Since its the "Summer of Lists" on the web, I had the Earvolution writers sit down and make a list of their favorite cover songs by popular artists.…
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Best Rock Cover Songs of All-Time - Comments Page 2
Since its the "Summer of Lists" on the web, I had the Earvolution writers sit down and make a list of their favorite cover songs by popular artists.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - eric schultz
Here's a few -
Natalie Merhcant doing the Stones Sympathy for the Devil (Jane's Addiction, David Byrne, and GNR do sweet versions as well)
Marilyn Manson - Soft Cell's Tainted Love
The Eels - Sophie B. Hawkins Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
GNR - Wings live and Let Die
Alice Cooper - Jimi's Purple Haze
Johnny Cash - NINs Hurt, Soungarden's Rusty Cage
There are more - I just can't think of them right now....
27 - The Proprietor
Roy Buchanan's cover of "Sweet Dreams" - unbelievably evocative guitar work.
28 - Rodney Welch
Soft Call's "Taited Love" wasn't a bad cover version itself.
29 - Tim Jarrett
Red House Painters doing Kiss's "Shock Me."
Yo La Tengo doing "Be Thankful for What You Got."
White Stripes doing Burt Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself."
Nirvana doing the Velvet Underground's "Here She Comes Now."
Ironically: Low doing "Open Arms."
There are a ton of wonderful obscure and not obscure covers out there. This list scratches the surface.
30 - El Bicho
Type O Negative do an awesome version of "Summer Breeze"
Love and Rockets' "Ball of Confusion"
Two good covers: Van Halen and Oingo Boingo on The Kinks "You Really Got Me"
Almost the entire Zeppelin catalogue is a blues cover
NIN on Dead Souls
Coltrane's "My Favorite Things"
Cream's "Crossroads"
31 - Jeff Davidson
VH's You Really Got Me is a good one, as is their version of Pretty Woman.
Have you heard the Zep tribute cd with STP, Hootie, and others?
32 - El Bicho
The Pretty Woman video was a classic. It wasn't shown on MTV back then, but is so tame.
33 - Chris Beaumont
Anthrax: Ball of Confusion
Anthrax: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Pantera: Planet Caravan
Powerman 5000: Let the Good Times Roll
34 - Natalie Davis
Wow, kudos to great choices within the post and the comments.
35 - Jeff Davidson
thanks!!
36 - Andrew Ian Dodge
'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' Warren Zevon cause he was honestly was knockin as he was dying of cancer when he recorded the song.
'You Really got Me' as covered by VH on a more upbeat bent.
37 - Andrew Ian Dodge
'Ride On' AC/DC as covered by Norah Jones.
38 - Eric Berlin
Some great ones, El B. A jazz expert friend of mine and I were just rapping about "My Favorite Things" last week (I'm not a huge jazz guy but that one just knocks me on my ass).
Another Nirvana... which I'm pretty sure didn't make the box set but definitely should have: "Seasons in the Sun," a haunting and beautiful version.
39 - Chris Beaumont
Would the Metallica/Megadeth pair of The Four Horsemen/Mechanix count?
Or maybe Megadeth's censored version "These Boots Were Made for Walking"?
40 - Eric Berlin
Best (ever) cover of Boots Were Made for Walking / One of These Days:
Operation Ivy
41 - Tom Johnson
I second Chris' comment about Megadeth's censored "Boots" cover. It absolutely MUST be heard with the bleeping. It's hilarious.
42 - Triniman
Megadeth's Anarchy in the UK. Mustaine sings "possibly" instead of "passerby."
43 - El Bicho
While RATM's "Maggie's Farm" is my favorite Dylan cover, two of the best live perfromances were by The Grateful Dead due mainly to the audience participation.
"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" with its refrain of "Everybody must get stoned." brought out more lighters than any sappy ballad.
"Quinn the Eskimo"
"But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Ev'rybody's gonna doze." Changed to "dose" by tens of thousands of mad, grinning faces.
For sheer oddness I have to give honorable mention to Devo's "Satisfaction"
SRV performing Voodoo Child (slight return) To hear the next great guitar slinger, check out Robert Randolph
44 - Karl Rutherford
i listen to music at work alot and if i found a peice of paper and it had all kinds of stuff about gay people on it but was laying on the floor i would go to the file cabinet and put the peice of paper in the folder that says "documents to be reviewed" and i would tell a manager or my freind ron
45 - jeff
I aggree with the Bonnie Raitt cover choice of the Talking Heads song
"Burning down the house"...saw Bonnie
perform that one live at Mansfields
Tweeter Center in Mass, wow! blistering
slide guitar action, and ROAD TESTED
version is hot!, why this song wasn't on the radio?????????? Jeff Buckley-Tom Waits also do great cover songs mentioned in the article.
