Duran Duran covered 911 is a Joke
That was a bad choice.
I think the most recent one that made my day, was when I saw Sebastian Bach doing a tight cover of “Hollaback Girl” on “Gilmore Girls”. It definitely made me think about what songs cover bands are forced to perform in order to make a buck.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a california punk cover band.
My personal favorite of theirs is Natural Woman.
Shonen Knife covered the Carpenters’ I’m On Top of the World.
And it ROCKED!
That’s from a CD made entirely of Carpenter songs covered by other artists. There’s more than one gem on there. Some stinkers too.
I went looking on the web for “Wall of Death” by Richard and Linda Thompson, and found a version by REM. Pretty cool, but Linda’s unusual harmony makes the original. REM also covered a few Velvet Underground tunes and Roger Miller’s King of the Road, but everyone probably already knows that.
Jimmy Eat World did a slow, lazy, mellow cover of Prodigy’s Firestarter. I heard it a week or so ago, and didn’t recognize the song until it was nearly over.
One of the oddest covers I’ve heard was Joan Jett’s version of “Little Drummer Boy.” Schmaltzy Christmas ballads just aren’t Joan’s forte.
Great site, phungi, thanks!
Now, has anyone heard a cover of Patsy Cline’s Walking After Midnight? I would love to hear someone else’s version of it.
R.E.M. also did a pretty sweet cover of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider.”
Bryan Adams did it, but I don’t like Bryan Adams, and I didn’t like his version of the song. YMMV.
I became a fan of the Indo-European pop singer Anggun a few years ago, and was quite surprised to hear her (kick-ass) cover of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars.”
I was also both surprised and pleased by Cowboy Mouth’s cover of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
Last, but not least, I’m quite fond of my version of Shawn Colvin’s “Sunny Came Home.” 
That cover is the reason I bought the Cars soundtrack. 
That was on the CD “Beat The Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson”, all of which were RT covers by other artists.
And speaking of RT, how about his awesome cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again”.
Growing up pretty much all I listened to was country music. BIG Hank Williams, Jr. fan. I had many of his albums and on one (High Notes, I think) he sang a song called Norwegian Wood. I had never heard of it before and I thought it was a little off the style I was used to for ole Bocephus.
It was *years * later when I realized it was a Beatles song. I was surpised to find that out becasue Hank was well-known for writing most of his own stuff (or covering his dad’s songs). Why he chose to cover Norwegian Wood is beyond me, but I guess that’s why they call it album filler.
Garth Brooks I beleive also covered it.
And on the Gnarls Barkley album, they cover the Violent Femmes song “Gone Daddy Gone.”
Had to get that album after seeing them perform “Crazy” (not the Patsy Cline one) while dressed up as Star Wars characters on the MTV Movie Awards.
My nominations for this thread are “Smells Like Teen Spirit” performed by Tori Amos, and the Soundgarden song “Rusty Cage” performed by Johnny Cash.
Wow, that is really weird. I see my post was basically already posted…by someone else!
I have nothing to add to the thread, but I have to thank you for this link. I’m downloading both their albums as I type this!
I thought it was a little odd when Death Cab for Cutie covered “Earth Angel”.
I heard RT’s cover of “Oops” on the radio (public radio interview) and thought it was a good song.
Also on my list:
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David Bowie and Bing Crosby: “Little Drummer Boy.” This was early in Bowie’s career, and he looked cadaverous next to Der Bingle.
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Keith Moon: “When I’m 64” From the soundtrack to “All This and World War II”. He sings like you’d expect a drummer to sing. Being dead could only help his singing voice.
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Johnny Cash covered a number of questionable songs. I’m split on U2’s “One,” but “Bridge Over Troubled waters” should have stayed in the can.
But it could have been worse: