You’re right, I totally forgot a really worthy AWFUL song, Madonna’s cover of American Pie. Take a song representing all the sadness, joy and feeling in an era of music and… put it to a techno beat!!!
I love 96 tears… please tell me the original is by “? and the Mysterians”???
Correct, LaurAnge.
I have a theory that some bands are really created for the purpose of remakes. I love Tesla’s Five Man Accoustical Jam. Nearly everything on it is a remake(well not exactly a remake, somewhere between a remake and a cover for most of them) But I like most of the songs on it better than I liked the originals, and much better than anything Tesla ever wrote. Signs is so much better than the original, and thefor rest they really seem to get the original feeling of the song, but add an engergetic flair the originals seemed to miss(maybe because most of the originals I’ve heard were not recorded live).
Yes! That’s the one. Derek and the Dominos–I remember that now.
I’m certainly glad I was enjoying the original all along. I wouldn’t have wanted to admit I’d been suckered in by a remake (even if it was remade by the same artist).
I love the Beatles. I think the remake of ‘come together’ by aerosmith is good. They also did a version of “I’m down” that I enjoyed.
What about the Ramones’ remake of the Spider-man theme song? That was a good one.
I agree that remakes of decade old hits by current hit bands are almost always terrible, but Rock music was built on cover versions - the early Rolling Stones played mostly covers, as did almost all of the garage bands that followed them. Here’s a random sampling of some of my favourites:
John Cale doing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallellujah’, and then Jeff Buckley covering John Cale’s version.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds doing, oh, about fifty songs - their twisting of Tim Rose’s ‘Hey Joe’ is a gem.
The Kingsmen’s ‘Louie, Louie’ - changed the song completely to make it the garage classic it is today.
Cat Power doing Satisfaction - makes Devo’s version sound like a note for note cover.
Yo La Tengo doing Daniel Johnson’s ‘Speeding Motorcycle’ - this is cheating a bit, cause Daniel’s on the recording, singing over the phone. YLT have also done the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop as an instrumental wedding dance.
The MC5 doing the old standard ‘Rambling Rose’.
There are too many bad covers to mention, so I’ll leave it at that.
HenrySpencer.
Fellow DVD owners can see the video for “Build Me Up, Butter Cup” by The Goops on the Mallrats DVD. Never will I be able to hear any version of that song without a mental picture of Jay and Silent Bob dancing like idiots. A good remake.
Nocturne – I’m an avid G-man fan… when did he cover Rock and Roll All Night? I know he’s a big KISS fan, but is that song on any of his albums? (If it is, then I’m missing one!!)
On his album as “Chris Gaines”, for a track called “Right Now,” he used a semi-cover of an old Youngbloods song – “come on people now, smile on your brother / everybody get together try to love one another right now”. I like it.
Most covers annoy the crap out of me.
Although, I prefer Garth’s or the Dixie Chick’s version of the Little Feat song “Dixie Chicken.”
Chris Ledoux’s cover of Garth’s “The Fever” sucks. His cover of “Life Is A Highway” kind of sucks.
I hate the original, and any and all covers of “Stand By Your Man.” I can stand the Dixie Chicks version because I love the Chicks, but I don’t LIKE it.
Joan Jett does a great job on Springsteen’s “Light of Day” and the Pharoahs’ “Wooly Bully”.
Matt, I actually preferred the Chipmunks version of Always On My Mind to both Elvis and the Pet Shop Boys.
And I too enjoyed the Chris Gaines/Garth Brooks semi-cover Right Now.
I hated the 90s version of Break My Stride much preferring Mathew Wilder’s (?) 80s version)
I love TMBG’s New York City and Boyz To Men’s Still of the Nite.
I even enjoyed Sugar Ray’s Abracadabra and Savage Garden’s Imagine.
But Madonna’s American Pie will live forever in infamy. Shame Madonna Shame.
Smashing Pumpkins did a nice cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”.
I generally hate covers. Here are the ones I like:
Oingo Boingo doing * I am the Walrus. * Now I’m a hardcore Beatles fan, but Boingo just gives it an edge that the Beatles didn’t have.
Metallica performing * Whiskey in the Jar. * It’s a traditional song, but Tin Lizzy popularized it first.
Any of the Byrds covers of Bob Dylan. They kick ass. Their “reunion” cover of * From a Distance * makes me want to gag.
