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question of the day

question of the day: cover me

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I love cover songs. I collect them. Good, bad or just plain wrong, If I see a cover version of a song I know, I have to have it. My favorite covers ever include Love Spit Love's version of the Smith's How Soon is Now, Electric Hellfire Club doing The Cure's Killing an Arab and Helloween's almost perfect try at Faith No More's From Out of Nowhere. And there is a whole slew of industrial bands doing weird cover songs (Front Line Assembly doing Madonna is a must have). As far as the bad go, there are plenty, but I nearly throw up every time I hear Manson doing Tainted Love. (note: this question will remain until Monday)

So, what's your favorite/least favorite cover versions of songs?

Posted by on December 8, 2001 04:37 AM |

Comments

FIRST POST! :)

My favorite? Information Society: Express Yourself.

I also have a faboo cover of a guy singing don't cry for me argentina, too. :)

Posted by: shel | December 8, 2001 04:43 AM

OHMIGOD! I'm such a closet cover song junkie! My absolute favorite one is Zebrahead covering the Spice Girls' "Wannabe."

Posted by: Fredo | December 8, 2001 07:32 AM

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do a lot of cool covers... they have a great cover of Barry Manilow's "Mandy" (if you can believe that), but their cover that I like best is for "Uptown Girl". Dope's cover of "You Spin Me Round" is also worth a mention, and there's an industrial cover of Soft Cell's "Sex Dwarf" that's awesome! dunno who did that one tho. I'm with on on the Tainted Love thing tho.. Manson eats ass. The Orgy cover of "Blue Monday" ranks right up there with the weakest shit I've ever heard, too.

Posted by: mikey | December 8, 2001 10:43 AM

Holy crap, Love Spit Love does a cover of "How Soon is Now"?!? clicking on Limewire...

Must have cover songs...more...more...

I've always loved Faith No More's version of "Sunday Morning".

Posted by: Todd | December 8, 2001 10:51 AM

Currently it's the one, the only, The Smashing Pumpkins covering the Human Leagues "Don't You Want Me Baby" done live with James and Melissa on vocals. (complete with a little du hast before the song). Or Zwan's cover of "Who We Be" from DMX just cos it freakin hilarious :-D

Posted by: Tim | December 8, 2001 10:51 AM

Oh, yeah, and Limp Bizkits cover of "Faith" bites my ass...it's not like the original was the greatest song ever, I just thought I'd get a good shot in on Limp Bizkit :-D

Posted by: Tim | December 8, 2001 10:54 AM

Favorites, Faith No More's "Easy" (not called Sunday Morning) and Natalie Merchant's "Sympathy For The Devil"

Least favorites, most of Tori Amos' new album of covers, especially Bonnie & Clyde '97 which I had to sit through live last night.

Posted by: D | December 8, 2001 11:25 AM

D'oh...bad memory fails me again. I guess I had too much fun in college....

Posted by: Todd | December 8, 2001 11:32 AM

On the Hatin' It side... Britney Spears should be carbonadoed for remaking "I Love Rock 'n Roll."

Posted by: Sekimori | December 8, 2001 12:15 PM

I'm gonna stick with your original theme and say:

Laibach's covers of War (the Temptations song), and the entire Sympathy for the Devil ep, are right up there. Oh and Jesus Christ Superstar, too, why not. DOA does my second-favorite cover of War. Faith No More covers War Pigs (you can tell the theme of my most recent mix cd now, can't you) is too tight and seamless, might as well be Sabbath.

Big Black's version of He's a Whore is pretty fun.

And who could forget NIN covering Get Down Make Love?

Posted by: Jessica | December 8, 2001 12:15 PM

All-Time favorite cover song has got to be the bluegrass version of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" by The Gourds (this is often mislabelled as being by Phish for some reason.) Solid gold quality.

Posted by: trav | December 8, 2001 12:23 PM

Seki - we defiled ourselves and watched her sing that live on her HBO concert. I'm in therapy now, and it's going to better soon, so the doctors tell me.

