Anthony Michael Hall singing "Hallelujah" contained inside.

/yes, it IS a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, thank you for asking

Came to say How Soon is Now? but only because no one will ever cover it better than Quicksand.

Didn't read the rest, no way it could get better from there.

No comment. (pops)

'American Pie'

Madonna, you heartless biatch. I could slap you silly.

Is embedding youtube vids in a list a legitimate trend, or is there some other, possibly monetary, motivation behind it? I've come across this often enough that it's setting off my paydar.

1. "How Soon Is Now?" Smiths
2. "Revolution" Beatles
3. "Born To Be Wild" Steppenwolf
4. "I Melt With You" Modern English
5. "All Along The Watchtower" Dylan then Hendrix
6. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" Joy Division
7. "Respect" Redding then Franklin
8. "Come On Eileen" Dexy's Midnight Runners
9. "Crazy" Patsy Cline
10. "What The World Needs Now Is Love" Jackie DeShannon
11. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" Gladys Knight & The Pips then Marvin Gaye
12. "Tainted Love" Soft Cell
13. "Rebel Rebel" David Bowie
14. "99 Red Balloons" Nena
15. "Rock And Roll All Nite" KISS
16. "Blitzkrieg Bop" The Ramones
17. "Brown Eyed Girl" Van Morrison
18 "One" (a.k.a. "One is the loneliest number")Harry Nilsson made famous by Three dog night
19. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Rolling Stones
20. "Wonderwall" Oasis
21. "Imagine" Lennon
22. "Hallellujah" Leonard Cohen
23. "What A Wonderful World" Louis Armstrong

Nudity in clip 12.

Also I would add to the list Sweet Child o' Mine.

TFA:22. "Hallellujah"

I came here to say this. I will, however, forgive Sting if he wants to take a stab at it. No really, I'm straight.

Also, if I can toss in a song that shouldn't have ever been recorded in the first place, MacArthur Park. Jesus what a load of crap. However, every few years the jazz combo du jour decides they need to do MacArthur Park. It drives me nuts.

Interesting list... I've never heard covers of a few of those songs, and some I only know from cover versions. I Melt With You was done brilliantly by Nouvelle Vague - it was one of the few songs on their two albums I wasn't already aware of, so loved it. Tainted Love wasn't even a Soft Cell song - it was a cover itself! There are plenty of versions of One, but I thought Aimee Mann's was pretty definitive.

I hate sound-alike covers, ones that re-invent the song are welcome anytime. Hence why I love Nouvelle Vague's "Dancing With Myself" and this version of Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" I've been hearing recently that reinvents it as some 60s-style bossa-innocent-pop thing.

From TFA

"Wonderful World Cover CD

by Jane again

A librarian I work with has a CD with nothing but versions of What a Wonderful World that her husband made her. She plays a different one to end each story time for babies. She offered to let me burn it. I declined.

7:46 PM Mon December 10, 2007"

Awesome, lady.

if there is a list of songs that should never be used for a commercial ever again, I would destroy, "taking care of business" by BTO.

No one should have re-made Tom Waits "Downtown Train"; and in particular not Rod Stewart, whose version could only have been improved had it ended with him being fired out of a cannon to a wildly cheering crowd.

JerkyMeat: if there is a list of songs that should never be used for a commercial ever again, I would destroy, "taking care of business" by BTO.

I'd gladly add "Walkin' on Sunshine" and "What I Like About You" to that list, aye.

Actually Squarepusher did a great cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Paradise Lost has a great cover of How Soon Is Now? while The Cure did a good version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. And of course, there's Joey Ramone's kick arse version of Wonderful World.

jesus Hinder ruined that cover with his cheesy screaming, highlights and clothes.

/ashamed those douches are from my city

I'm a Smashing Pumpkins fan almost to a fault, but I'm not the biggest fan of their cover of "Landslide." I know many people love it. That being said, it doesn't sound much different from anybody that has an acoustic guitar and plays and sings. It doesn't sound that great.

However, one of the guitarists from the Zwan supergroup played a version of "Born in the USA" that was so freaking touching that I teared up a little bit when I heard it. If anyone cares, there are two compilations of acoustic Zwan covers (some originals are sprinkled throughout) called the "Hideout Complilations, I and II." Each member of the band plays solo performances in rotation with an occasional accompaniment.

Tool's cover of "No Quarter." 10/10.

