I just have to add that Dusty Springfield also made a great cover. Produced by John Paul Jones.
Not a cover (I think they used the original CCR version), but some commercial used the opening of Fortunate Son my Creedence Clearwater Revival to promote patriotism and American pride in their product (I think a car).
“Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue”
I’d love to see the faces of those who listened to the rest of the song and heard:
"And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no "
I also heard the Volunteers of America part of Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane used in commercial to promote their American made product. Uhhh…do the ad writers listen to the whole song?
When that song came out, DJs were bombarded with requests to NOT play it.
Tori Amos covered the song, and while Tori can bring the rage, she doesn’t bring it in this cover: it’s gently melancholy and weirdly hot. Absolutely a different spirit from the original, but I kinda like it :).
I don’t consider Limp Biskit to have missed the spirit of the original. It’s more like they defecated on, sodomized, and murdered it.
I didn’t want to put it so drastically, but yeah, you’re right ;).
Agreed. I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel, and am a big fan of Paul Simon. And very much not a fan of metal. But Disturbed’s “Sound Of Silence” absolutely nailed the song’s outrage at the alienation and isolation it’s describing. It’s a powerful cover of a powerful song.
That’s kinda the point
Honestly, as much as I admire Clapton (particularly him, Jack and Ginger playing with Cream), I suspect he knew when he redid Layla he could never surpass the original recording fueled by unrequited love and drugs, so rearranged it. I haven’t seen him play Layla in a while, but I’ve noticed he started to pass on some of the playing to other members of his band…
In an interview, he said he had listened to some Cream bootlegs and was impressed he was able to play how he did. When the interviewer asked him if it was because he couldn’t play like that anymore, Clapton said something like: “I didn’t say I couldn’t play like that anymore, I was just impressed by my playing back then”.
I’m just glad for Cream bootlegs which caught him at his best!
Don’t think you can ever accuse Xiu Xiu of doing (anything) upbeat.
I don’t care whether they did a good job or not so much. That song bothers me more because they’re middle aged men capitalizing on a brief resurgence of a meme.
Neil Diamond, though the Monkees certainly popularized it.
Yeah, add it to the list!
Laibach’s cover of War, in which they list all of the things war is actually good for.
I know most people only associate Dolly Parton with Dollywood, big hair, and big breasts. But she’s a highly talented singer and songwriter; it wasn’t her boobs that made her a legend of country music.
That’s intentional. Also their cover of Queen’s One Vision makes the original lyrics seem creepy and fascist in retrospect.
They popularised it because they were the ones who recorded it. I was about to say Diamond only wrote it but looking more closely at the wiki article, he also apparently played some guitar on their recording.
Eta: I stand slightly corrected, Diamond did record it but his was released after the Monkees.
Joyce Cobb’s cover of Walking in Memphis really pisses me off. After the lyrics “But do you really know the way I feel?”, she inserts, “I feel okay. I feel all right. I feel okay.”
For god’s sake, girl, the song is in your repertoire. Have you never actually listened to it?
Worst example I ever heard was Blinded By The Light covered by Manfred Mann and his Earth Band. He even tweaked the lyrics, making his cover a laughing stock.
Sweet Jesus…
When I first heard it, I wondered, what is that station (DC101) doing, playing Toto? Even now, having known for months that it’s Weezer, I can barely tell the difference.
Which really took Weezer down a few notches in my estimation. I’ve got a lot more respect for artists that try to do something different with a cover, and fall flat on their faces with it, than artists who don’t do anything different other than what’s inevitable because it’s a different group with a different sound. And in this case, you don’t even get that.
I found it interesting
Bad remakes: at the moment somebody has done a remake of “Tell it to my heart”. Don’t know the name of the artist, but they might prefer to remain anonymous.