Johnny Cash’s cover of “Personal Jesus” may or may not be ironic, but it’s great!
Hahaha…YEAH! All Those covers are great…“You know I lost a lot of friends there baby, I got no time to fuck around, FUCK YOU”…That version walked all over Van Halen’s original, and that Flipper song ("…I know an old lady who swallowed a minister, isn’t that sinister?..") just rules.
Someome mentioned Devo…You cant mention one of their covers without mentioning “Satisfaction” one of the best covers of all time!
A band called The Squirrels <SP? I’m to lazy to check> covered Dark Side of the Moon as well.
Jon
Jon
Dope - you spin me right round
Marilyn Manson - golden years(david bowie cover)
And a slight hijack,but is it a requirment a band do a cover of how soon is now?
Besides the ones already mentioned Snake river conspiracy did a great cover of it.
Forgot to mention snake river conspiracy did a cover of the love song by cure.
Imagine the song remixed by a female Trent Reznor and you’ll have a good idea of it.
I can’t believe that no one’s mentioned this! The Coolies put out an album called Dig which is entirely punk covers of Simon & Garfunkel songs!
Type O Negative has done quite a bit of cover songs over the years but none beats their version of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
To this day every time I hear it I keep waiting for them to bust up laughing, but they go through with the whole thing. Always has me scratching my head and wondering how many takes it took them to get through.
The Squirrels
Not-So-Bright Side of the Moon
covered the whole album…
There was a midwestern garage-style band called Killdozer that has covered several songs in an amusing manner. I’m not sure which side of the irony/parody line that they lie on, but their covers of Sweet Home Alabama, Cinammon Girl, and Unbelievable might be worth checking out.
I second the Butthole Surfer’s “American Woman”.
The Dickies did some great punk covers of songs, my favorite being “Knights in White Satin”.
And you really cannot do without the Revolting Cocks’ “Let’s Get Physical”
Wait a minute. Can it be no one has mentioned Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” yet?
Check out the “For Ladies Only” covers album, where they bull…er…killdoze through, among others, One Tin Soldier, Funk 49, and American Pie. Killdozers prolly the most ironic band ever lol
Another good cover is Lydia Lunch’s “Run Through The Jungle”
Jon
No-one’s mentioned Me First + The Gimme Gimmes yet? You gotta have their punked up version of Don’t Cry For Me Argentina there.
How the heck did the thread get this far without any mention of the inimitable Frank Zappa? One of the recurring themes in Zappa’s oeuvre is the way “Louie Louie” pops up unexpectedly in his songs. And then there are goofy cover versions of songs from just about any genre imaginable – the most complete guide to covers and musical references in his work is probably this one.
Aw man…how could I have forgotton the cover of Morrisey’s “Girlfriend In A Coma” By Mojo Nixon, which is especially ironic, considering Mojo is the Anti-Morrisey!
Jon
How about either of Laibach’s cover albums, Sympathy for the Devil or Let It Be?
They’re kinda… well… scary.
– CH
Damn! I can’t believe I forgot those! Laibach also did a cover of Queen’s One Vision, which is totally bizarre!
Lol Coxhill’s version of “That’s Why Darkies Were Born” is an ironic comment on the racism behind the original.
Really?! No one has mentioned Cake’s version of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive?
Cake is the ultimate in ironic delivery. And I Will Survive is such a passionate, sincere song. There version rocks. I think it is off of the album Fashion Nugget…
That Cake cover is wonderful, and yes, it is on Fashion Nugget. My favorite odd covers:
Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant: “To Sir With Love”
David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull: “I Got You, Babe”
The Foo Fighters: “Baker Street.” This one actually is quite nice to listen to.
Punk music’s always been good for these kind of covers. The Sex Pistols doing My Way, The Clash and the Dead Kennedys versions of I Fought the Law, Op Ivy and 7 Seconds covered These Boots are Made for Walkin’…
I think they’re pretty much split down the middle between irony and tribute. I wouldn’t say The Dead Kennedys remade Viva Las Vegas as a tribute, but Social Distortion’s covers of Ring of Fire and Under my Thumb certainly qualify, as well as some of the covers The Clash recorded.
On preview, I see that I should also mention Cake’s cover of Willie Nelson’s Sad Songs and Waltzes.