i dont like Metallica, just that one cover they did, i also really like the original version of Whiskey in a Jar too.

Lenny Kravitz - American Woman
Tool - No Quarter (my favorite led zepplin song done by one of my favorite bands)
The Gourds - Gin and Juice
Audioslave - Seven Nation Army
Jonny Cash - Personal Jesus (originally by Depeche Mode)

whiskey in the jar - metallica

Metallica - Tuesdays Gone

Ataris - Boys of Summer
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Higher Ground

ooohhh - love that atari's song

Tangled Up in Blue (originally a Bob Dylan tune) performed by the Indigo Girls.

-bear

Pearl Jam-Last Kiss
Johnny Cash- Hurt

Yellowcard - Everywhere (Michelle Branch Cover)

I love this song, i think Johnny Cash does a way better job with this song than NIN. But i am biased against NIN cuz i hate them.

There are so many here that I'm trying to limit myself to covers I don't already see. As a Deadhead, I've got about a thousand, so I'll leave anything by the Dead or any of the band members off the list.

U2 - Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith)
Patti Smith - Gloria (Them)
Jeff Beck Group - Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson)
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World (Harold Arlen / Louis Armstrong)

If you haven't heard these, I swear they are absolutely amazing.

Good thread.
I am usually always disappointed when I hear covers. Especially when country music stars take songs like Joplin's "Piece of my Heart" (Faith Hill) or when Dolly Parton does "Stairway To Heaven" (Did anyone hear that??? Absolute shite!!!) Rock stars do it too, and they call it paying homage to great acts, but I think it's often an insult to them.

And I think the thing about doing a cover is the respect thing. I think that Faith Hill has her head shoved too far up her ass if she can't see that she of all people should not be covering that song. I think it's an injustice to Janis, and to the song.

But there are a few examples of bands taking songs and adding their own flavour to them, in the process reinventing them in a good way. And they are in my list below...

1. Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends (Beatles)
2. Peter, Paul and Mary - Don't Think Twice It's Alright (Dylan)
3. Cake - I Will Survive (Franklin?)
4. Ben Harper - The Drugs Don't Work, (Verve) or to a lesser extent, Sexual Healing (Mistah Mahhvin Gaye)

Didn't read the entire 133 post thread, but have these atrocities been mentioned yet?

Puff Daddy covering Kashmir
Snoop Dogg covering Riders on the Storm

As far as good covers go, I think there are just too many to name - but I'll put my money on Hendrix' rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

don't knock me for this but i like:

smashmouth's cover of "why can't we be friends" off of the baseketball soundtrack. on a side note, that movie was great!

For me, it's Tool's cover of No Quarter, hands down. Not only is it one of Zeppelin's best, but I think the Tool version is even better than Zep's, which is very fucking impressive.

hard to say, maybe Gary Jules "Mad World"

The Flaming Lips -- What a Wonderful World by ~Louis Armstrong~

Dinosaur Jr. -- Quicksand by ~David Bowie~
~Also by J. Mascis:
Anticipation by ~Carly Simon~
Boy With The thorn In His Side by ~The Smiths~
Every Mother's Son by ~Lynyrd Skynyrd~
What We Do Is Secret by ~The Germs~

Bongwater -- Everybody's Talkin by ~Harry Nisson~

Nirvana -- Oh Me by The ~Meat Puppets~

Sonic Youth -- Superstar by ~The Carpenters~

There's more........

Gloria Gaynor.

OK, gonna have to find a copy of this song, because I can't imagine a non-female doing this song... It was always such a girl anthem... :D

Manfred Mann's cover of Blinded by the Lightis better than Springsteen's original, and Springsteen's version of Tom Wait's Jersey Girl is so much better than the original.

Bon Jovi has a CD, This Left Feels Right (or something like that) where they cover their own songs, and put a different sound to them, that's really cool, I like some of the newer versions

Aretha Franklin - RESPECT (Originally written by Otis Redding, I believe.)
Joe Cocker - With a Little Help from My Friends (Best ... Cover ... Ever)
Peter Frampton - Jumpin Jack Flash (Originally by da Stones)
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Little Wing (Originally by Jimi Hendrix)
Allman Brothers Band - Stormy Monday (Originally by T-Bone Walker)
Manfred Mann - Blinded by the Light (Originally by Da Boss)

Johnny Cash- Hurt
Ben Harper - Sexual Healing, Drugs Don't Work
The Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide
This Mortal Coil - Song to the siren
Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
Real Big Fish - Take On Me

Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams

I love This Mortal Coil...

Black Sabbath - cover of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water.. amazing stuff

Indeed! I only have a few of their songs, I can't seem to find any of their albums where I live :(.

I like the wacky covers, so of course all the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes stuff, like many have already said, and anything by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, or Hayseed Dixie.