Any of Jimi’s covers.
I’m sure there’s more, but not that I can think of offhand.
I like both versions equally. That’s actually one of my favorite songs.
Anyway, I agree with Britany Spears covering “Satisfaction” and Madonna’s “American Pie”. Sinful, really.
Well, I agree that a lot of remakes are disappointing (usually only if you liked the original). But some are a lot better than the original.
I much prefer Jimi Hendrix’ version of All Along the Watchtower to Dylan’s, and I’ll take Dave Mason’s cover of Hendrix’ version as well. Same with the 13th Floor Elevators’ rendition of Dylan’s Baby Blue.
And I can handle Van Halen doing the Kinks and Roy Orbison (actually, I like’em all).
And, of course, a lot of early Stones and Beatles recordings were covers of earlier recordings.
Oh yeah, we had a regional band, Extreme Heat, record a killer version of Hey Jude.
Actually I also liked Travis doing Ms Spear’s “One More Time”
…but I think I really liked it because they spent the whole song trying not to laugh and obviously weren’t taking it too seriously.
I know I’m going to burn in Hell for this…but…<grits teeth and takes a deep breath>…
I liked the Bangles’ version of “Hazy Shade of Winter” better than Simon & Garfunkle’s.
On Jay Leno, I once saw Garth Brooks do a cover of “Hard Luck Woman” that I liked.
The worst cover I ever heard was a pop/rave version of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
One of the wierdest covers I ever heard was David Lee Roth’s version of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody”. His arrangement is almost identical to the original. One of the local radio DJs used to cue up both versions, start playing both, and switch back and forth between them every few seconds. It was eerie to hear how well they matched up.
What about their version of Stayin’ Alive?
Oi Oi Oi Oi stayin alive, stayin alive…
hee hee hee.
I actually collect covers, but they have to be by bands I like. Some of my favorites are:
Revolting Cocks “Do you think I’m sexy” (rod stewart)
NIN “Get down make love” (queen)
Skankin’ Pickle “Turning Japanese” (the vapors)
Social Distortion “Ring of Fire” (Johnny Cash)
Siouxsie & the Banshees “The Passenger” (Iggy Pop)
Elvis Costello “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” (Beatles)
" " “Please Don’t Let me be Misunderstood” (the Animals)
Anything by Me First & the Gimme Gimmes they are soo funny.
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.
I would like to make this declaration to the world.
There is one man allowed to sing “Yesterday.” That’s Paul McCartney. The origanal Beatles version was so powerful, he sounded so emotional. It is HIS song. Everybody who has sang it since then has BUTCHERED it.
Actually, any Beatles remake is completely out of line and unacceptable.
I could happily shoot Madonna for what she did to American Pie.
I could happily strangle Whitney Houston for her bastardized version of “I Will Always Love You”
The Beatles covered a lot of songs in the early years. Especially since they developed their sound and style in the clubs in Hamberg and Liverpool. Paul McCartney does a kickass impersonation of Little Richard in “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey”. Hell, Paul McCartney kicks ass no matter what he sings. The same with John Lennon.
Man, I’m too young. I don’t even know what half of these songs sound like. But here’s what I know:
The remix of “Getting Better” for the Philips/Magnavox ad campaign, while a good idea in theory, really sucks. Maybe it’s just me, or the fact that it doesn’t sound “right” without the accent.
Somebody (I totally forgot who, I only heard the song on the radio once or twice) made a remix of “99 Luftballoons” that was…well, from what I heard, it was no better or worse than the original.
Somebody (Pearl Jam, IIRC) made a remix of that “Oh where oh where can my baby be” song, that was MUCH better than the original. I heard that version before I heard the original, and when I heard the original, I was like “What the hell!?” The singing was singing about his baby dying, but the tempo was all fast, and he was singing like he expecting people to get up and tap-dance. It sounded like a happy song! That’s totally the wrong approach to it, IMO.
I’ve noticed that the version of the song I hear first (whether the original or the remix) is almost always the version I like best, because it’s what I’m used to. That does explain a lot. In fact, there has only been one song where I have liked the 3nd version of it that I heard better, and that is the theme song for the game “Worms.” I heard the Worms Armageddon techno remix first (and I thought it rocked), then I heard the original song, with a choir of worms singing the song, and I thought it was sooo much better than the remix. That’s the only song that I can say that about, though. Go figure.