But this is a list of things to retire. Bar bands have a duty to continue to drive songs into the ground. They have to if they want gigs, or at least, many do. As one commenter in that article mentioned, "Brown Eyed Girl" gets the girls up and dancing. And face it, you want girls to get up and dance at your show. Bar depending, you want drunks singing along, too. So learn some bar standards. But please, be gentle with us.

I like these covers more than the original:

Tainted Love ( Gloria Jones etc )- Soft Cell
Fields of gold (Sting)/
Somewhere over the rainbow ( Judy Garland ) - Eva Cassidy
Police and thieves ( Junior Murvin )/
I fought the law ( Sonny Curtis)- The Clash
Grow old with me ( John Lennon ) - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Broadcastdave: 23. "What A Wonderful World" Louis Armstrong

Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) did a great job on that one, lots of emotion in it. It's on youtube but they're not the original video (don't think he did a vid for it).

I'd hit Tatu. Twice. Once for being hawt and the second time for killing that song.

Most of those songs should never have been made in the first place.

Rage Against The Machine's cover of Pistol Grip Pump was awesome.

Their cover of Kick Out The Jams? Not so much.

Seconded Tool's No Quarter. Best Zep Cover EVAR!!1one

433: I'm a Smashing Pumpkins fan almost to a fault, but I'm not the biggest fan of their cover of "Landslide."

Their cover of "Jackie Blue" kicks ass, though.

If you thought Avril Lavigne butchered "Imagine" you should hear Charlotte Church's version. That is, if you can manage to make it through thirty seconds of it without plunging an ice pick through your ears.

I always thought Tool's cover of No Quarter was kind of crappy. Way too slow. But then again, I haven't bothered listening to Salival in years.


As far the list, outside of How Soon is Now, I can't say I've heard more than maybe one cover version of the others listed. I would like to add:

- Boots by Nancy Sinatra (I think every teen queen has covered this every 3 years or so)

- I Love Rock N Roll by Joan Jett (which, in itself is a cover, but don't tell that to the popstar covering it. They do it to try to gain some kind of credibility.)

Tool & King Buzzo from Melvins once did a savage live cover of "Strangelhold" by the Nuge. Sweet.


The other most savage covers are:


Godflesh "For Those About to Rock,We Salute You"


and


Celtic Frost "Mexican Radio"


Also,ALL covers by Laibach. Especially "Final Countdown"

Proud Mary

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Louie Louie

Both Sides Now

Brand New Key

/probably others I forgot

I like the way Rufus Wainright does that Hallelujia song

Here's my version

It adds nothing really but I like the ending bit (others just like that its over)

13. "Rebel Rebel" David Bowie

/uhh. Seu Jorge. YES
/GREAT COVER - hell. The whole Life Aquatic Soundtrack was Bowie covers.

If I never hear ANYONE'S version of "Knocking On Heaven's Door" again, I'll die a happy man.

I can't believe it didnt' make the list.

frostymug: Proud Mary

Couldn't agree more.

Also 'All Along the Watch Tower' should be buried. It was cool when Jimi did it not anyone else. Im looking at you DMB

/Neil Young did a badass version at Bobfest though

GungFu: Police and thieves ( Junior Murvin )/
I fought the law ( Sonny Curtis)- The Clash

As much as I love the Clash, both covers are just okay. I also am not really a big fan of their cover of "Pressure Drop"- though I think that Robert Palmer's cover (yes, *THAT* Robert Palmer!) of "Pressure Drop" is awesome.


craigdamage: Godflesh "For Those About to Rock,We Salute You"

that's a good 'un. I also like Shellac's cover of "Jailbreak" and Unsanes "Four Sticks"

SeismicJizzer: jesus Hinder ruined that cover with his cheesy screaming, highlights and clothes.

/ashamed those douches are from my city

I am so very sorry.

/Worst new band of the last 2 years

I love Goldfinger's version of "99 Red Balloons." Also Cat Power does an amazing "Wonderwall" and Nick Cave & Shane MacGowan nail "What A Wonderful World" together.

One of my favorite mutual cover lineups is the Ramones covering "I Don't Want To Grow Up" followed by Tom Waits covering "The Return of Jackie & Judy." Good stuff.

Hmm, I at this show. Crappy sound though, so here is the studio version.

And this cover is better than the original. And that says something.

wai wai wait just a minute. there is NOTHING wrong with CCR's cover of "I heard it Through the Grapevine". Agreed it shouldn't be redone but how can you mention that song, The California Raisins and not CCR when speaking of that song?

