Oh, man. That is a great one. Wish I’d thought of it!
You’re right – I misread the tags on my own mp3. Sheesh.
It’s a hoax, but a pretty convincing one. I first saw it on a blog a year or so ago, and they listed the personnel who made it (including the vocalist, whose name I should have written down - it’s a pretty uncanny similarity). But I was also familiar with most of Louis Armstrong’s work, and I figured if he recorded something that was covered by Britney Spears way more people would have known about it.
Lazlo Bane does a pretty good Overkill by Men At Work. Collin Hay even makes an appearance.
Dirty Vegas tacked on a good version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall at the end of one of their songs.
When I accquired the CD I started a thread about how this song rocks, so count me as another fan. I thought it was funny though that I loaned the CD to a guy at work, he burnt it all on to his iRiver and then told me that he hated listening to it through earbuds because it seemed like Shatner was trying to seduce him, whispering in his ear. I tried it through headphones and could see what he meant.
Other great covers:
One by Johnny Cash
Caravan Of Love by The Housemartins
and the younger Buckley’s Hallelujah.
A couple of my favorites seem to be ironic at first blush but then their sincerity turns out to be quite moving:
“I Will Survive” by Cake
and
“Like A Prayer” by John Wesley Harding
The Sisters of Mercy did stellar covers of Abba’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and Hot Chocolate’s “Emma”.
I really like This Mortal Coil’s take on Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” - a song Liz Fraser was born to sing, I think.
The Lemonheads did a great version of “Mrs Robinson”, and I’ve a soft spot for Big Black’s “The Model”.
Just remembered…
Jeff Buckley’s cover of Lilac Wine and Hallelujah
That was on the Hindu Love Gods project, with the non-lead singing memebers of REM. That’s why you probably won’t find it in the Zevon section of the store.
But for a really excellent Zevon cover, how about his “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”, the Dylan tune? Made even more poignant because he recorded when he knew he was dying from cancer a coupla years back.
I love Moby’s version of New Order’s Temptation.
y’welcome 
tacked on a whole album? at the end of which song?
There also was a bluegrass cover version of The Wall album recorded by Luther Wright and The Wrongs. Some may consider it to be ‘strangely good.’ The song “Comfortably Numb” begins with the lyric ‘Howdy…hey’ rather than the echoing ‘Hello…hello…hello’ in the original.
That was the first one I thought of. It’s so good that if I were Trent Reznor, I would just retire in shame.
Yo La Tengo has an entire album of covers (Fakebook) that’s just the most endearingly wonderful album ever.
Nick Cave’s Kicking Against the Pricks is also all covers. They do a pretty good version of the Velvet Underground’s All Tomorrow’s Parties.
Then there’s this weirdo semi-americana band called Young People who cover Night of the Hunter (which I believe was the theme song to the film of the same name).
Sleater-Kinney used to cover Rock Lobster in concert, and in the most perfect pairing ever, covered Angry Inch (from Hedwig) with Fred Schneider.
Cat Power’s version of the Rolling Stone’s Satisfaction is 180 degrees from the original, but oh so beautiful.
And, of course, Nirvana’s cover of Where Did You Sleep Last Night.
The Smashing Pumpkins did a wicked version of the Animal’s Girl Named Sandoz.
Galaxie 500 did a number of great covers, but their best is probably Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste, by Jonathan Richman.
The Flaming Lips also did a version of Bowie’s Life On Mars that I like better than the original.
Something else I just thought of: There’s a live recording of Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service covering Avril Levigne’s “Complicated” on an acoustic guitar that I find absolutely hilarious. People in the audience are laughing, and Ben says something like, “Shut up, this is serious!” and it cracks me up every time.
Some reggae band did a really nice cover of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, the tune and phrasing lends itself to reggae very well. No idea who it was though.
How could I forget the cover of the Barenaked Ladies’ “Brian Wilson” by none other than Brian Wilson (backed by The Wondermints) himself. It’s only a minute long, but definitely up there on the list of best covers ever.
I almost forgot: Frank Zappa’s cover version of John Cage’s ‘4’ 33"’ is strangely good if it is indeed good.
I cannot find any evidence that The Postal Service covered “Complicated.” Where did you hear it? What album, if any, or other collection of songs do I need to purchase to hear it? I wanna hear, too but I could not find it in their discography.
Oh wait, nevermind Mirror Image egamI rorriM :smack: You said it was Ben Gibbard who covered ‘Complicated’ rather than The Postal Service.
The Indigo Girls do a good cover of this on Deadicated, a whole album of Dead covers. I don’t know that it’s better than the original, but it is very good.
Fron that same album, Lyle Lovett covered Friend of the Devil, and I like it much better than the original. He slows it way down, and gives it that sad, mournful Lyle Lovett sound. I think it suits the lyrics better than the up-tempo Dead version.
No offense, but I can’t understand why you’d feel this way. The original is a masterpiece. The way it builds up over the first four measures, first with just the guitar, then with the second guitar, then with Phil Lesh’s trademark bouncy bass playing up in the high register, and then the first verse (still without the drums.) Then when the drums come in with the second verse, the song is a rolling, raucous jam already.
I heard the Counting Crows cover of this song, which was also slowed down a lot, and I thought it was shitty, horrible and ridiculous. I realize that Lyle Lovett is widely recognized as being a few notches above the Counting Crows, but I can’t picture this song being better than it already was.
Lords of Acid’s version of “Lady Marmalade” kicks much ass…
Camper van Beethoven, “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”
Anything by either Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Richard Cheese (especially “Down with the Sickness”)
Rob Zombie, “Brick House” from the House of 10,000 Corpses soundtrack–laugh incredulously if you will, but it is FINE!
The Cramps, “96 Tears.”
Type O Negative doing Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” isn’t bad.