smooth tones of Don Williams will swoon to Sturgill’s version of The Promise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQCD9Vh_CtE
What are your most beloved—and most despised—covers?
Published in General
Sweet Jane: Mott the Hoople’s version wasn’t too shabby either.
Watchtower: J’adore Hendrix, but dude, Dylan wrote that song!
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – This Land Is Your Land
I think Darius Rucker did a whale of a job covering “Wagon Wheel,” although you can’t beat Old Crow Medicine Show’s instrumentals. Alien Ant Farm does a frantic but catchy version of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” And Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams” is almost autobiographical: creepy yet saccharine.
In my defense, I put forth Clapton and BB King together.
Wait a minute; something’s nagging at me. Tell me again — what was the first rule when finding oneself in a hole?
Never mind.
Note: It’s the pretentious U2 version from Rattle and Hum identified here.
If you are talking about taking someone else’s song and making it your own, Vanilla Fudge certainly did that. Sometimes it is was good, sometimes it was just long and boring, but it was always original.
I can’t think about the despised ones. Here are some of my favorite covers, and I’ll link the one probably most have never heard. I’ll just limit it to rock songs. I had to run down the list on my ipod to recall them all.
Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower
Eric Clapton’s cover of Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff
The Clash’s cover (forget the artist) Police on My Back
CCR’s cover of Smokey Robinson’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Santana’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Black Magic Woman
Guns and Roses cover of Dylan’s Kockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Linda Ronstad’s cover of Roy Orbison’s Blue Bayou
The Who’s cover of Elton John’s Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
Rod Stewart’s cover of the Stones’ Street Fighting Man
The Rolling Stones’ cover of The Temptations Just My Imagination
Here’s my surprise pick. I love Audrey Assad’s cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.
Assad is a contemporary Christian singer.
Sorry, I can’t get the video to embed. It’s on youtube.
Bold choice and a good one as well. :)
Ritchie Havens covering *anything*. The man did it with so much class, so much soul, so much originality, and so much love, he took it to a new level.
Audra Mae’s cover of Dylan’s “Forever Young”
John Coltrane – “My Favorite Things”
Clapton – “Classical Gas”
Allmans – “One Way Out”
Maynard Ferguson’s excellent cover of Bill Conti’s Gonna Fly Now (Rocky theme)
Badfinger’s “Can’t Live if Livin’ is Without You” covered by Nilsson (most under-rated singer of all time).
Stones’ “Start Me UP” covered by the Folksmen (from A Mighty Wind)
I liked Don McLean’s version of “Crying” better than Roy Orbison’s, but I think I’m the only one. (Probably because I heard it first.)
Pretty much everyone who does a cover of a Bob Dylan song is going to be better than the original . . . Well, maybe not everyone
One of the marks of great songwriting is that the song can be covered in a completely different style and still be great. Some of my favorites are already listed above (Comboy Junkies’ Sweet Jane may be my absolute favorite) but here are some others:
Last Town Chorus: Modern Love (Bowie)
Willie Nelson: The Scientist (Coldplay)
Nirvana: The Man Who Sold the World (Bowie)
The Sundays: Wild Horses (Rolling Stones)
Etta James can sing anything, but who’d’a thunk: Purple Rain (Prince)
10,000 Maniacs: Because the Night (Springsteen)
…but an amazing cover is one that takes not-so-great songwriting and makes a great song:
Puddles the Sad Clown: Royals (Lorde)
I’m not sure what category this one fits into.
Hahahaha! I was thinking the same exact thing last night as I was scrolling down my itunes list.
The Onion’s AV Club complies a list of songs every year for indie bands to come in a do covers of. Some are better than others, but there’s a few interesting live covers every year.
The Decemberists and They Might Be Giants are among the better known performers to have participated.
This. Great performance? Check. Not just a copy of the original? Check.
Franco — awesome. Thank you. Your lead singer is incredible. Love her voice. :)
Anything by Me First and the Gimmee gimmees, SRSLY.
Come on Eileen by Save ferris:
Fun story about save ferris. I got their CD while in Kosovo back when that was new and fun. Being a proud self-actualize member I had the internet on the mountain and I would listen to our independent alternative rock station back home over the internet. I started emailing in requests. They were so taken aback to have a listener in Kosovo, that they sent me a care package full of all kinds of indy rock swag, and one of them was this particular save ferris CD.
I love Liz Wright’s version of Old Man by Neil Young.
Two of my favorites…..
mack the knife… Ella Fitzgerald in Berlin
it’s a mans world. Pavarotti and James brown
I got it! The potentially worst cover ever done:
A Mylie Cyrus remake of The Captain and Tennille’s “Muskrat Love”.
Woohoo!
Those Helicopters – A World Without Love
Love the song, but since it’s a standard does it count as a cover?
-E
That new version would be at least 100% better if they switched the relative volumes of the vocals and instrumentals.
I’ll have to disagree. Maybe because I’m not too fond of the original. Though it’s not Van Halen at their best, by any stretch of the imagination.