Worst & Best cover songs?

Best: Sonic Youth's "Superstar"

"Now That's What I Call a Wacky Cover Version!"

1. Darius / Hit me Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
   From the infamous epsode of Popstars comes Darius Denesh's "ironic" interpretation of Britney Spears famous hit.
   
2. Alien Ant Farm / Smooth Crimina (Michael Jackson)
   Jokey punksters Alien Ant Farm actually had to get permission from Michael Jackson himself to cover his song!
   
3. Babes In Toyland / We Are Family (Sister Sledge)
   Indie crew does novelty cover and comes off sounding like the Grange Hill School Band.
   
4. Tomita / Close Encounters of the Third Kind (John Williams)
   John Williams music from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind gets the classic Tomita spangly synth treatment.
   
5. Ciccone Youth / Into The Groove(y) (Madonna)
   Madge herself pops up on Sonic Youth's interesting "deconstruction" of her famous mid-80s hit.
   
6. Big Daddy / Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen)
   A full decade before The Mike Flowers Pops make easy listening covers of pop songs hip, US group Big Daddy were flavour of the month in the mid 80s, appearing on "Old Grey Whistle Test" and "Kenny Everett Televison Show" with this Pat Boontastic cover of Springsteen 80s hit.
   
7. Elbow / Independent Woman (Destinys Child)
   Performed live on Jo Whiley Show on Valentines Day 2002, Elbow do a "Working Mens Club" job on the Destinys Child hit. Already appearing in many bootleg DJs playlists.
   
8. Orgy / Blue Monday (New Order)
   An impressive Goth Rock rejigging of New Orders classic record. Not bad for a teen movie soundtrack filler.
   
9. Midge Ure / No Regrets (The Walker Brothers)
   At the time of this tracks release as a single, Midge Ure said that he wanted to cover it, remembering it as strong song, only when he went back to listen to it, he thought it sounded weak, so he decided to do it as he remembered it. So apparently, this is how it really should have been done...
   
10. Ozzy Osburne & Dweezil Zappa / Stayin' Alive (The Bee Gees)
    The Queen's fave teams up with Frank Zappas son for a fun singalong 80s rock version of the Bee Gees tune, which briefly turns into a Zappa solo jazz oddessy, before Ozzy wisely knocks it on the head.
    
11. Laibach / Opus Dei (Life is Life) (Opus)
    Slavic toungue firmly in cheek as Laibach turn Opus' ultranaff 80s hit into the anthem for an all-conquering fascist superstate.
    
12. The Flying Lizards / Money (That's What I Want)(Various)
    Ultra minimalist top 10 hit version of classic song, with soulful vocal replaced by Magaret Thatcher impersonation!
    
13. Joyrider / Rush Hour (Jane Weidlen)
    Punk band ressurect a great underrated 80s song by former Go-Gos bandmember Jane Weilen, and turn it into an impressive punk version of the Beach Boys!
    
14. Amii Stewart / Light My Fire (The Doors)
    Sprawling and hugely enjoyable disco version of The Doors classic. Even longer than the original, with dancefloor friendly grooves replacing noodly keyboard solos. Also includes a bizzare "137/127 Disco Heaven" interlude.
    
15. David Bowie and Bing Crosby/ Little Drummer Boy (Various)
    In an unlikely move, David Bowie guests on Bing Crosby's 1977 Christmas TV special, joining him for a medley of the traditional song "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace On Earth". Recorded mere weeks before Bong Crosby's death, and judging from Crosbys black humour during the introduction, he seems well aware of it. By coincidence, Bowie had previously guested on Marc Bolan's TV show just before his death. Perhaps one of the most bizzare duets in popular music history.
    
16. U2 featuring Bjorn & Benny / Dancing Queen (Abba)
    The blokes from Abba turn up for U2s concert in Stockholm in 1992, lending Bono and The Edge much needed help in pulling off their most famous song. The crowd seem to want to sing Abba all night long...
    
17. Frida / Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)
    "Where's Frida and Agnetha?" asks Bono. Well, we don't know about Agnetha, but here's Frida from her pre-Abba days as a big name solo singer in her native Sweden. Here she does Leonard Cohen's most famous song, which in this Swedish language version sounds even wordier than the original
    
18. Cake / I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
    Jokey smugness almost capsizes this "indie ironic" cover of Gloria Gaynor's ancient disco standard. Still, it's funnier than the original.
    
19. We've Got a Fuzzbox And We're Going To Use It! / Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
    Perhaps the most sacreligeous cover of a rock classic, not even topped by Bad News' jokey cover of the same Queen song!
    
20. Fall Silent / Sesame Street (Sesame Street Band?)
    This is how the muppets should be playing the theme. Just imagine Cookie Monster fronting this band. It would be magnificent.
    