46 - Chris Beaumont
Winger: Purple Haze
47 - Rob
How about:
"Hard To Handle", the Black Crows version. They did a great take on Otis Redding.
"I'm a Man", Chicago's version. They really were a great band until the 70s and 80s watered them down to the Easy Listening crap you hear today.
"Lovers in a Dangerous Time", Barenaked Ladies' version. They did a great job of making Bruce Cockburn's song their own.
48 - Paul Dobry
Good call on the Foo Fighters covering Baker Street, in addition to the B-Side it is also on a very hard to find EMI tribute record. EMI artists cover songs by older EMI artists including a haunting version of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" by Sparklehorse featuring Thom Yorke.
In addition to Bonnie Rait's "Burning Down the House" if you are looking for a version with a little more kitch, there is a solid reworking by the Cardigans featuring Tom Jones.
There are tons of amazing covers out there, it was hard to whittle it down to ten.
49 - Incandenza
Cibo Matto did a funky, pseudo-bossa-nova version of 'About A Girl' that's definitely worth checking out...
And Sleater-Kinney does a bitchin version of 'Fortunate Son' live.
50 - eric schultz
Forgot to mention Tori Amos' Strange Little Girls disc - chock full of amazing covers, from Eminem to Slayer; she also does a sweet version of Nirvana's Teen Spirit.
Tool - Zepp's No Quarter on Salival
Faith No More did a funny version of NKOTB The Right Stuff live (complete with Patton doing the Roger Rabbit). This was when everyone wanted them to do War Pigs and they went to this song onstead.
Speaking of War Pigs - The Dresdin Dolls do a fabulous version live.
Pearl Jam's Crazy Mary is an amazing cover as well...
51 - Douglas Mays
Speaking of Stevie Wonder, I saw a video of him and Bobby Darrin doing a cover of "If I were a Carpenter". It was awesome.
On the obscure side, a band out of Boulder, CO in the 80s (the Little Women) did a version of the Stone's "Bitch" that just rocked so well it blew trees. A band from Seattle during the proto grunge era did a cover of Joy Division's "Means to an End" that was the biggest rock I have ever heard.
peaceloveguidance
52 - JR
Maurice Ravel's version of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" has certainly stood the test of time.
Odd, no mention yet of my favorite Sabbath cover: Type O Negative's version of "Black Sabbath"
Tori Amos does a great version of Slayer's "Raining Blood"
Van Halen's version of John Brim's "Ice Cream Man" worked pretty well. I also have a soft spot for their cover of Linda Rondstadt's version of Clint Ballard, Jr.'s "You're No Good".
Also, UFO's cover of Love's "Alone Again Or" (awesome guitar work!).
Jeff Beck doing Stevie Wonder's "Cause We've Ended As Lovers".
Rammstein's version of Depeche Mode's "Stripped".
Led Zeppelin's version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You".
Miles Davis/Gil Evans doing the adagio movement from Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concerto de Aranjuez".
Iron Maiden's version of Jethro Tull's "Cross-eyed Mary".
The Doobie Brothers' cover of the Art Reynolds Singers' "Jesus Is Just Alright".
Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Duke Ellington's "Caravan".
Charlie Hunter Quartet covering Bob Marley's "Revolution".
Jefferson Airplane's version of David Crosby's "Triad" (having a woman sing it puts a whole new perspective on the original).
Jethro Tull's cover of Roland Kirk's "Serenade for a Cuckoo".
Jethro Tull's remake of J.S. Bach's "Bouree".
Norah Jones doing Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You".
The Bad Plus covering Black Sabbath's "Iron Man".
Ronnie Montrose's version of Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity".
Stevie Ray Vaughan playing Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing".
Luther Wright & The Wrongs remake of Pink Floyd's "The Wall".
ZZ Top's cover of Isaac Hayes' "I Thank You".
And of course all the best Michael Jackson covers are by Al Yankovich.
53 - Jeff Davidson
I've heard of Little Women friends of mine in an even more obscure band from York, PA played with them!
54 - Jeff Davidson
nice list JR!
55 - Rob
JR, good call on Luther Wright & The Wrongs. I forgot about their take on The Wall.
56 - Dennis Arsenault
Clem Snides cover of Christina Agulera's "Beautiful" is a great one too..
57 - Mat Brewster
More for the list:
KD Langs version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" I find it much sweeter than the Jeff Buckley version as mentioned in the post.
Grateful Dead doing Morning Dew, turning an obscure folky song about nuclear holocaust into an apocolyptic monstrostity that makes you feel the bombs a blowin.
Alison Krauss doing the Beatles I Will. Beautiful, stretched out version that I played at my wedding.
Keith Richards is on record stating that Otis Reddings version of Satisfaction is done the way he wanted it done. It smokes.
