Lately I’ve been going through my music collection and looking for song remakes or covers as I like to call them. What is a cover song some might be asking?
Well a cover song is where a recent band takes a song from an older artist or group and remakes it with a newer sound or a few added tweaks but for the most part, the band will stay true to the original song.
Here are a few of what I consider to be exceptionally well done covers:
- Abracadabra – by Steve Miller Band – Covered by Sugar Ray
- Send Me An Angel – by Real Life – Covered by Thrice
- Smooth Criminal – by Michael Jackson – Covered by Alien Ant Farm
- Land Of Confusion – by Genesis – Covered by Disturbed
So now I call out to my readers who are music lovers.
What cover songs do you like? What songs from the past do you wish a newer band would cover?
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Well, my first instinct is to say, “What, none of Bowling For Soup’s covers make the list?”
There are also a couple of decent covers of Beatles songs that were done by bands old enough to be on classic rock stations themselves.
One is Come Together by Aerosmith, but I’ll be buggered if I can remember the other one…
You see Luke,
I figured you’d add the Bowling For Soup covers
But yes, the BFS cover of Hit Me Baby One More Time is very good.
How about “I Want It That Way” by The Backstreet Boys. It was covered by a New Found Glory.
Flock of Seagulls “I Ran” was covered by Bowling For Soup. It’s a really rocking version. You’ll like it.
Well, there’s also the BFS cover of I Ran by Flock of Seagulls. That song is the reason I first bought a BFS CD…
I also have a cover of Devo’s Love Without Anger by the Aquabats.
Technically, Brian Setzer Orchestra did a Stray Cats cover, Rock This Town.
Cake did an excellent cover of I Will Survive.
Da Vinci’s Notebook covered What A Wonderful World and They Might Be Giants’ seminal classic A Shoehorn With Teeth.
Everclear covered the Ramones with The Boys Are Back In Town, and they also perform a cover of Jesse’s Girl in concert.
Art of Noise (you should know them, they did Oh Yeah from Ferris Bueller) did a cover of the Peter Gunn Theme.
A Newfoundland (I think) folk band named Great Big Sea covered R.E.M.’s End of the World, and they sing it faster.
I have covers of Brown-Eyed Girl by both Jimmy Buffet and Everclear.
Hey Mike, thanks for the suggestion. I located the cover. Very nice indeed.
Ian, also, thanks to you for the BFS suggestion. I’ve got that one now in my collection.
Wow Luke! What a save with that list!
I totally forgot about Art Of Noise and yes I remember the “Oh Yeah” song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Now off to find more of these songs…
And that was just half my collection…
Madonna covered Don McClean’s American Pie, as I recall. Sheryl Crow covered Behind Blue Eyes and Sweet Child O’Mine (the second I know is Guns N Roses, because I have that one too… you’ll notice I recognize a lot of covers I have without knowing who did the original). Of course, there’s also Lenny Kravitz’s cover of the Guess Who’s American Woman.
There’s a cover of Ram Jam’s Black Betty done by a group called Spiderbait, I think they’re Australian. The video is great. My ZZ Top collection includes Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas.
Smash Mouth has covers too. Correct me if I’m wrong (which really wouldn’t surprise me), but I do believe they are Can’t Get Enough of You Baby, Why Can’t We Be Friends, and I’m a Believer (that one, I want to say, is from the Monkees).
I’m also going to count Weird Al’s Bohemian Polka, since it does still have all the words (and in the same order!) as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Whew… I’m sure I have still more covers in my collection, but now I’m exhausted and I can’t scan my whole collection again.
I’m sure you could find plenty more covers just by putting random song titles into a lyrics search engine (my favorite is sing365.com) and seeing how many different groups come up for each…
Oh wait, one that I’m mad at myself for forgetting: Bad Reputation by Joan Jett, as covered by Halfcocked for the Shrek soundtrack. Also on that soundtrack is Rufus Wainwright’s Hallelujah, which I know I’ve heard sung by other people…
You are officially obsessed Luke. Hehe.
Thanks for all the great suggestions. Now go get some sleep.