21. Travis / Hit me Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
    Their cover of Britney's tune means that whenever they get interviewed outside the UK and Europe, they get asked about Britney rather than their music!
    
22. Lord Sitar / I Can See For Miles (The Who)
    Lord Sitar almost gets overpowered by an extremely hi-energy horn section in this truly 60s coffee table easy listening cover of a Who song.
    
23. The Dickies / Banana Splits (The Banana Splits?)
    After hearing this early classic of 70s UK punk, even the original version sounds boring and drab.
    
24. Duran Duran / 911 Is A Joke (Public Enemy)
    From a whole album of strange cover versions, including a corking rock cover of Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel's White Lines, but none so strange as their cover of Public Enemy's rap song about how hard it is in the US to get 911 to answer emergency calls for inner city neighbourhoods!
    
25. Radiohead / Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon & John Barry)
    The theme from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me gets the "intense" treatment from Oxford's angsty boys.
    
26. The Breeders / Happiness Is A Warm Gun (The Beatles)
    Mark 1 of The Breeders, featuring Tanya Donelly of The Throwing Muses and later Belly, go totally abstract on one of the Beatles most abstract songs.
    
27. The Sex Pistols featuring Sid Vicious / My Way (Frank Sinatra + Various)
    Sid Vicious steps into Johnny Rotten's shoes to punkify one of the most famous songs ever! "I killed a cat!!!" indeed...
    
28. The Moog Cookbook / Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden)
    The Moog Cookbook go back to the Tomita and "Switched On Back" days with their analogue synth laden cover versions, including this novel samba-flavoured take on Soundgarden's rock blockbuster.
    
29. This Mortal / Coil Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley)
    A song debuted by Tim Buckley on the penultimate episode the The Monkees TV series gets a famous reworking by The Cocteau Twins under the name of their record label's collaborative project This Mortal Coil.

The Walker Brothers version is actually a cover. Tom Rush originally wrote and performed the song.

Best: Candy Flip - Strawberry Fields Forever

speaking oftosh, i also like his versions of here comes the sun and johnny be goode

and i echo someones mention of the maytals version of take me home country road

1.Steve Vai: Little Wing
2.Rush: For What It's Worth
3.Eric Clapton: Knockin' On Heaven's Door
4.The Animals: House Of The Rising Sun
5.Time Requiem: Voulez Vous (they took the abomination of a song and made it damn good, so it makes the list)
6.Rolling Stones: Like A Rolling Stone
7.Led Zeppelin: Dazed And Confused
8.Silvertide: Behind Blue Eyes
9.Orgy: Blue Monday
10.Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Blackbird

As for worst, Hilary Duff's "My Generation", Limp Bizkit's "Behind Blue Eyes", Adema's "Nutshell", Avril Lavigne's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", I'm sure there's others I've forgotten.

I hate it as well. The Editors covered Orange Crush, and it sounded exactly the same, but with worse vocals. >_

Bowling Green is an absolute must-hear for New Pornographers fans.

Worst : LeAnn Rimes - "Purple Rain" (Prince)
Best: Camper Van Beethoven - "I Love Her All The Time" (Sonic Youth)

meatloaf- it's all coming back to me

Getting off the topic of Duran: I rather like Propaganda's version of "Sorry For Laughing". I know some people have said some not-so-nice things about it, but I do think it works. It's not a by-the-book cover and I like that.

Also, stop butchering my favourite Neil Young songs! Just because you can't write good songs of your own, it doesn't mean you're allowed to screw up someone elses'

Best:
Fuzzy's cover of Van Halen's "Feel Your Love". Nothing beats chicks singing like they have the libido of Diamond Dave.

I love Pearl Jam/Eddie cover versions. Particularly his take on X's Poor Girl.

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soft cell 'tainted love'
brit spears 'i love rock n roll' complete with dj scratching behind it. wtf.

these are off the top of my head. i am sure there are tons that will pop in my head over the next hours

worst: that tori amos cover of smells like teen spirit

The best cover version I know of is Tracy Grammer's version of Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man." It's on an EP called "The Verdant Mile."

Chris Isaak's version of Solitary Man is good too, so is Johnny Cash's. That's a song that usually works. I like a lot of versions of "Highway 61" (PJ Harvey, Johnny Winter).

Two songs that never cover well: "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and "Fever". Both seem like easy covers, lots of drama built right in. But what comes out is always overwrought and missing the cool reserve of the originals.

Looking over the thread, yeah, there's a lot of bad versions of Helter Skelter, another one that seems like an easy freak-out. U2 is not good at covers, nor do their songs cover well.

