Best (and worst) cover versions

vannistelrooy10

motley crue... anarchy in u.k(replaces with usa in song)
motley crue....streetfighting man
guns n roses...sympathy for the devil

Beecher

My Favourite:

Rodrigo Y Gabrielle - Orion
Paradise Lost - Small Town Boy
Life Of Agony - Dont You Forget About Me
Human - Five Minutes Alone

The Worst:

The Kovenent - Spaceman (Babylon Zoo Cover)
Gooseflesh - Becoming
Children Of Bodom - The Final Countdown

heggie

Best:
Johnny Cash - Hurt

Worst:
Whatever that girl band were called - Under the bridge

Nightwish

Nightwish wrote:

Marilyn Manson – Personal Jesus (Johnny Cash)

For shame! With the music you like you should know thats Depeche Mode, NOT Mr. Cash

20 Times 20 Times

Nirvana - man who sold the world ( i love this)

hawkmoon269

Papa Smut wrote:

For shame! With the music you like you should know thats Depeche Mode, NOT Mr. Cash

Yep it was originally a DM song. Having said that I like both the Johnny Cash and Marilyn Manson versions. It's pretty rare to find a song where you like all the versions.


My own choices:

Best: Wild Horses - Gram Parsons (Rolling Stones) OR
Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds (Bob Dylan)

Worst: Stairway to Heaven - Rolf Harris (Led Zep)

fricatus

Best for me is "Wild Horses" done by the Sundays (Rolling Stones, although I confess I haven't heard the Gram Parsons version)
Nirvana's take on "The Man Who Sold the World" and the Alien Ant Farm version of "Smooth Criminal" are fantastic too.

Bono and Alicia Keys really made a balls of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up". Hurts for me to say it since I love both U2 and sweet, sweet Alicia so much!

Worst has to be Speedway's version of Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle". Wrong chord movements, monotonous riff, so utterly dire...

On that point, I really don't like the vogue for indie-style covers of pop hits. Why all the fake irony? Travis only showed that Britney's debut single was a good song, once it was repackaged for non teeny-boppers. I like Glen Hansard, but it annoyed me that people only realised that "Everytime" was a great song when he (so excellently) covered it.

tman

not exactly a cover version...

Cypress Hill copied pretty much the entire backing track of Clash's classic "Guns of Brixton", and somehow managed to piss all over it with their wanky vocals (and this is coming from a Cypress Hill fan!)
can't remember the name of the Cypress Hill tune... think it might've been something along the lines of "gimme your number"

best cover version ever (imo) would have to be Johnny Cash's superb rendition of "Won't back down"
Nirvana's cover of "Lake of Fire" (Meat Puppets) on the MTV unplugged album is rather good as well

lostinsuperfunk

Good:
The Meat Puppets covers by Nirvana on the Unplugged album (and I've never even heard the originals!). The cover of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' is amazing too.
Black Steel reworked by Tricky (originally Public Enemy).
Everything I do (I do it for you) by the Fatima Mansions.

Bad:
Every cover by Luka Bloom, but "I need love" and "When Doves Cry" in particular. Song Murderer!
Almost every cover by U2 (except Everlasting Love). "All along the watchtower" - what was Bono thinking?
"A Little Respect" by Wheatus. Don't mess with the classics. Although Erasure themselves deserve a mention here for their crap Abba covers.
"Heyday" by Glen Hansard (originally Mic Christopher).

The worst?
Tom Waits' "I hope that I don't fall in love with you" covered by Brian Kennedy and Juliet Turner. A special corner of hell is reserved for them.

Capt'nSpaulding

my favourite covers (in no particular order) are -

what a wonderful world - joey ramone

hey good lookin - the replacements

hurt - johnny cash

war pigs - faith no more

the 'Cheers' theme song - the Wildhearts

Death is not the end - nick cave and the bad seeds

sweet dreams my LA Ex - lost prophets

number of the beast - the djali zwan

As for the worst, well obviously any boy bands covering any song,
also -
911 is a joke - Duran duran

sweet child o' mine - sheryl crow

beat on the brat - U2

JC 2K3

The Best:

Dancing in the Moonlight - Smashing Pumpkins(Thin Lizzy)
Sweet Child O Mine - Dinosaur Jr.(GNR)

The Worst:

Despite making a fúcking amazing band popular the Nirvana covers of Meat Puppets' songs on Unplugged are extremely mediocre. Kurt Cobain just couldn't sing em as well as Curt Kirkwood, although I guess they're good if you haven't heard the originals and you're trying to think of something to post in a "best covers" thread. You people really need to listen to Meat Puppets 2 a few times and experience the brilliance of that album. Lake of Fire is a fúcking brilliant song when played live and electric by the pups

RopeDrink

For some strange reason I actually really like Lucy Silvas' cover of Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' (assuming Metallica were the original artists)...

There's tonnes of others but I can't remember any of them.

Dr. Loon

Really bad are;

The Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind
Is it the Fine Young Cannibals?! - Suspicious minds

I've seen other bands try Elvis covers and they always upset me as I'm a big Elvis fan. Another that springs to mind is ZZ Top with Viva Las Vegas. That DJ Junkie or whatever did an alright remix of Rubberneckin' though. In saying that Elvis himself did a pretty bad version of Hey Jude.

How about that fúcker Will Young or was it the other one that destroyed Light My Fire?

sturgo

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Heard it trough the grapevine. As good as the original.

Miguel

Son Of Dork - Two Princes

IT RULES!!!!!

