We’re a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones is my favorite such album. Pete Yorn’s cover of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” is my favorite song on it. From KISS to Tom Waits, it’s got you covered.
(There’s some other good Ramones tribute stuff out there. One of the oddest is the Raimundos’ cover of the Ramones’ “Needle and Pins” which is itself a cover.)
I like Humanary Stew: A Tribute To Alice Cooper. Bruce Dickinson does a smoking version of Black Widow (but he’s no Vincent Price :p) .
Folkways: A Vision Shared has some excellent covers of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly songs:
"Sylvie" (Leadbelly) - Sweet Honey in the Rock – 2:01
"Pretty Boy Floyd" (Woody Guthrie) - Bob Dylan – 4:34
"Do Re Mi" (Woody Guthrie) - John Mellencamp – 3:23
"I Ain't Got No Home" (Woody Guthrie) - Bruce Springsteen – 3:40
"Jesus Christ" (Woody Guthrie) - U2 – 3:13
"Rock Island Line" (Leadbelly) - Little Richard with Fishbone – 2:32
"East Texas Red" (Woody Guthrie) - Arlo Guthrie – 5:34
"Philadelphia Lawyer" (Woody Guthrie) - Willie Nelson – 2:59
"Hobo's Lullaby" (Goebel Reeves; performed by Woody Guthrie) - Emmylou Harris – 2:41
"The Bourgeois Blues" (Leadbelly) - Taj Mahal – 2:43
"Grey Goose" (traditional; performed by Leadbelly) - Sweet Honey in the Rock – 2:07
"Goodnight, Irene" (Leadbelly) - Brian Wilson – 2:38
"Vigilante Man" (Woody Guthrie) - Bruce Springsteen - 4:09
"This Land Is Your Land" (Woody Guthrie) - Pete Seeger with Sweet Honey in the Rock, Doc Watson & The Little Red School House Chorus – 3:45
Many gems on that one. Dylan doing “Pretty Boy Floyd” is the highlight for me…
I’m blanking on some awesome tribute albums in the early 80’s, but I did want to post that Sister Double Happiness were great (live they were awesome) and almost as good as their previous incarnation The Dicks.
You took both of mine, so I’ll add Ride with Bob by Asleep at the Wheel, a Western Swing tribute to Bob Wills.
Most of mine have been covered, especially the Nativity in Black albums. But…
Virus 100, a tribute to the Dead Kennedys. Beautiful stuff I’m still listening to mumble years later.
Stone Free, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Worth it just for Buddy Guy covering Red House. Clapton’s Stone Free is okay. But PM Dawn really add something, and The Cure’s covers are fantastic.
Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin was probably the first of the tribute albums to be made. It has lots of good songs on it. My favorite ones include:
Border Song by Eric Clapton
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting by The Who
Crocodile Rock by the Beach Boys
Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word by Joe Cocker
The Bitch Is Back by Tina Turner
Philadelphia freedom by Hall & Oates
Burn Down the Mission by Phil Collins
and Madman across the Water by Bruce Hornsby
My favourite off of that one is the haunting “Sacrifice” by Sinead O’Connor
Just wanted to make everyone read this again… at least everyone who doesn’t own it.
I’ve played this disk bazillions of times. And I am NOT a Dead fan. But this made me realize what good, solid songwriting underlies their work.
Not only is Lyle’s “Devil” perfect, but Bruce Hornsby does a jazzy rockin’ “Jack Straw”, and Warren Zevon has fun with “Casey Jones”.
And Burning Spear gets the award for “Most changed/improved cover” by Ska-on-Steroid-ifying “Estimated Prophet”. It took a dozen listens til I recognized it: “Oh, it’s Bob Weir’s “California” song!”
And btw, I bought the whole “I’m Your Man” disc just for one song: REM’s “First We Take Manhatten”. Even better than Jennifer Warnes’s version, though hers has one of the best guitar solos ever, by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
I will also agree on Deadicated. Classic classic stuff there.
+1
Yeah, but he doesn’t really add anything else to it, either.
Not sure if this totally counts. Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits has a few clunkers, but is mostly pretty good. And The Reverend Horton Heat’s cover of the Jonny Quest Theme is scorched-earth perfection.
I really like “Goodbye Blue Sky” and “Young Lust” from that album.
Billy Sherwood (formerly of Yes) organised another tribute to The Wall called Back Against the Wall with the following guests (among others):
[ul]
[li]Ian Anderson[/li][li]Adrian Belew[/li][li]Elliot Easton[/li][li]Keith Emerson[/li][li]Steve Howe[/li][li]Tony Levin[/li][li]Chris Squire[/li][li]Rick Wakeman[/li][li]John Wetton[/li][li]Dweezil Zappa[/li][/ul]
It sometimes plays it too safe, but other times it’s incredibly good. And the lineup is a dream-come-true for classic/prog rock fans.
The Go Betweens – Write Your Adventures Down
This one might be a bit obscure for the Americans on here, but it’s the best tribute concert/album I’ve ever heard. In some cases, the new cover-versions even sound better than the original recordings.
How about old-school Red, Hot and Blue?
(Does it count as a ‘cover’ if the songwriter never recorded the songs himself?)
In a way, the entire career of Asleep at the Wheel is a tribute to Bob Wills. But that is an excellent album, with the Wheel backing a diverse set of artists in swinging versions of Wills tunes. And it’s best followed by Willie & The Wheel–a joint project of the band with Willie Nelson, produced by Jerry Wexler; hot, jazzy renditions of tunes by Bob Wills & the other pioneers of Western Swing.
And I’ll cast another vote for Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. Some of us have the original Elevators’ versions of his tunes, but fewer have the records from Roky’s later career. So, how else is one to learn about working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog?
My contribution: Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers. Gram Parsons loved them & passed that love on to Emmylou–who kept the faith. The album has a bunch of artists (Emmylou, Dolly, Merle Haggard, Glenn Campbell, James Taylor, etc.) performing tunes made famous by the brother act–whether or not the Louvins wrote them.
There are a couple of upscale numbers & a sacred song or two. But most of the songs are love songs. Sad, tragic love songs. The kind of love that makes you go insane–or at least suffer from the melancholia of John Dowland’s day. Sung in aching two-part harmony…
Two of my favorites:
“The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute”, compiled under the loving care of Bob Dylan, with great liner notes written by Dylan. Bono, Allison Kraus, Dickie Betts, and John Mellencamp all deliver memorable performances, and every cut is worth listening to.
“Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute To Gram Parsons”, compiled under the loving care of Emmylou Harris. Again, not a bad cut on the album. Personal faves are the Cowboy Junkies’ amazing take on “Ooh, Las Vegas,” Chris Hillman and Steve Earle on “High Fashion Queen,” Lucinda Williams and David Crosby on “Return of the Grievous Angel,” and Wilco’s “One Hundred Years From Now.” Highly recommended!
It’s true that The Evil One is a collector piece. Some of the ‘80s records are still or again available. I Have Always Been Here Before: The Roky Erickson Anthology covers the highlights pretty effectively from 1965 (the Spades’ “We Sell Soul”) to 1995 (All That May Do My Rhyme).