#1.all along the watchtower
honorable mentions not seen listed:
Linda's "Tumblin' Dice"
Stones - i wanna be your man
Aerosmith - i'm down
the clash - brand new cadillac
elvis - i can't stand up for falling down
ramones - do you wanna dance, california sun, surfin' bird

Good ones:
Portastatic "St. Elmo's Fire" (Brian Eno)
Galaxie 500 "Moonshot" (Buffy Sainte Marie)
Man or Astroman? "Destination Venus" (Rezillos)
Unrest "21st Century Schizoid Man" (King Crimson)
Camper van Beethoven "Picture of Matchstick Men" (Status Quo)
Bauhaus "Ziggy Stardust" (David Bowie)
Talking Heads "Take Me To the River" (Al Green)

I hate every version of the song "Speeding Motorcycle", including the original.

Also good the Afghan Whigs covering TLC's "Creep" and the Dismemberment Plan covering "Crush" by Jennifer Paige.

"Don't Let Out Youth Go to Waste" - Galaxie 500 (VU)

Galaxie 500 "Moonshot" (Buffy Sainte Marie)

Following up on both of these, I'd just like to say that Galaxie 500's cover of Young Marble Giants' "Final Day" is excellent as well.

gotta second Braid's Bohemian Rhapsody. goo goo dolls version of down on the corner sucked too (though generally i've liked their covers).

for live performances, red hot chili peppers butchered 'i want you back', mostly cuz of kiedis though

oh, and for good covers...

jeff buckley--hallelujah
goo goo dolls--i could never take the place of your man
cradle of filth--hell awaits
stevie wonder--we can work it out
sinead o'connor--nothing compares to you

Best: The flamingos - "I Only Have Eyes for You" (in the "cover songs that you had no idea were cover songs" department)

Worst: Thurston Moore - "Here Today"

Worst: might be a bunch of Pickwick Records dudes called Tribe covering Yoko Ono's "Why" on an album that's trying to rip off young Beatles fans.

Best: for a few years now, for me it's been Band of Susans cover of Wire's "Ahead," which I probably play at least once a week.

I agree that Galaxie 500 did some great covers (in terms of both choice and execution of the songs). Their versions of Red Crayola's "Victory Garden" and Joy Division/New Order's "Ceremony" are fantastic.

I've also always had a soft spot for Big Black's "The Model" and Rapeman's "Just Got Paid".

This, on the other hand might be one of the worst covers ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMs6Knr1F6U

wow that IS bad...

excellent: the Associates' cover of "Love Hangover", Royal Trux's cover of "Money for Nothing". Unsurprisingly, GBV does a great cover of "Baba O'Riley". The Sonics' "Louie Louie". Al Green's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

bad: Tiga's cover of "Burning Down the House" is pretty terrible, even if you're not a knee-jerk Tiga hater.

Take That's Another Brick In The Wall with Jason Orange on vocals. I only saw that on a tape of one of their live concerts when I was in grade school, and I desperately want an mp3 of it. Damn!
― Alexis, Sunday, 16 February 2003 19:13 (6 years ago)

Featuring some lovely solo face all round.

Best- Alison Krause's Baby, Now That I've Found You (original the foundations)
Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower (original was dylan)
Animals' House of the Rising Sun (technically every version of this song is a cover)
Nirvana's Man Who Sold the World
Anyone who takes a Dylan song and removes his voice.

Worst- Limp Bizkit's Behind Blue Eyes
Megadeth's No More Mr. Nice Guy (I don't know why I hate this, but I do.)
Anyone covering My Generation.

technically every version of this song is a cover
Well, the concept of a cover is essentially a rockist concept - it doesn't really hold in jazz and classic pop traditions. It only becomes a tenable concept once the recording achieves total primacy over the song itself.

Best:
Sweet Charles - Strangers in the Night
Al Green - I Can't Get Next to You
the Pretenders - I Go to Sleep
Alex Chilton - Can't Seem to Make You Mine
Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude
James Brown - Hot(I Need to Be Loved Loved Loved) cover/rewrite/shameless rip-off of Fame that I'd usually rather listen to than the original
the Rolling Stones - I Don't Know Why
Al Green - Unchained Melody
Michael Jackson - Rockin' Robin
Sly & the Family Stone - Que Sera Sera

Worst:
Celine Dion - You Shook Me All Night Long
Mick Jagger/David Bowie - Dancing in the Streets

best:
Willi De Ville - hey joe
La Cinco Latinos - la virgen de la macarena
Andreas Scholl - the three ravens
The Crank-Tones - lover's curse
Motörhead - train kept a' rollin'
Agent Orange - pipeline
Jon & The Nightriders - baja
Petty Booka - i wanna be your girlfriend (i wanna be your boyfriend)
Helen Shapiro - fever
Gigantjes - yaki taki oohhwah (right around the corner)
Les 5 4 3 2 1 - bond street

worst:
Edith Piaf - jezebel
Sixpence None The Richer - riu riu chiu
Chill Out Tribute to Queen - bohemian rhapsody
John Paul Jones - baja