Posted by: Todd | December 8, 2001 12:42 PM

I'm a huge boyband fan (I know, I know...), and Nsync did an amazing cover of Sailing (Kris Kristofferson or Christopher Cross, I can never remember) and another amazing cover of More Than A Feeling (the one with "when I see Marianne walk away..." since there are so many). Both are a cappella. I'm also a big Marc Cohn fan, and his Walking In Memphis was covered (horribly) by Cher, and (strangely) by some German pop group. MC tells a funny story at his concerts about some fans telling him his cover was pretty good...

Posted by: Cam | December 8, 2001 01:00 PM

i am normally NOT a cover fan...but i do like the new cover of tainted love by marilyn manson and my favorite is 'killing me softly' by the fugees. least fave -- smashing pumpkins BAD version of my fave depeche mode song 'never let me down again'

Posted by: felicia | December 8, 2001 04:55 PM

KMFDM doing Madonna's "Material Girl." 'Nuff said. Also: Rammstein's cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" and U2's cover of "Pop Muzik" by M. Rawkus.

Posted by: Chris | December 8, 2001 07:35 PM

I forgot about that Faith no More cover of "Easy"... that's about the only song by them I like. Other covers that I like that I forgot to mention: Pseudo Echo's "Funkytown" and RHCP covering "Love Rollercoaster". And did I mention that Orgy's cover of "Blue Monday" sucks?

Posted by: mikey | December 8, 2001 07:48 PM

More Depeche Mode: Failure doing "Enjoy the Silence." Also, Deftones doing Duran Duran's "The Chauffer."

Smiths covers: Pist*On doing "Shoplifters of the World" and Mojo Nixon covering "Girlfriend in a Coma."

Posted by: michele | December 8, 2001 07:54 PM

foo fighters - have a cigar

foo fighters - baker streest

anthrax - sabbath bloody sabbath

all time worst - fred durst & johnny rzeznick (goo goo dolls) - floyd's wish you were here

Posted by: kF | December 8, 2001 10:32 PM

Worst, all-time, smells like ass cover EVER: "Born To Be Wild," by the early-80s metal band Raven featuring the lead singer of early-80s metal band Accept.

Take two tomcats. Get them drunk. Feed them crack. Start them fighting. Stick them in a bag. The resulting sounds are ten thousand times BETTER than this song.

My husband (he of the early-80s metal band collection) puts this on whenever he's in a mood to watch me yell and flee the room. :D

Posted by: roe | December 8, 2001 11:15 PM

Seki - what's even worse about the fact that Britney covered "I Love Rock & Roll" was the fact that she thought it was originally done by Pat Benatar.

Best covers:

- "Overkill" by Lazlo Bane (orig. Men at Work)

- "Don't Change" by Goo Goo Dolls (orig. INXS)

- "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Apollo 440 (orig. Blue Oyster Cult)

- "99 Red Balloons" by Goldfinger (orig. Nena)

- "Turning Japanese" by Incubus (orig. The Vapors)

- "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Reel Big Fish (orig. Duran Duran)

- "You Oughta Know" by 1000 Mona Lisas (orig. Alanis Morissette)

- "Dead Souls" by Nine Inch Nails (orig. Joy Division)

- "Anything, Anything" by Buckcherry (orig. Dramarama)

- "Go Your Own Way" by Seaweed (orig. Fleetwood Mac)

- "Lay Lady Lay" by MInistry (orig. Bob Dylan)

- "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix (orig. Bob Dylan)

- "Big Yellow Taxi" by Pinhead Gunpowder (orig. Joni Mitchell)

- "Rock The Casbah" by the Solar Twins (orig. The Clash)

- "I'm the One" by 4 Non Blondes (orig. Van Halen)

Worst covers:

- Anything by Limp Bizkit or involving Fred Durst

- Anything by Marilyn Manson

- "Blue Monday" by Orgy (orig. New Order)

- "Fake Plastic Trees" by Alanis Morissette (orig. Radiohead)

- "Baby I Love Your Way" by Big Mountain (orig. Peter Frampton)

- "Runnin' With the Devil" by Pearl Jam (orig. Van Halen)

- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Pearl Jam (orig. Nirvana)

- "Boyz in the Hood" by Dynamite Hack (orig. NWA)

Posted by: Keith | December 9, 2001 02:03 AM

Goldfinger does a lot of good covers. And if I ever hear Alanis doing Radiohead I think it may cause me to go deaf.