I'm also fond of:
Rolf Harris - Stairway to Heaven (the "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" guy, from an album of nothing but Stairway covers)
Will Young - Hey Ya
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Rock and Roll All Night (from an album of Kiss covers)

Pat Boone's "In A Metal Mood" album is cute, too.

I picked up a few... odd... covers lately
You Really Got Me - Robots in Disguise (originally by the kinks)
Sister Christian - Coheed and Cambria (originally by night ranger)
Come On Eileen - Save Ferris (originally by Dexy's Midnight Runner, the odd thing about this one is that somebody actually covered it... I love the original!)

I also remember hearing a Powerman 5000 (Rob Zombie's brother's band) doing a cover of You Spin Me Right Round a few years ago.

:D I have, "It'll all End in Tears" which is all covers. It's brilliant.

"Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies (original Velvet Underground)

"The way you do the things you do" - J. Garcia Band (original The Temptations)

"Ellenor Rigby" - Ray Charles (original The Beatles)

"Dead Flowers" Townes Van Zant (original the Rolling Stones)

i like ben folds cover of get your hands off my woman, originally by the darkness. scissor sisters - take me out, originally by franz ferdinand. goldfinger - 99 red baloons, and postal service - against the odds.

They'd asked Frank Sinatra once what was his opinion of Sid Vicious' cover of My Way. Frank said something in the line of, "yeah it's fine but if I met him on the street he wouldn't exactly have a good time".

I generally like covers, even when they're awful, which most of them usually are. They are an awkward sort of tribute after all.

My favorite (at the moment) is Calexico's version of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, one of the two most beautiful love songs ever. (The second one being There is a Light that Never Goes Out by The Smiths - it even has its own brave and unconventional electro cover by the wonderful Erlend Oye).

Anyway, back to Calexico and Love Will Tear Us Apart - it's the only cover of this song I've ever heard (and believe me, there are MANY) that does it justice. They play it on a much happier and somewhat faster note than the original, but it sounds really good.

While we're there, 16 Horsepower did a kick ass cover of Heart and Soul (Joy Division again). All Joy Division cover attempts usually turn to disaster, but 16 HP are just weird and brilliant enough to pull it off.

Jose Gonzalez does good covers too.

Some personal favorites:

Dave Matthews Band -- The Maker
Goldfinger -- 99 Red Balloons
Oasis -- All You Need Is Love
Jimmy Buffett -- Southern Cross
DJ Sammy -- Heaven


And just for fun...

Ben Folds covering Bitches Ain't Shit (Dr. Dre)

Alanis Morissette covering My Humps (Black Eyed Peas)

Shinedown - Simple Man
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Jimmy Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower

Maybe it's because I love Weird Al, but I got a kick out of
THIS

some good ones in my opinion

in my eyes / rage against the machine (minor threat)
land down under / pennywise (men at work)
little bitch / big d and the kids table
hey ska / streetlight manifesto (the suicide machines)
is she really going out with him / goldfinger (joe jackson)

but yeah. mostly ska stuff haha

One could even argue it's a cover of Misirlou. Sort of. Remix. Whatever.

I've really been digging Stone Sour's cover of Wicked Game lately. Isaak's version of the song always struck me as good, but over-produced. The Stone Sour version clearly doesn't have that issue.

Also good:

Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time (originally by Bruce Cockburn) has a similar charm to the Stone Sour cover mentioned above. Bruce Cockburn did it all synth-y and didn't quite catch the melancholy of the song the way the Ladies do.

The Black Crowes - Hard To Handle (originally by Otis Redding) is a case where the cover band does the song exactly the same as the original, only better.

Sublime - Scarlet Begonias (originally by the Grateful Dead); Sublime adds a nice dub/hip hop twist to the song that works very well.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Hey Joe (originally by Jimi); Nick does it almost as a funeral march. It's very slow and somber, which is an interesting new twist on a classic.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Fire (also originally by Jimi); typical RHCP funk rock. Like Jimi, only faster and.. well, funkier.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Minnie the Moocher; I might get burned by aberkok for this one, but what the hell. Sure, BBVD is almost solely responsible for that odd little swing craze in the 90's, but they still did a good job with this one. Was it Cab good? Well, no. But still good.

Jack Johnson - Rodeo Clowns; bonus points to anyone who knows who did it first.

You know, I don't think I've heard a cover in my life... :expressionless:


I'll be sure to check out these covers alongside the originals... but yeah... I have nothing to contribute... :oogle:

That seems nearly impossible. I'm sure you have but just didn't realize it... mainly because sometimes the covers become more popular than the original. "All Along the Watchtower" is probably the best example of that.

never heard of it...

I'd have to say mine is Tool's cover of No Quarter, by Led Zeppelin. I think they actually managed to do a better cover than the original, and that's really saying something.

I've also gotta echo White Zombie's cover of Children of the Grave. They managed to enhance an already fantastic song.

Children of Bodom - Oops I Did It Again!

Completely different genre of music (death metal as opposed to pop) and fun to listen to as well.