# I Just Heard The Worst Cover Version... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972 "2008-01-25T16:34:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/61 "2008-01-25T23:57:37Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] Take a deep breath, hold onto your seat, perhaps shove a thick cloth into your mouth to stifle the blood-curdling scream you’re about to emit…and click on [this link](http://youtube.com/watch?v=NN3MGN899yE). [/QUOTE] So _that_’s why Stewie did that bizarre version on _Family Guy_. I’d never seen the Shatner bit before before; I was mystified when I saw the FG episode. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/62 "2008-01-26T00:47:13Z")
[QUOTE=The Real Thing] Fergie singing [Live and Let Die](http://youtube.com/watch?v=re3mpCKUfQU). Her timing if awful, I’m not totally sure she’s singing the right lyrics (It sounds like she might be saying “In this ever changing world in which we live in”) [/QUOTE] Er…those _are_ the lyrics. Awful, but not Fergie’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/63 "2008-01-26T01:08:43Z")
David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing _The Little Drummer Boy_. Together. I don’t know if it qualifies for this list, but since I saw it long ago, I have never been the same. I felt as though, oh, I don’t know . . . the universe as I knew it had been destroyed and some other put in its place? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Thing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Thing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Thing)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/64 "2008-01-26T04:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] Er…those _are_ the lyrics. Awful, but not Fergie’s fault. [/QUOTE] I think the consensus is (based on what I’ve read in past threads) that it’s supposed to be “But if this ever changing world in which we’re living…” which is so much more gramatically correct. I’ll blame Fergie! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/65 "2008-01-26T06:42:27Z")
[QUOTE=Doctor Who] No. [I WIN!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkvpuOebd88) ETA: for non-link-clickers, that would be Madonna’s afterbirth. :smack: Sorry — I mean her cover of American Pie. [/QUOTE] Thank you, I came in to post that nightmare. And also bitch about people posting links to youtube with no description but “this” which annoys the crap out of me because I have a sucky dial-up connection but I will have to at least click the link to get the name of the song and artist if I want to know what anyone is talking about but I am certainly not going to wait an hour for it to load completely because I’ve already been waiting half an hour for a song I want to hear to load and then everyone starts making posts like that and the whole thread ends up a waste for me because I don’t have the patience to even check all those darn links for the song/artist name which could have been posted in the post! _hyperventilates_ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/66 "2008-01-26T07:16:08Z")
**Wile E** Agreed. Also, don’t you hate those postings with zero explanations such as: > [@](#): > > Anyone read about this? > What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/67 "2008-01-26T07:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=JustThinkin’] Speaking of Joni Mitchell, some alt-rock group\* did a cover of Free Man in Paris that I wouldn’t have recognized if I didn’t know the lyrics. Interpretation I can accept, but there was no melody left at all. Pretty bad. \*I heard it on a station that should have know better, and didn’t pay attention to the name of the band. [/QUOTE] You might be thinking of Sufjan Stevens’ cover of it. Which sucked dick, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/68 "2008-01-26T09:33:47Z")
[QUOTE=The Real Thing] I think the consensus is (based on what I’ve read in past threads) that it’s supposed to be “But if this ever changing world in which we’re living…” which is so much more gramatically correct. I’ll blame Fergie! 😃 [/QUOTE] No! Read some more past threads then. Man has this been up many times. I think I have read about it more than the damn planes. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/69 "2008-01-26T10:08:07Z")
Shinedown absolutely _murders_ “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Holy hell, why did they decide to change the tempo?! I find it sort of ironic that I hate their cover so much given I first heard the song as a cover by a band called Witches Creek. They never released a cd (college band) that I know of, but I wish they had. _They_ did the song justice. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/70 "2008-01-26T10:56:55Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] But… but… [del]it’s shit[/del] I respect your opinion I guess. But do you know the original? Even if you still like it, can you see how Ms Collins turned a wistful, broken-chorded, innovative song, into a piece of sappy bouncy hippie glurge? [/QUOTE] For what it’s worth, I agree with you that the cover completely altered the mood and timbre of the song, and that the original had more emotion to it. Still, I suspect your opinion will be in the minority…much like my opinion about Gary Jules taking “Mad World”, which was intended as a song about the observations of a man rendered soulless and apathetic by the arbitrary drudgery of the world, and turned it into what sounds like some emo high school douchebag whining about how much his life sucks (which is kind of appropriate considering it was made for “Donnie Darko”, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good outside of that context). It’s _supposed_ to sound emotionless, people; that’s the whole point! But I digress. As far as covers that are just out-and-out bad, I nominate Counting Crows’ cover of the Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost In You”. They decided to remove all the, well, music, and replace it with a slowly, boringly plinked acoustic guitar, on top of which Adam Duritz breathily wheezes out the lyrics to the song in what could only generously be described as a melody of sorts. I fail to see why the producers of “Clueless” needed to pay a big name to do this; were the guys from **LOUNE** ’s link unavailable? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/71 "2008-01-26T11:06:56Z")
**Roland Orbazal** , shouldn’t you declare a prior interest in this subject… 😉 I agree re. Counting Crows. Same applies to their woeful version of Joni’s _Big Yellow Taxi_. Leave Joni’s songs to Joni, people! She’s a genius and you are not. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/72 "2008-01-26T13:30:23Z")
I was watching The Little Mermaid on DVD last week. One of my favorite movies and I love the musical numbers. Anyway, the bonus disc has “\*\*Kiss the Girl \*\* music video” listed and I thought hey, cool, I love that song. Uh, it’s some really vampy screechy teen(?) girl [butchering the song](http://youtube.com/watch?v=StoQRYT0QU4). The vocals are bad enough but the camera mugging makes it all the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/73 "2008-01-29T06:26:22Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Or the Residents. [/QUOTE] Or Otis Redding. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972/74 "2008-01-29T11:35:10Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Guns ‘n’ Roses’ butchering of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” still takes the top anti-prize as far as I’m concerned. [/QUOTE] I couldn’t agree less. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-heard-the-worst-cover-version/434972.md?page=3)