# Really Bad Re-makes of Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951 "2002-08-02T01:03:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zephonith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@zephonith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zephonith)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/41 "2002-08-05T05:25:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by the grim spectre of red death \* > \*\*Alot of bands do covers in concert that they have no intention of playing anywhere else (I have the Barenaked Ladies doing “Buddy Holly” by Weezer, for example). I’m assuming that this is what happened to this guy: played it in concert (quite a few bands do requests for this sort of thing), got bootlegged, bam, gets radio play. \*\* Isn’t that what happened to Alien Ant Farm with their cover of Smooth Criminal? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/42 "2002-08-05T06:10:53Z")
How can this thread have 40 posts without a single mention of Nikki French’s awful remake of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”? Bonnie Tyler’s career must have been spinning in its grave. And **yojimboguy** , I hate to tell you this, but…I’ve never heard any version of “Hooked on a Feeling” other than the “Ooga Chukka” version. And, G-d help me, I love the goofiness of it. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/43 "2002-08-05T12:31:19Z")
I love the Blue Suede version of “Hooked On A Feelin’”, it’s goofy as hell, but it’s the only way to enjoy those sappy lyrics. A local country oldies station used to play the BJ Thomas version into the ground. Why would **anyone** want to cover a Bryan Adams song, especially that one? His whole career has to be the result of some Faustian deal. But any cover of a Police song that Sting has been involved with has been vile. The man can not be trusted with his own legacy: The Sean Combs (call him by his real name, he’s enough of a cartoon as it is) remix/cover of “Roxanne”. You even acted in the video, you dingleberry. The Aswad cover of “Invisible Sun”. Let’s take this beautiful dark song and do it as a catchy reggae number. I guess he felt he owed it to them because of the reggae influence on the Police.Thanks for ruining one of my favorite Police songs, tantricboy. Sting’s remake of “Demolition Man” for the movie. Stupid, stupid, stupid and pointless. Thanks for ruining the other one. “Don’t Stand So Close To Me '86” should be 86’ed. If this was the result, no wonder the Police remakes project fell apart. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/44 "2002-08-05T14:14:04Z")
Oh, so many! Strawberry Fields by Candyflip is the pinnacle of early 1990s rave versions of Beatles songs. The various easy listening covers of Light My Fire by the Doors (most recently Will Young in Britain) are reminiscent of the flames of Hell. And who can forget the multi-artist version of Perfect Day originally recorded for British TV but released as a charity single? Disco and bad cover versions are inextricably linked. In the late 1970s Santa Esmeralda made a living doing latin-disco reworkings of 1960s garage rock (House of the Rising Sun, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Gloria…) Some of these are verging on kitsch genius, but others are awesomely dull. And on the subject of disco, Donna Summer’s Macarthur Park. Plus Arthur Mullard and Hilda Baker’s You’re The One That I Want (from Grease) – a comedy record by people who can’t sing. And then there’s people like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan who can massacre their own songs more effectively than any cover version. ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/45 "2002-08-05T14:23:24Z")
Damn, I forgot The Flying Pickets’ a cappella Smells Like Teen Spirit. It’s that grunge/barbershop crossover. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951/46 "2002-08-05T15:11:32Z")
Saw this on some commercial just yesterday, and Mr. Snicks had to physically restrain me from hurting either myself, the cat, the TV, or him --\> a horrid cover by some icky male singer of _When I’m 64_ by the Beatles. Yeah, it only lasted 30 seconds, but it was 30 seconds of pure, unadulterated aural agony. Nearly ruined my favorite Beatles song. Whoever authorized it should be assumed to the fifth circle of hell, post-haste. And that Fiona Apple cover of _Across the Universe_. Words cannot express… Snicks [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-re-makes-of-songs/121951.md?page=2)