best cover versions... ever! [volume ad nauseam]

[nino_savatte]

Originally Posted by RenegadeDog

Saw Manic Street Preachers do a great cover of Penny Royal tea at reading 1994. Don't know if its available on any cd though.

It's available on Lipstick Traces (the extra CD that contains their cover versions) and you're right, it's a good 'un! They do a good version of Take The Skinheads Bowling too.

 

[Sweet FA]

Motorhead - Louie Louie
Hanoi Rocks - Up Around the Bend
Poison Idea - Green Onions (or Kick Out the Jams)
Onslaught - Let There Be Rock
White Stripes - Jolene
Siouxsie - Dear Prudence
Sex Pistols - Steppin Stone
The Oppressed - Skinhead Girl
ANL - Streets of London (Particularly for "I'll show you something to make you fuckin sick, bleurgh, bleeuurgh, bleeeeeeeuuuuuurgh")

Is 'Baby I Love You' by The Ramones a cover or a product of the Spector sessions so just sounds very like a cover? Ronettes or somebody maybe?

 

[foo]

I just bought a cd with loads of covers from Fopp because it's got The Slits version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

Class.

 

[nino_savatte]

Originally Posted by Sweet FA

Is 'Baby I Love You' by The Ramones a cover or a product of the Spector sessions so just sounds very like a cover? Ronettes or somebody maybe?

It's both: it was originally performed by the Ronettes and was covered by the Ramones on their Spector produced album.

 

[clandestino]

the best version of 'gin and juice' is by sissy bar. snoop redone as an wimpy indie electro classic. it was later sampled by the dogg pound, apparently.

 

[Andy the Don]

Bauhaus's cover of Ziggy Stardust..

Better than the original IMO..

 

[Dr. Furface]

Some great covers not already mentioned -

Que Sera Sera – Sly & The Family Stone
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Cowboy Junkies
Sister Ray – Joy Division
Light My Fire – Jose Feliciano
Light My Fire – Stevie Wonder
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – The Chimes
Take Me To The River – Talking Heads
If You're Looking for a Way Out – Tindersticks
The Bottle – Brother to Brother
Be Thankful for What You've Got – Massive Attack
Stairway To Heaven – Dolly Parton (this is not a joke)

 

[Lord Hugh]

Ministry - Lay Lady Lay (orig Bob Dylan)
Rodrigo y Gabriela - One (orig Metallica)
Megadeth - These Boots (orig ?)

 

[Bob]

All along the watchtower - Hendrix - quite rightly a winner IMHO. Didn't Bob Dylan say he could never play it again after hearing the Hendrix version?

I want to do a slot dj-ing one day called something like 'Covered originals and original covers' that would only play a) not very well known originals that have had more famous covers and b) not very well known covers of famous originals...

A lot of good nights could be done from this.

 

[danae]

Cowboy Junkies, Blue Moon revisited

 

[reallyoldhippy]

not very well known originals that have had more famous covers

I've got a cassette somewhere (called "black lightening" I think) which is exactly that. All the tracks are by black artists; the (hit) covers by white ones. I'll try to look it out later.

 

[shoddysolutions]

The Slits - Heard it through the grapevine

ooooh yeah

Frank Sidebottom - sings the songs of Freddie Mercury and Queen

Alice Donut - My Boyfriend's Back

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Singer

This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren

 

[RaverDrew]

Johnny Cash - American IV/The Man Comes Around

Surely the definitive cover album...

His version of Sting's hung my head was written for Cash, fookin class

all the covers on that album outdo the originals

RIP Johnny

 

[MysteryGuest]

Hybrid Kids - D'ya Think I'm Sexy?

A mechanical mangling of the Rod Stewart song - very funny, and strange.

 

[nino_savatte]

Frank Sidebottom - Anarchy In The UK

 

[Badgers]

Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust

and..........

The Gourds - Gin and Juice

 

[bear friend]

johnny cash: the mercy seat

johnny cash: first time ever i saw your face

johnny cash: i see a darkness

johnny cash: one

etc, etc...

etc etc: I hung my head

personal jesus

" I see a darkness" is the best cover ever!

 

[bear friend]

M. Ward "Let's Dance"

 

[herbsman]

One I love is California Dreaming - Jose Feliciano

Prefer it too his Light My Fire

 

[Dubversion]

i've found i'm quite fond of the new futureheads cover of Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love.. good effort from a generally mediocre band. it's amazing wh at different a proper fucking song makes

 

[Chorlton]

Stiff Little Fingers: "Johnny Was"

P (gibby haines offshoot with Johnny Depp) - 'Dancing Queen'

edited to add: i'm a fucken idiot btw

 

[West68thStreet]

Personal Jesus is the best of the Cash covers, it completely suited him. I love Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, and another L Cohen, Nina Simone's Suzanne, plus I adore her version of Bob D's Just like a Woman- she sings "she" all the way through, then for the crescendo at the end she starts to sing "I"- it's absolutely spine tingling. Brilliant live covers include Radiohead's Nobody does it better, Suede did a mean version of the Pet Shop Boys Rent (Neil T even guested on it) and I love it when Mozzer does The Jam's That's Entertainment. For total comedy The Darkness did "Street Spirit by The Radioheads" at Glasto, sounded wonderfully awful.

Plus, is there an Underworld track where they use the synth pulse from I Feel Love ?? (hunts for Beaucoup Fish) . . . . Is it a cover? I can't remember!

 

[Orang Utan]

Surprised no-one has mentioned William Shatner
I would like to nominate Kevin Blechdom's I Will Always Love You - only seen in live mind.

 

[MysteryGuest]

Surprised no-one has mentioned William Shatner
I would like to nominate Kevin Blechdom's I Will Always Love You - only seen in live mind.

Cor... "only seen in live mind"... could be a tagline

 

[Orang Utan]

Oops! I meant that I had only seen it live, mind, of course.

 

[888]

The Afghan Whigs' covers of Lost in the Supermarket by the Clash and Creep by TLC.

 

[akirajoel]

Radiohead - The Spy Who Loved Me

<bliss>

 

[cathal marcs]

Cliff Richards - Orgasm Addict

 

[DaveCinzano]

 

[MysteryGuest]

Hybrid Kids - D'ya think I'm sexy? Absolute killer, really twisted, very destructive, with an aura of aggression but funny too.


Flying Lizards - Money A deliberately cheap'n'nasty cover that transcended its origins big-time.