/I stopped reading it right there

dc-kid: wai wai wait just a minute. there is NOTHING wrong with CCR's cover of "I heard it Through the Grapevine". Agreed it shouldn't be redone but how can you mention that song, The California Raisins and not CCR when speaking of that song?

/I stopped reading it right there

The CCR version is great for about 4 min. The next 8, not so much.

Gladys Knight version 2:55
CCR Version 11:07

I love CCR, but this song does get old.

d'art 2007-12-11 02:06:29 AM
Also, if I can toss in a song that shouldn't have ever been recorded in the first place, MacArthur Park. Jesus what a load of crap. However, every few years the jazz combo du jour decides they need to do MacArthur Park. It drives me nuts.

I'll join you on that one. Want to hunt down & kill every farkwad that thinks that jizzmess of metaphors is worth listening to, much less singing.

I think I have about 50 different versions of Mack the Knife on my harddrive.
Not all of them are gems, but some are really really farking awesome!
Some are just strange.

/Psychedelic Furs... I'm looking in your direction.

craigdamage: Godflesh "For Those About to Rock,We Salute You"
Godflesh's cover of Loop's "Straight to your Heart" (who, in turn, covered Godflesh's "like rats") is pretty damn cool. Though it's funny that Justin obviously has no idea what the lyrics are to the song outside of the title.

I hate Cat Power.

Gunny Highway:
Also 'All Along the Watch Tower' should be buried. It was cool when Jimi did it not anyone else. Im looking at you DMB

/Neil Young did a badass version at Bobfest though

Prince does a fantastic version of AATW.

/nothing wrong with Neil's either

Wow - I must either live under a rock or have my head up my ass, because I've never even heard covers of most of these songs! Then again, I'm really not tuned in to anything past the early 90s.

/'Melt With You' should have never been written in the first place. That's a terrible song.

FTA Even A Perfect Circle mangles it, turning something hopeful and beautiful into something foreboding and scary.

That was kind of the point, I thought it would pretty cool how they so fully subverted the meaning of the song.

Pretty good list overall...

Ah, yes: another ruling from on high of What's Not Cool. In pithy list form, to boot!

No one pines for relevance more than a pop culture critic. Josh Modell, Sean O'Neal, Keith Phipps, Kyle Ryan: please go die.

433: I'm a Smashing Pumpkins fan almost to a fault, but I'm not the biggest fan of their cover of "Landslide." I know many people love it. That being said, it doesn't sound much different from anybody that has an acoustic guitar and plays and sings.

I came here to say this. There's basically no difference among the original, the Smashing Pumpkins, and the Dixie Chicks versions...

anybody remember michael bolton's cover of 'dock of the bay.' i welcome pain when i hear it.

William Shatner's [insert any cover here, but especially Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds] should be stricken from the record.

I've been guilty of performing What A Wonderful World on my own initiative, but I've refrained from all the rest (though I could play most of them if it were requested). This time of year, I can't help but play WAWW.

/musician

"Groove is in the Heart" by MC Dee-Lite

I agree with most of this list. However, Jeff Buckley did a fine job on Hallelujah, too bad it was beaten to death around 9/11 as it's lost some appeal due to being construed as "commercial." Secondly, I like Ryan Adams Wonderwall better than Oasis, but he and Noel Gallagher are still asshats no matter who's singing it.

/ Listen to these covers: "The Drugs Don't Work," by Ben Harper from The Verve, "Gin and Juice" by Hayseed Dixie from Snoop, "biatches Ain't shiate," Ben Folds from Dre

End rant

The garage band I was in back in college (yes, off my lawn, please) worked up a tune to hit the most-asked-for covers all at once:

Born to be Ridin' the Wild Purple Smoke on the House of the Rising Stairway to Freebird.

Am I the only Joy Division fan that hates "Love Will Tear Us Apart"?
I also hate that it's the song that they're most remembered by.
[ ie. "Joy Division? do you mean that "Love will tear us apart" band? I, Like, totally love that song"
--- shakes head in dismay/ headdesk ---]
I think it's their worst song. [I have "Still", "Unknown Pleasures", and "Closer", along with the official live albums from 1979-1980].
Give me "Transmission" or "24 Hours" or "Isolation" or hell, even "The Eternal" over "Love will....".