I was looking for June Carter Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” on iTunes the other day, and was startled to see how many other singers/ groups had covered it - including Olivia Newton John… 
Uh, why? Her chipper voice singing “and it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire” is just peculiar; those lyrics and her voice just don’t match up.
Any other covers that just don’t work?
Madonna’s cover of American Pie?
Whitless Houston’s horrific mangling of “I Will Always Love You”.
Not to start a social commentary but how about all of the covers of 1950’s R&B songs that couldn’t/wouldn’t get played on most radio stations such as:
[ul]
[li]Fat’s Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” (1955) covered by Pat Boone[/li][li]Moonglow’s “Sincerely” covered by the McGuire Sisters[/li][/ul]
There are many others in this category and the cover versions mentioned above were of course the ones that made the pop charts in higher positions than the originals.
Are how about the following tepid remakes that all amazingly enough made it to Number #1 on the Billboard Charts:
[ul]
[li]Donny Osmond “Go Away Little Girl” (1971)[/li][li]Ringo Starr’s “You’re Sixteen” (1974)[/li][li]Eric Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff” (1974) which is the lamest version of Marley’s song ever done[/li][li]Carpenter’s “Please Mr. Postman” (1975)[/li][li]Shaun Cassidy “Da Doo Ron Ron” (1977)[/li][li]Kim Wilde “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1987)[/li][li]Tiffany “I Think We’re Alone Now” (1987)[/li][li]Michael Bolton “When A Man Loves a Woman” (1991)[/li][li]Christina Aguilera & Comapny “Lady Marmalade” (2001)[/li][/ul]
I am filled with shame whenever I see Pat Boone trying to “get down”.
If you’ve seen him singing “Tutti-Frutti” on American Bandstand, you’d feel the same.
That’s what I came in here to post. Madonna – er, sorry, “Esther” – seriously, what the hell? Huh? Huh?
Faith Hill’s Piece of My Heart.
Please.
Pearl Jam covering that insanely stupid example of the early 60s dead-girlfriend/boyfriend genre, Last Kiss. At the time, I was dreading an explosion of grunge/alternative bands going that route as a trend. Can you imagine Stone Temple Pilots covering Tell Laura I Love Her?
Do you prefer him In a Metal Mood?
Even worse.
This is really mundane, but Bananarama should never have been allowed to massacre The Shocking Blue’s “Venus.” My opinion about covers is, if you can come up with a better rendition than the original, go for it! If you can only hope to play it at least as well as the original, fine. But if you want to turn a perfectly good song into something worse than the original, or do such a radical rearrangement that it becomes a giant WTF??? for those familiar with the song, why bother?
Yeah, but they’re so damned cute.
Side note: When I was a kid, I thought they were saying, “I’m your fetus. I’m your fire and joy, yes I am.”
You see, this is what I’ve always thought a cover should be. Take a song and radically change it…make it your own.
Cornershop covering ‘Norwegian Wood’ in Punjabi (complete with real sitar players) is a fine example of this.
Cowboy Mouth turning ‘Raspberry Beret’ into a southern rock anthem is another.
Ideally, you should WANT the older fans to think you’re commiting a sin when you cover a song.
In 40 years of performing, you are the first person I’ve ever known to have that point of view. Why does anyone want people to think they are incompetent to perform music but are getting paid to do it anyway? I guess not wanting to offend the composer doesn’t play a part in it…
“Behind Blue Eyes” by Limp Bizkitt (sp?) - anemic & too much like the original (except very anemic) - and they leave out the grittiest part of the song - “When my fist clenches … etc”.
“Good Vibrations” by Todd Rundgren - an obscure one still worth mentioning for its incredible resemblance to the original. Why bother doing it?
“I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” by the Monkees - Paul Revere and the Raiders’ original rendition completely destroys the Monkees’ feeble attempt.
To me, a “pointless” cover is a note-by-note remake. The band is pretty much doing karaoke here, offering basically the same music with a different singer. I’m much more interested in the Scissor Sisters’ cover of “Comfortably Numb” than, say, Motley Crue’s ho-hum take on the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The U.K.”
Snoopy has it up there. Why bother to record a cover if it’ll be exactly like the original. Far better to put your own brand on it. It’s not incompetent…it’s not being slavish to the past.
I recently saw a version of ‘The Comedy of Errors’ set on a carribean resort island. Does that somehow imply that Shakespeare would be offended by seeing his work in a different context.
Or Cake’s cover of ‘I Will Survive’ as sort of a straightforward rock song. Should Gloria Gaynor be offended that the song can be applied to other genres?
Thinking that only the original performance (or genre) is the ‘right’ one is far too limiting. If that’s the case no covers should ever be done.
There’s a perfect example of a good cover. It’s clearly the original song, and Cake clearly put their own twist on it, bringing something fresh and unique. The oposite of this, and a valid entry for this thread, is Six Pence None the Richer (I believe) doing a cover of Crowded House’s Don’t Dream it’s Over. The original is a nice song, and the cover is a karaoke version with the very instrumental section dumbed down to something incredibly basic and droll.
Well, I think a cover is only pointless when it sucks that much worse that the original song. Some covers stand well on their own. I am thinking the Fugee’s cover Roberta Flack’s of “Killing Me Softly.” Now, for bad Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss” as worst cover. Ever. The original is insipid (but of the times). But the cover is not even making a statement, except that it is sucktackular.
As a general rule, any cover that drastically slows down another song equals impotent bad.
That being said, I love me a J-pop cover of American songs. There is this version of S&G’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” High-larious. Great piece of kitsch.
To me, the most pointless cover I’ve ever heard was the Psychedelic Furs doing a new version of their own “Pretty in Pink” for the movie. The original was a good song, the new version was a pallid clone.