Covers that change what the song means.

[Koxinga]

@phil417

I don’t know whether it’s been mentioned, but there’s an automobile ad where a female group sings David Bowies [ISpace Oddity]* (“Ground Control to Major Tom”)

I remember that back in the 1970’s when Space Oddity came out, there had been any number of deaths in space, so, even though the outcome of Major Tom’s mission was unexplained, there was a fatalistic element to the whole song.

And yet the vehicle sung about is considered a good thing.

Love, Phil

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
We know Major Tom’s a junkie
Strung out in heavens high
Hitting an all-time low

I figure anything adapted to a commercial from Iggy Pop, Lou Reed or 70s David Bowie would suit the OP to a T. 'Cause whatever that commercial’s touting, odds are it’s not heroin.

[Licentious_Ectomorph]

How about a disco version of “Let the Sunshine In”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmI51Jfq0E4

[Gatopescado]

Springsteen’s **Blinded by the Light **alway meant “change the station as fast as you can!”

Manfred Mann’s cover meant “turn it up as loud as you can!”

[Arglefraster]

@astorian

Decades ago, Tom Robinson, one of the first openly gay rockers, did a cover of Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”

A gay guy singing that song gives the lyrics a whole different meaning. Rikki then seems like an insecure straight guy, or a guy in denial of his sexuality… someone who “kinda scared himself” but who “might have a change of heart” and give gay love a try.

Similarly, in the movie Across the Universe, the character who sings “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is a girl in love with another girl. It takes the original meaning of confessing your feelings to someone (I wanna hold your hand because I like you), and adds an extra meaning of coming out of the closet and daring to show affection with your same-sex love in public (I wanna hold your hand because I’m not afraid of what people will think if they see us).

[ToeJam]

@Arglefraster

Similarly, in the movie Across the Universe, the character who sings “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is a girl in love with another girl.

Gah! Don’t even get me started on that movie! I loved it and hated it for the way they took some of my fav songs and twisted them.

In it, the song “I want You So Bad (She’s so Heavy)” which is one of my fav. romantic songs of all time suddenly gets turned into a Vietnam War Song with Uncle sam saying “I Want You!” over and over to the youths as they sing “She’s so heavy” while carrying the statue of liberty on their backs.

I loved it and hated it at the same time, because that song was my FAVORITE song, and I never conceived that someone would make it all political like that.
And then to warp with your mind at the end of the song, it goes back to the lesbian girl who song “I wanna hold your hand” watching another girl from another room, and she begins to sing the song “I want you- I want you so bad”, thus reverting it back to what I had thought the song to originally be about, but once again subverting it to being a girl singing it to another girl, rather than the traditional male to female song.

[Harvey_The_Heavy]

Another one from that Tori Amos record, turning Slayer’s masterpiece of Armageddon, Raining Blood into that time of the month.