Stevie Wonder "We Can Work it Out" (The Beatles)
Stevie takes this flawless little love song and sings it to the whole world. The approach take the message of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On?" and makes it
hopeful.
Flying Burrito Brothers "Do Right Woman" (Chips Moman/Dan Penn)
Leave it to Gram Parsons to make a soul song sound as if it were intended for slide guitars and cowboy harmonies. It reminds us the shared goals of R&B and Country that spawned Rock & Roll.
Joe Cocker "With A Little Help From My Friends"
It's damn near impossible to cover a Beatles song and may it arguable preferable to the original. Cocker provides the perfect soundtrack to the Super 8 footage
of Kevin Arnold at the beginning of The Wonder Years 8. Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel) "I Love How You Love Me" (Phil Spector) Jeff Mangum sings this one like he means it, and probably does. The tone is more befitting of Phil Spector's genius vs. nut job passion than Frankie Valli's easy listening, inoffensive
attempt.
Deodato "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Richard Strauss)
Never has classical sounded so funky. Deodato's addition of spacey sound effects and a mean bass line would make even HAL start bobbing his head.
Uncle Tupelo "Effigy" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
These guys paved the way for what would eventually become Alt-Country. By adding a little punk rock to The Carter Family, The Flying Burrito Brothers etc. they reminded us that Country was Punk all along. The pounding guitars and drums on this one are perfectly juxtaposed with minimalist breakdowns and twangy harmonies.
Morgan Clendaniel:
Uncle Tupelo covering the Carter Family's "No Depression"
It's pretty indicative of lots of things about America at the end of the 20th century that it made sense for Uncle Tupelo to take the Carter Family’s song about the Great Depression and make it about being depressed. It also gave a name to an entire musical movement. It's also really good.
Los Lobos covering the Eagle's "Hotel California"
The original version is long, plodding and filled with lyrics that don't make any sense. So why not listen to a better version that is long, fast, and still filled with words that don’t make sense?
The Clash covering Lee "Scratch" Perry and Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves"
Brimming with tension about to boil over, the Clash add anger and volume to an already good song. From the falsetto backing vocals to the ire in the vocals, this version is brilliant in every way. It’s a brilliant distillation of the mood during punk’s beginnings on the street on London.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Elizabeth
You can't forget:
1) David Bowie's cover of "Waiting for the Man" by The Velvet Underground
2) Nirvana's cover of "The Man Who Sold the World" by David Bowie
2 - JD
those are good ones too!
3 - Eric Berlin
I'll throw in Dynamite Hack's cover of Easy-E's "Boyz in the Hood." Brilliant, funny, and compulsively listenable. Stark old school rap converted to harmonious folk-pop.
4 - JD
yes its very cool when folks from competely different genres cover songs.
5 - Mark Saleski
i haven't heard that Dave Mathews version of The Maker but it had better be ultra-fatastic to unseat the reference standard: Emmylou Harris on the record "Spyboy".
6 - JD
I haven't heard the Emmy Lou version.
7 - steve
Some cross-genre covers....
-Zebrahead's cover the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" (from pop to punk)
-Toad the Wet Sprocket's cover of KISS's "Rock And Roll All Nite" (rock to folk)
-Limp Bizkit's cover of George Michael's "Faith" (pop to heavy metal/rap)
-Anything by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (ex. Mandy, Rocket Man, Sweet Caroline, etc) (70's Adult Contemporary to Punk)
8 - andy marsh
how about SRV doing Stevie Wonder?
9 - The Proprietor
OK, perhaps I'm showing my age here, but I'd certainly say the Beatles covers of "Twist And Shout" and "Long Tall Sally" are worthy of consideration as great covers.
10 - Jeff Davidson
thumbs up to all of those too. SRV rocked. Pretty much anything the Beatles did was great in my book.
I also like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers version of "Higher Ground" and forgot to add that in.
11 - Chris Beaumont
Rob Zombie's versions of Brickhouse, I'm Your Boogeyman, and Blitzkrieg Bop are fantastic!
12 - Mike
I submit that the greatest Dylan cover of all time is The Byrds' version of "My Back Pages." It was radiant with the joy of rebirth, in a way that even the acoustic original couldn't quite muster.
The Beatles covers were great, too, and what about Elvis? "That's All Right Mama," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," and "Hound Dog," among others, were covers and who can imagine anyone else doing them now?
13 - Elizabeth
Oh, for the best genre crosser I've ever heard . . .
Eels cover of "Get Your Freak On" by Missy Elliot
14 - Jeff Davidson
You guys are coming up with some cool stuff! And, some stuff I haven't heard.
15 - Eric Berlin
Marilyn Manson's cover of "Sweet Dreams" is pretty creepy/great.
16 - Chris Beaumont
That is true, Eric!
How about Anthrax (w/PE) Bring the Noize?
17 - Chris Beaumont
Sepultura's Black sabbath cover of Children of the Grave.
Type O Negative's cover of Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl
18 - Eric Berlin
Oh, speaking of Type O Negative:
They do a simply fabulous, kind of hardcore goth version of The Doors' "Light My Fire."
19 - Mark Sahm
It's not too widely known, but the Foo Fighters did a phenomenal cover of the 70's classic "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty. The original had sax solos and disco synth, but the Foos reworked it all to guitar and bass. It's the B-Side to the UK "My Hero" single.
20 - Eric Berlin
Mark -- That is a great cover, absolutely. It played on the radio for a bit around five years ago.
21 - Mark Sahm
Oh, how could I forget--- Rage Against The Machine's cover of Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad". Those lyrics were meant to be screamed. Heh.
22 - Eric Berlin
I'd pick several RATM covers over Tom Joad. How about Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" or "Renegades of Funk" by... African Bambaata, I believe?
23 - JR
Mission Impossible Theme - Larry Mullen, Jr. & Adam Clayton covering Lalo Schifrin
sucked.
They took a really cool 5/4 riff and dumbed it down to 4/4 for the brainless dance crowd.
24 - Elizabeth
A recent cover that is pretty damn great it Caesar's cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." It was released on Six Feet Under: Everything Ends, Music from the HBO Original Series - Vol. 2. Read more and listen to the song at http://musiccapitol.blogspot.com/2005/07/six-feet-under-everything-ends-music.html
25 - Eric Berlin
And for the record, I think that Scissor Sisters' cover of Floyd is off-the-charts great. It's rare when a great song is reinvented into an equally great (or greater?) tune while not being at all derivative of the original.
For the record: what is NOT off-the-charts great... I flipped on MTV this morning and caught Jessica Simpson's cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walking."
My fingers walked right over to the remote and flipped over to Headline News.