# Weird, amusing, offbeat or odd cover songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 10, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907 "2006-11-10T18:51:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/1 "2006-11-10T18:51:02Z")
What are some covers you have that are pretty far removed from the original? Or that have an interesting new take on the song?
I have a bunch but I’ll start off with just a few:
**Veruca Salt** has a pretty funky cover of “ **My Sharona** ” that’s well worth a listen. Favorite part: her laid back “whoaa”.
**Lol Coxhill and Kids** has the weirdest cover ever of “ **I am the Walrus** ”
**Me First and the Gimme Gimmies** …they have a lot, but my favorite is “ **My Boyfriend’s Back** ”
And of course, \*\*Dynamite Hack’\*\*s cover of “ **Boyz in tha Hood** ” can’t be left off of any list like this.
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### Author:  [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/2 "2006-11-10T18:55:43Z")
This is an oldie, but **Devo** ’s cover of _Satisfaction_ was pretty divergent from the original.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/3 "2006-11-10T18:57:28Z")
Cat Power’s cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction.” is bizarre… because I’m pretty sure she never sings the actual chorus just the verses. Its been awhile snce I’ve heard it.
Toris Amos’ cover of Eminem’s “Bonnie Clyde” manages to be even more creepy than the original.
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/4 "2006-11-10T18:59:19Z")
**Sinéad O’Connor** did a cover of Nirvana’s “ **All Apologies** ” that is really pretty…
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/5 "2006-11-10T19:11:43Z")
The Scissor Sisters’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” sounds like The Bee Gees got hold of it. (I love both the original and the remake.)
For an album worth of wild covers, check out the [Detholz!](http://www.detholz.com/) EP, Jukebox of the Dead. I’ve heard their music described as something like “pissed-off Devo meets the soundtrack from _Mars Attacks!_” and that’s a pretty good description. Tracks on this album: “Life After Love” (Cher), “Sussudio” (Phil Collins), “Dancing on the Ceiling” (Lionel Richie), “Hot 4 Teacher” (Van Halen), “Like a Virgin” (Madonna), “Celebration” (Kool and the Gang), “Sultans of Swing” (Dire Straits), “Rock the Casbah” (The Clash).
Each song gets twisted far out of its original sound, tempo, and anything else they can manage to do. “Rock the Casbah” is done as a very mellow, almost gentle song, while “Sultans of Swing” is a standout for the sheer _menace_ that the singer brings out in his interpretation.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/6 "2006-11-10T19:19:23Z")
I’ve always loved the **Stranglers’** take on Bacharach & David’s “Walk on By” (with Dionne Warwick’s face grafted onto Hugh Cornwell’s body on the picture sleeve) done as a punked-out “Light My Fire”-styled rave-up, with the most vicious bass sound ever put on record.
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### Author:  [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/7 "2006-11-10T19:58:31Z")
There was a group that did lots of covers of pop songs that were on the charts in the 70’s and 80’s. Their thing was that they had been trapped in a time machine for a few decades. When they got out, they heard these songs, but they only had 50’s-style techniques and arrangements available.
I don’t remember their name, but they turned out some really wonderfully, but weirdly, done versions of songs like “Welcome to the Jungle,” and “Same As it Ever Was (Once in a Lifetime.)”
They were a staple on Dr. Demento for a while, but, for the life of me, I can’t remember the band’s name. But I’m sure some Doper far smarter than I am will know who these guys are.
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### Author:  [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/8 "2006-11-10T20:02:58Z")
Very early in her career, Barbra Streisand did an unusual cover of the old classic, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Streisand’s version was done in a slow, sardonic manner which suggested that happy days weren’t really here at all.
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### Author:  [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/9 "2006-11-10T20:05:32Z")
I am partial to Richard Cheese’s covers. He does sorta-lounge type covers of songs like Nirvana’s “Rape Me”, Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio”, Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”, and my favorite, the Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday in Cambodia.”
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/10 "2006-11-10T20:14:46Z")
The Minutemen did a 1:45-long cover of Steely Dan’s “Dr Wu” on _Double Nickels on the Dime_.
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/11 "2006-11-10T20:22:10Z")
Neil Sedaka has covered himself.
In the early 60s, he recorded “Breakin’ Up is Hard To Do” in an early 60s style. Poppy and peppy, it had a great beat and you could dance to it, as Dick Clark used to say. Perfect Top 40 AM radio fare.
Then, in the mid-70s, Sedaka covered “Breakin’ Up is Hard To Do” on his _Hungry Years_ album. This time, he made it into a “cocktail piano” song; slow and sultry, reminiscent of small jazz clubs late at night.
Interesting to hear the same song by the same artist, but in two different genres.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/12 "2006-11-10T20:23:33Z")
[QUOTE=Carl Corey]
I am partial to Richard Cheese’s covers. He does sorta-lounge type covers of songs like Nirvana’s “Rape Me”, Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio”, Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up”, and my favorite, the Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday in Cambodia.”
[/QUOTE]
I like his version of Closer. Although I like the censored version he had on his web-page as a preview when Lounge Against The Machine came out better. Replacing ‘fuck’ with a dog bark made it even funnier.
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### Author:  [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/13 "2006-11-10T20:31:56Z")
**Collide** does a pretty funky cover of “White Rabbit” that’s pretty danceable.
**The Candy Skins** did an interesting cover of “For What It’s Worth” that starts out sampling the opening of “Sympathy for the Devil” and keeps the sample running through the whole song.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/14 "2006-11-10T20:50:42Z")
Pat Boone’s In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy has to qualify…
> **[In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Metal_Mood:_No_More_Mr._Nice_Guy)**
>
> In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy is a 1997 album by American singer Pat Boone in which Boone covers hard rock and heavy metal songs in a jazz/big band style. Boone promoted the album by appearing in leather clothing (and, at that year's American Music Awards, wearing a dog collar). He succeeded in propelling Metal Mood onto the Billboard record charts (making it Boone's first hit album in 36 years), but it did not please some of his older, longtime fans who considered the heavy metal genre i...
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/15 "2006-11-10T20:52:13Z")
[QUOTE=Scribble]
There was a group that did lots of covers of pop songs that were on the charts in the 70’s and 80’s. Their thing was that they had been trapped in a time machine for a few decades. When they got out, they heard these songs, but they only had 50’s-style techniques and arrangements available.
I don’t remember their name, but they turned out some really wonderfully, but weirdly, done versions of songs like “Welcome to the Jungle,” and “Same As it Ever Was (Once in a Lifetime.)”
[/QUOTE]
**Big Daddy**
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### Author:  [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/16 "2006-11-10T20:59:37Z")
There was a band in the mid-80’s, The Coolies, that covered a bunch of Simon & Garfunkel songs, plus a mash-up of Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby” with another song (Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wide Side”?)
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/17 "2006-11-10T21:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
What are some covers you have that are pretty far removed from the original? /QUOTE]
Two words
**William Shatner** 🆒
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### Author:  [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/18 "2006-11-10T21:05:41Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
**Lol Coxhill and Kids** has the weirdest cover ever of “ **I am the Walrus** ”
[/QUOTE]
**Joe Pop ‘O’ Pie** also does a pretty off-beat cover of **I am the Walrus**
\*\*Laibach’s \*\* Beatle covers also deserve a mention.
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### Author:  [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/19 "2006-11-10T21:54:13Z")
The Gourds covering Gin n’ Juice is amongst my favourite covers of all time.
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### Author:  [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-amusing-offbeat-or-odd-cover-songs/379907/20 "2006-11-10T22:08:10Z")
Any discussion of weird covers has to include Dread Zeppelin; a reggae band doing covers of Led Zeppelin songs. Oh yeah, their lead singer is an Elvis impersonator…
Then there is Hayseed Dixie, who does bluegrass covers of AC/DC songs.
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