Soundgarden doing Body Count's "Cop Killer."

Posted by: michele | December 9, 2001 04:42 AM

Radiohead do a fabulous cover of Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" the ultimate James Bond tune. Just remembered.

Posted by: D | December 9, 2001 08:52 AM

Coil covering Gloria Jones’ Tainted Love

Judas Priest covering Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust

Judas Priest covering Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi with the Two-Pronged Crown

Aerosmith covering The Beatles’ Come Together

Posted by: Davezilla | December 9, 2001 08:52 AM

My favorite cover song is as of right now Alien Ant Farm with A cover of Michael Jacksons Smooth Criminal, My least favorite would have to be Welcome to the jungle I can't remember who sang it, but I think it is or was an Osman.

Posted by: J_dogg43 | December 9, 2001 09:02 AM

For Mikey: Leaetherstrip did that cover of Soft Cell--also one of my favourites. Actually Leaetherstrip does a lot of good covers. There's one of the Cure's Lullabye by him too that really roxors my soxors.

Posted by: PixelFish | December 9, 2001 10:10 AM

I generally don't like covers unless they're inspired and interpretive, but if they are - sign me up. My gems would be Crooked Fingers doing "When U Were Mine" (orig: Prince) Gourds' Gin and Juice, which someone mentioned already and Afghan Whigs "Lost In the Supermarket" (orig: Clash), Wainwright's cover of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, and the Beat Farmer's "Reason to Believe" (orig Springsteen).

Posted by: leslie | December 9, 2001 11:23 AM

I have a bit of an...er...obsession with covers of Leonard Cohen songs. My favourites are Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah", especially the live version where he mixes a bit of The Smiths' "I Know It's Over" in the middle. I also like John Cale's version of that song. Rufus Wainwright's version isn't awful, but it leaves me cold. I might like it more if I hadn't heard Cale's and Buckley's gorgeous, passionate versions. I also love Nick Cave's version of "Tower of Song".

Also, Sparklehorse covering Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" - pretty and dreamy.

One of the worst - and ironically I posted about this yesterday before I read your post - has got to be The Cardigans' and Tom Jones' version of Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House". It was a good song, why did they have to mess with it so nastily?

This is one of those topics that I could probably go on about for hours. :)

Posted by: Natalie | December 9, 2001 12:04 PM

Oooh, yeah, i forgot one. Once In A Lifetime covered by the smashing pumpkins. It's very different from the original and the version i have has a nice little "what the fuck is going on?" crowd participation thing in the middle.

Posted by: Tim | December 9, 2001 02:15 PM

My favorite?

The entire cover album of Leonard Cohen songs called I'm Your Fan. Its starts with "First We Take Manhattan" by R.E.M. and ends with "Hallelujah" by John Cale, and in between is "Chelsea Hotel" by Lloyd Cole and "I'm Your Man" by Bill Pritchard.

Of course, the They Might Be Giants cover of "Istanbul (not Constantinople)".

Posted by: BtC | December 9, 2001 05:09 PM

Natalie -- Concrete Blonde did a great cover of "Everybody Knows" on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack.

Posted by: Keith | December 9, 2001 05:10 PM

Keith - I have an mp3 of that version somewhere, but thanks! :)

I'm You're Fan is brilliant. A more mainstream album of Cohen covers came out a little after that, but it's not nearly as good (although I love Suzanne Vega's Story of Isaac, and Tori Amos's Famous Blue Raincoat isn't bad).

And how could I have not thought of Istanbul, Not Constantinople?

I said that I could go on about this for hours. ;)

Posted by: Natalie | December 9, 2001 06:57 PM

Wooldridge Brothers: Shock The Monkey (Peter Gabriel)

[Don't Records' "Gag Me with a Spoon" 80's covers.]

Elvis Presley: Hound Dog

too many others to list...

Posted by: Miriam | December 10, 2001 11:41 AM