I love Nouvelle Vague; they also do a terrific Bella Lugosi’s Dead, which ought not to work but succeeds beautifully. And their cover of Fade To Grey is much better than the original by Visage.
:smack: Gotta get my threads right.
Two posts above should be in the song-meld thread.
ELP pull off a longish cover here.
The Bird and the Bee cover the Bee Gees: How Deep Is Your Love
Here’s an fun cover of The Miracles’ I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying by The High Numbers.
Look further back in his catalogue. He quotes “Jupiter” note for note on his “Absolutely Free” album. (Track: “Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin.”)
Huh, indeed! (never had that Zappa disc)
thanks!
One of my alltime faves - the Del Rubio Triplets - improve on Hey Jude.
That was great. Gotta love 1963.
Well, that was better than “Tommy,” anyway…
Same with me and the Dead! Didn’t realize it until I picked up a little disk called “Deadicated”.
From Los Lobos doing Bertha, and Bruce Hornsby’s Jack Straw, to THE best version of Friend Of The Devil (Lyle Lovett’s).
They even include covers of Bob Weir’s solo work (Cassidy by Suzanne Vega). But the real treat is a so-reggae-it’s-unrecognizable Estimated Prophet by Burning Spear.
I didn’t even mention Elvis Costello, Dwight Yoakam, Warren Zevon, David Lindley, Dr. John or the Indigo Girls…
Royksopp doing Ice Machine. Doesn’t get any better than this.
Loads of classical quotes in Zappa’s music, sometimes very cleverly embedded. One of my favorites is during the fadeout ending of Fountain Of Love (album: Cruising with Ruben and the Jets) – while the lead vocal sings “fountain of love”, the backing vocals “respond” with a wordless melodic phrase which is in fact the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring.
(Frank himself confirmed this in an interview back in the late 60’s.)
Came back to add: I’ve listened to Peaches En Regalia at least a million and six times, The Planets not quite so many times, and never noticed this before. I salute you.
Thanks, I wasn’t sure if I was stretching it a little, but yeah there’s a couple similar notes in there that can be teased out.
Pretty sure I posted this in another thread last year -
Doggy Style does Soul Man.
Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” by YES
The Band (post-Robbie Robertson covered Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” with Levon Helm on vocals. I like the original, but I love the cover.
This is how Jim “Wet Behind The Ears” Branson got his start:
The Flying Lizards show the Beatles how it’s done.
Just stumbled on The Dollyrots cover of Brand New Key – Originally by Melanie. Melanie was also pretty funky as hippies go. I liked this cover in particular because it is very respectful of the original (not always a guarantee when punks are involved) but also very true to the band’s sound.
Dollyrots do a lot of covers, and have some pretty awesome Christmas tunes.
Possibly my favourite cover by a non-Siouxsie-based punk band (although whether they were still punk at that point is debatable) is by The Damned - Love’s Alone Again Or.
Faith no more’s cover of War Pigs is the best version. Too drunk to link it right now.
Also, check out metalachi for mariachi versions of your favorite metals songs. They rock!
“Smooth Criminal” by Alien Ant Farm (cover of Michael Jackson)
“Higher Ground” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (cover of Stevie Wonder)
In both cases, heavier rock instrumentation is incorporated in creative ways. Can’t say I like the covers better or worse than the originals, they’re just different in cool ways.