Since Tom Petty is in very grave condition and may not live too much longer, I’ve been going through his music. One of the songs I have is his cover of Thunderclap Newman’s Something In the Air.
It’s pretty well known – 6 million Youtube hits – but I’ll plug John Mayer and Keith Urban covering the Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down. They’re pretty boys, but they can sure play guitar. And while I enjoy the original version, it’s hard to separate the song from John’s in-your-face Yoko obsession.
But presented by love boys who aren’t John Lennon, the song stands as a classic of desperate love – IMO as strong as anything on Layla.
I love covers, especially genre-crossing ones, so will try not to post too many.
Trampled by Turtles - Where is my Mind? (Pixies cover)
Elvis - Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Carter Family cover)
Linda Ronstadt - Willin’ (Little Feat cover)
Iron Horse - Enter Sandman (Metallica cover)
And the wildest one: Richard Cheese - Welcome to the Jungle (Guns n’ Roses cover)
Santana - She’s Not There (Zombies)
My Brightest Diamond covering “Feelin Good.”
Yes! My favorite cover by anyone. And speaking of live, the studio version we know and love is a live recording. Take 1 (or 2).
I’ve never been a fan of Mr. Petty, but his live cover of the Dave Clark Five’s Anyway You Want It is a joy.
James Taylor & Carly Simon’s Mockingbird.
And nobody’s mentioned Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
No need. It’s a given.
Steve Albini’s Rapeman do a relatively faithful cover of ZZ Top’s Just Got Paid Today
Husker Du tears through Eight Miles High
Following the Beatles trend:
Fats Domino - “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except Me And My Monkey)”
I’ve probably linked to this before, since I never tire of it…original by Bobby Charles.
Doug Sahm & Friends - “Tennessee Blues”
Frijid Pink - House of the Rising Sun. Originally by ?
Bauhaus cover of Ziggy Stardust- very good and true to the original
Any cover by Isreal IZ Kamakawiwo’ole. Especially What a Wonderful Worldand Somewhere Over the Rainbow There is just something so soothing about his voice. There is a reason the man became a Hawaiian treasure.
The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra has made a career of doing salsa versions of indie rock songs
What about Springsteen’s Jersey Girl, written by Tom Waits? The only other singer/songwriter I can think of being so well known for a song he didn’t write is Arlo Guthrie’s City of New Orleans.
My then Boss once told me to get the lyrics for Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. She gave me grief because I printed out Dolly Parton’s.
I think it’s almost a hundred years old, but I still like Eric Burdon and the Animals’ version the best.
The hard rock cover of Bottle of Wine by the Fireballs is one of Tom Paxton’s favorites. And he wrote the song!
Songs that you might not realize are covers:
Blue Moon
Mack The Knife:
These threads pop up periodically, and I always say: The White Stripes cover of “Jolene”.
Miley Cyrus did a decent cover of it, too.
You might also enjoy Yellow Loveless, another cover of the entire album by various Japanese bands. Highlights are Shonen Knife doing a 60s bubblegum-pop version of “When You Sleep”, and The Sodom Project turning the 57-second interlude “Touched” into a 5 minute song that builds to a crescendo worthy of, but very different from, MBV’s wall of noise.
Has anyone mentioned the Paragons (60s ska/reggae, originators of “The Tide is High”) doing the wonderful, little-known 1964 Beatles song I’ll Be Back? The called it I Want to Go Back.