Luke sent me… Here are a few more, from my brain to your eyes…
bfs covered summer of 69 by bryan adams
guns n roses covered the rolling stones with sympathy for the devil
brad paisley (country i know) covered zz top’s sharp dressed man
santana did a fleetwood mac cover, can’t remember the song though off the top of my head
van halen covered martha and the vandellas with dancing in the street
uncle kracker’s drift away is a cover though i dunno who did the original
oh and elvis’ hound dog is a cover of big mama thornton
elvis’ blue suede shoes is a cover of….. gah…. charley patton? i think it’s charley patton
the early american music industry was founded on covers. the original artists weren’t socially acceptible enough so the industry got white guys to cover it all and the originals faded into obscurity
bob dylan’s a popular one…. lots of people covered his shit
neil diamond’s red red wine was covered by UB40
roll over bethoven by chuck berry was covered by the beatles
Marilyn Manson covered the Eurythmics with Sweet Dreams
oh and sheryl crow’s recent one… the first cut is the deepest… is a cover of cat stevens
metallica’s whiskey in the jar is a cover of thin lizzy
hmmmmmm ok i think that’s enough for now….
enjoy
@ Luke
The Boys Are Back in Town was originally done by Thin Lizzy, not the Ramones. Just wanted to throw that out there. Nice list.
Wow Luke, I think you pretty much covered all the good ones I can think of (Cake’s cover of I Will Survive is great).
Here’s 2 more I thought of…
The Donna’s covered Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself for the Mean Girls soundtrack.
Blues Traveler covered The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band.
Hi Meleresse. Good to know Luke sent you over. I’ll have to thank him.
Thank you for your amazing list of covers.
Who knew this subject matter would spark so many comments?
@Todd: Thanks for the correction.
I knew “The Boys Are Back in Town” was originally done by someone else and not the Ramones but I couldn’t remember.
@Brandon Wood: Indeed Luke is obsessed with music, like me. I was hoping he’d come through with a few covers and he really shined in the comments this time around. Yay Luke!
And yet no one has corrected me on any of the ones I was sure I got wrong… Thanks for the correction, though I could have sworn it was the Ramones when I heard it on the radio. Stupid radio not beaming the group’s name directly into my brain.
Da Vinci’s Notebook also did a cover of Jump In The Line. I thought of this last night and yet I still managed to get a decent night’s sleep. And you say I’m obsessed…
And yeah, I meant to make the point about old swing bands passing around songs like they were candy last night, but Meleresse was far more coherent than I at 1:30 in the morning so I figured she should do it (heck, she’s more coherent than me most times of the day). Also, if you wanted to count remixes/video game remakes/actors singing in movies for this list, I have about twenty quadrillion candidates, but you have to draw the line somewhere, right?
One of my favorite covers is Oasis’ cover of The Beatles’ I Am the Walrus
A few I remember
Viva Las Vegas, by the Dead Kennedys
Walk on By, by the Stranglers
Comfortably Numb, by the Scissor Sisters
There must be thousands!
Just heard another one on the radio this morning – Rascal Flatts covered Life is a Highway for the Cars movie.
Good one! I’ve actually got a playlist with my favorite covers in my collection .. (about half of this list) .. in alphabetical order
Symphony For The Devil (10,000 Maniacs)
One is the Loneliest Number (Aimee Mann)
Black Dog (Dread Zeppelin)
Wild Thing (Fargone Beauties)
Electric Avenue (Fugees)
L.A. Woman (Jane’s Addiction)
Symphony For The Devil (Jane’s Addiction)
Day Tripper (Jimi Hendrix)
Hey Joe (Led Zeppelin)
Come On Eileen (No Doubt)
Come Together (Sound Garden)
Dancing Days (Stone Temple Pilots)
Highway Star (Type-O Negative)
Light My Fire (Type-O Negative)
(if you want any – email me)
Heart’s version of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” is one of my favorite covers.
Nazareth’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s “This Flight Tonight” is an excellent cover and it’s amazing how many people don’t know that song was written and recorded by Joni.
I think that the cover of Comfortably Numb originally done by Pink Floyd was covered extremely well by Staind their new singles CD.
Here’s a new one you gotta check its amazing. Nonpoint does “In the air tonight” by Genesis.
Maybe yall havent heard of the complete album cover of Pink Floyds the wall By a techno group calles Out of Sync This album was as it sounds one of the best covers I’ve heard in a good while. Released 1999-2000
I really like The Ataris’ cover of “Boys of Summer” originally done by Don Henley.
Guns N’ Roses originally wrote Sweet Child O’ Mine (just so you know) (:
My favorite is Disturbed’s cover of Shout by Pet Shop Boys
I was trying to collect some songs for a friend and have been in the mood for remakes/covers. This thread provided SO MANY! Thanks guys!
Type O Negative – Cinnamon Girl
Metal Church – Highway Star ——–THE BEST!
Crystal Method & FatboySlim – Magic Carpet Ride
The Ramones – Sweet Caroline
Killswitch Engage – Holy Diver
Metallica – Master of Puppets Techno Remix
Love Roller Coaster – Red Hot Chili Peppers
PS Love the Black Betty one!