Civilian_Target

The Good
Cradle of Filth - Hallowed be the Name (Iron Maiden)
Sepultura - Orgasmatron (Motorhead)
Fisto - Faries Wear Boots (Black Sabbath)
Rage Against the Machine - Maggie's Farm (Bob Dylan)
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Orion (Metallica)

The Bad
Machine Men - Aces High (Iron Maiden)
The Beatles - Money

The Ugly
Children of Bodum - Hit Me Baby One More Time
Anything by Boy/Girl bands
Abba covers

Civilian_Target

Oh - actually, let me update that. Just heard Theroin's cover of Children of the Damned (Iron Maiden) - the vocals aren't great but the guitars are pretty damn tasty.

Also, Entomed's cover of 21st Century Schitzoid Man (King Crimson) is damn good.

Package

ive neard some good ones in my time,, i think most covers arnt as good as the original,, there are a few good ones though including......

the goo goo dolls - give a little bit
oasis - cum on feel the noize
bon jovi - rockin in the free world
placebo - daddy cool

who also done an interesting (not nessaserily better) version of running up the hill by kate bush

antifyre

Radiohead - 'Nobody does it better' by Carly Simon

Best Cover Ever.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

any of the string quartet cover albums are really good, you can listen to samples of most on this site,

http://www.vitaminrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=products&catid=20

colm_mcm

cover versions i like

Feist - Inside and out (bee gees)
Oasis - I am the Walrus (Beatles)
Joss Stone - Fell In Love With A Boy (White Stripes)
Gomez - It's Getting Better (Beatles)

Alkers

Aslan have got decent versions of Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here" and "Angie" by the stones. Thought they were both good. Another ++ to the late Mr. Cash for "One" and "Hurt" (what a last song to release).
As far as being totally original what about Scissor Sisters "comfortably numb"? Thought it was quite decent considering the original was excellent and I despise the likes of the Scissor sistors normally.
Tiesto's Adagio for Strings if you're into it....;)
Rammstein's "Das Model" from Kraftwerk, both deadly.
Bad ones: Marilyn Manson's Sweet dreams from the Eurythmics

ubu

The whole Renegades album by Rage Against The Machine is excellent, stand outs being Pistol Grip Pump (Volume 10 ), How I Could Just Kill A Man (Cypress Hill) and Maggies Farm (Bob Dylan).

deegan_m

Best:
Most of Elliott Smiths Beatles covers - For no one - and - Because

Kings of Convenience - Glory Box - Portishead

Nick Drake - Dont think twice its alright - Bob Dylan

Rufus Wainwright - Across the universe - Beatles

I cant think of any WORST and i would prefer not to.

garred

Like:

U2 - Helter Skelter
Stars 54 - If you could read my mind
Oasis - Feel the noise
Mariah Carey - Without you
Radiohead - Noboby does it better
Nirvana - Man who sold the world
Beatles - Twist and Shout

Hate:

Sheryl Crowe- Sweet Child
Picturehouse - one of us
All Boyzones
Thats all I can think off at the mo.

lyrama

James Blunt's cover version of Crowded Houses' Fall at your feet was brilliant, he's not annoying at all in it ! Oh dear god I do hate hate HATE the fecking covers G4 and Britney Spears do, aaaargh!

Package

sorry, i forgot the best ever cover,,, even better than radioheads, nobody does it better,,,,

the ataries,,,,,,,, boys of summer,,,,, amazing

SxE Punk

Best covers.

Band/Artist-Song(Original Band/Artist).

The Mad Capsule Markets-War dance(Killing Joke).
Rancid-The harder they come(Jimmy Cliff).
Stiff Little Fingers-Doesn't make it alright(The Specials).
The Mighty Mighty BossToneS-Tin soldiers(Stiff Little Fingers).
Ska Daddyz-Hotel California(The Eagles).
The Futureheads-Hounds of love(Kate Bush).
Pinhead Gunpowder-Big yellow taxi(Joni Mitchell).
Goldfinger-Nite Klub(The Specials).
Goldfinger-Up the junction(Squeeze)
Goldfinger-Man in a suitcase(The Police).
Goldfinger-99 red balloons(Nena).
Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards-To have and to have not(Billy Bragg).
Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards-Marie Marie(The Blasters).
Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards-For you(The Anti-Nowhere League).
Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards-Leavin here(Motorhead).
Less Than Jake-Album=Greased(Various, the album is comprised entirely of covers of the full OST to Grease).
Less Than Jake-Surrender(Cheap Trick).
Reel Big Fish-Hungry like the wolf(Duran Duran).
Reel Big Fish-Kiss me deadly(Billy Idol).
The Get Up Kids-Alec Eiffel(The Pixies).
Blood for Blood-Ultra violence(The Oppressed).
The Vandals-Don't stop me now(Queen).
Rammstein-Das Modell(Kraftwerk).
System of A Down-Metro(Berlin).
Minor Threat-1 2 X U(Wire).
Minor Threat-Steppin' Stone(The Standells).
Ben Folds-Tiny Dancer(Elton John)
Johnny Cash-All his covers are infact better than the originals except perhaps rusty cage(Sound Garden)

There's just a few of my favorites.

Patricide

some good covers:
Korn-One
Limp bizkit-sanatarium(different but good)
Shadows fall-Welcome to the machine
A perfect circle-Imagine
My all time favorite- Defones doing simple man by lynard skinnyrd

Andy-Pandy

Tortoise With Bonnie `Prince` Billy- Thunder Road, Originally by The Boss