Townes Van Zandt doing the Stones classic Dead Flowers. The original is a close to perfect a song as you'll get in pop music, but Townes makes it sadder.
Bonnie Raitt doing John Prine's Angel From Montgomery the version on the Prine box set with Prine himself is one of my all time favorite versions of any songs anywhere. If you don't cry when she sings "how the hell is a person go to work in the morning/come home in the evening/and still have nothing to say" you just don't have a heart.
And more...and more.
58 - Mat Brewster
Oh I forgot the Willie Nelson/Waylon Jennings version of Townes Van Zandts Pancho and Lefty.
I heard a live punk/trash version of John Prine's Sam Stone from Truckadelic once that was pretty stellar as well.
See how all these connect?
59 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
i must fling a nod in the direction of Bobby, being a fantastic cover of Bobby Brown's My Prerogative by Selfish Cunt. beats Britney's version into the dusty ground.
60 - Trevor Reekie
Erma Franklin (Arethas sister) doing Light My Fire
Nick Cave and Shane McGowen doing What A Wonderful World
Troubled Mind (60's NZ band) doing Under My Thumb (stones)
Ramones doing Somebody to Love (J Airplane)
Johnny Cash doing Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)
The Muppets covering Pierro Umilliani Mah Na Mah Na
Devo covering Satisfaction
Harry Nillson covering Fred Neil's Everybodys Talking
to add just a few
61 - peter m
what about...
Jose Feliciano - shes a woman
Spanky Wilson - sunshine of your love
Watts 103rd st band - can't get no satisfaction
Cedric Im Brooks - Shaft (reggae version)
Mongo Santamaria - Louie louie
62 - crooked spine
Both Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" and Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness" have been mentioned here as sources for cover songs (even though they're actually covers of earlier songs). This makes me think that they deserve to be on the list of best cover songs themselves.
Other songs that I think have been claimed from the original artists:
"Summertime Blues" - The Who
"Back Door Man" - The Doors
"Piece of My Heart" - Big Brother & the Holding Company
"Woodstock" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
"The Letter" - Joe Cocker
"Cotton Fields" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
"(I Know) I'm Losing You" - Rod Stewart
"Stormy Monday" - The Allman Brothers Band
"Call Me the Breeze" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Act Nice and Gentle" - The Black Keys
"It's All Over Now" - The Rolling Stones
"Money" - The Beatles
63 - Pete Blackwell
My all-time favorite cover: "American Woman" by the Butthole Surfers.
Freakwater do a great acoustic version of "War Pigs."
What? No mention of Hendrix covering "All Along the Watchtower"?
BTW Eric, I think 7 Seconds' version of "These Boots Were Made for Walking" is better and punker than OpIvy. It's almost as punk as the Jessica Simpson version.
Honorable mention: A band called the Warlock Pinchers do a 7+ minute version of "I Think We're Alone Now." Slow and painful.
The Supersuckers did a fine cover of "Dead Homies" by Ice Cube, too.
FINALLY, how come no one has mentioned Jet covering their entire early-70s record collection?
64 - Douglas Mays
"Nights in White Satin" by the Dickies.
enuf said...
65 - Douglas Mays
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" by the Butthole Surfers I thought was quite well done.
66 - Vern Halen
Here's an obscure one - Guadalcanal Diary doing the campfire classic "Kumbahyah." Sanctified or sacreligious, depending on your point of view.
67 - Mark Saleski
R.E.M. covered Aerosmith's "Toys In The Attic".
...though it was not particularly, uhm...REM-ish.
68 - Andrew Careaga
What about the Sex Pistols' version of "No Fun," originally by the Stooges? The Pistols took that song and made it their own. Also, the Pistols did a fine job transforming the Monkees' "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone."
69 - Andrew Careaga
Oh yes - a couple more:
The Clash's "I Fought the Law" (Bobby Fuller Four)
Devo's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (Rolling Stones)
Patti Smith's "Hey Joe"
70 - Douglas Mays
Oh gosh, how could I forget, anything by the Residents!!!! Oh man, their album, "Third Riech and Roll" sure mutilated any pop hit that existed.
71 - Eric Berlin
Deep Purple's version of "Hey Joe" is also pretty great... and trippy!
72 - Douglas Mays
The Residents also had a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" that is actually pretty good. They capture the essence of the sick heart.
73 - Douglas Mays
Jimi Hendrix's cover of "Hey Joe" is the best.
74 - Eric Berlin
Hendrix does a bunch of fantastic covers: Hound Dog, Day Tripper, and of course, All Along the Watchtower, which has some of the best guitar work in the history of the planet.
75 - Mark Saleski
Hendrix also covered "Sgt. Pepper's..."