# What an awful cover version
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 21, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502 "2006-07-21T16:46:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/1 "2006-07-21T16:46:01Z")
I’m not very hip on the comings and goings of the current pop/rock/R&B scene. However, I recently saw a Mary J. Blige video featuring U2. She did the single worst cover of the U2 song One I have ever seen. I can’t imagine it being worst. It was just awful. Why U2 were involved I don’t know but between Bono’s posing and her caterwauling it was just too much.
So, with that in mid can any of you dopers give me examples of the worst cover ever? Worse than the aforementioned piece of shite?
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/2 "2006-07-21T16:49:27Z")
> [@Lochdale](#):
>
> So, with that in mid can any of you dopers give me examples of the worst cover ever? Worse than the aforementioned piece of shite?
David Lee Roth covering himself:
> **[News | VH1](https://www.vh1.com/news)**
- Tamerlane
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/3 "2006-07-21T17:15:28Z")
I caught a little of that Mary J. Blige video as I was flipping through the other day. I agree, it sucks big time.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/4 "2006-07-21T17:18:15Z")
The Atari’s cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer.” Almost no difference, aside from changing of “Dead Head sticker” to “Black Flag sticker.” The point of a cover is to add your own musical interpretation, not just do the exact same thing. If I want the same thing, I’ll listen to the original.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/5 "2006-07-21T17:23:31Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> The Atari’s cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer.” Almost no difference, aside from changing of “Dead Head sticker” to “Black Flag sticker.” The point of a cover is to add your own musical interpretation, not just do the exact same thing. If I want the same thing, I’ll listen to the original.
At least there’s some semblance of emotion in Henley’s voice–you actually believe he feels the things he’s saying. Atari’s might as well have been done by a video game since it’s just as devoid of feeling.
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### Author:  [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/6 "2006-07-21T17:23:53Z")
Sinead O’connor’s a cappella version of Bob Marley’s _War_. That was the one she sang right before she ripped up the Pope’s picture, remember?
As for David Lee Roth’s covering himself: good idea!
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/7 "2006-07-21T17:30:21Z")
> [@Lochdale](#):
>
> I’m not very hip on the comings and goings of the current pop/rock/R&B scene. However, I recently saw a Mary J. Blige video featuring U2. She did the single worst cover of the U2 song One I have ever seen. I can’t imagine it being worst. It was just awful. Why U2 were involved I don’t know but between Bono’s posing and her caterwauling it was just too much.
>
> So, with that in mid can any of you dopers give me examples of the worst cover ever? Worse than the aforementioned piece of shite?
I just have to say that I am so with you on this. I haven’t seen the video or (thankfully) heard it on the radio, but I saw the performance on some award show and I was beyond pissed. I’m not a huge U2 fan, but that is a great song and that beotch absolutely butchered it. I’m all for reinterpreting / putting your own spin when covering a song but jeez, it was unrecognizable and unlistenable.
Nowhere near the shear badness, but one I’m not too fond of is Smashmouth’s cover of the Monkee’s “I’m a Believer”.
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### Author:  [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/8 "2006-07-21T17:33:06Z")
T.O.C.'s cover of _Smoke on the Water_
Just horrible.
[CD Universe Sample Clip](http://mfile3.akamai.com/14123/wm2/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/_!/532/520532_1_10.asx?auth=daEdXa5atcNa.aKbxaXdJbPaedFdDcldrbe-beWq9p-Ci-jdhbl&aifp=1234&obj=v40824)
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### Author:  [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/9 "2006-07-21T17:38:04Z")
Ooh, I can’t stand that Atari cover of Don Henley either. It really rips away any sense of relevance the original might have had.
I nominate Kid Rock’s cover of “Feel Like Making Love” by Bad Company. A special circle of hell should be created for people who create cover versions that have the exact same opening as the originals. When I hear the opening notes of the tune on the radio, I always foolishly get my hopes up that perhaps, this time, I won’t hear the hack job remake. It hasn’t happened yet. ☹
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/10 "2006-07-21T17:59:37Z")
All these posts and noone has mentioned Madonna’s defiling of American Pie?
I suppose you all opted for the post-cover partial lobotomy. Wise choice.
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### Author:  [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/11 "2006-07-21T18:29:06Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#):
>
> Nowhere near the shear badness, but one I’m not too fond of is Smashmouth’s cover of the Monkee’s “I’m a Believer”.
Agreed! It lacks the 60’s bubblegum charm of the original.
I heard a cover of Losing My Religion by a band called Graveworm. They metaled it up and changed some of the lyrics to “I thought that I heard you crying/ I thought that I heard you scream/ I think I thought I saw you DIE!”
At the time I thought it was the worst cover ever, but now I’m thinking maybe it was supposed to be funny.
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### Author:  [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/12 "2006-07-21T18:56:11Z")
I thought I heard “Frankenstein” on the radio the other day, and was singing along with the guitar solo when my version and the version on the radio diverged suddenly…there was this twiddly bit that spoiled the flow of the song and didn’t fit in at all. Up until then it was note-for-note and close enough I didn’t realize it was a cover. I don’t know who did the cover, though.
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### Author:  [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/13 "2006-07-21T19:01:47Z")
Obviously, none of you has been subjected to **Scissor Sisters** ’ cover of Comfortably Numb.
I think I win the thread.
Mayo
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### Author:  [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/14 "2006-07-21T19:27:10Z")
> [@Blanche](#):
>
> I thought I heard “Frankenstein” on the radio the other day, and was singing along with the guitar solo when my version and the version on the radio diverged suddenly…there was this twiddly bit that spoiled the flow of the song and didn’t fit in at all. Up until then it was note-for-note and close enough I didn’t realize it was a cover. I don’t know who did the cover, though.
Was that a cover or was that one of those heinous remixes that was done when the album was converted to digital? _Children of the Sun_ was “jazzed up” for its CD release, and they ruined it, IMO. I wouldn’t be suprised if that’s what happened with the Edgar Winter piece, too.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/15 "2006-07-21T19:41:18Z")
Rosebud did a disco version of Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar.” Bad enough in concept, of course, but what made it even worse was that they removed all the irony from the song. They were going to really make you a big star!! :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@scott62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott62)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/16 "2006-07-21T19:52:49Z")
Mary J Blige should be shot for that cover. I’m not a big U2 fan but “One” is one of their better songs. To listen to her caterwauling for 3 and 1/2 minutes, trying to outwail Christina Aguilera on \ of her ridiculous offerings was just painful.
I would also like to nominate the following link - Smells Like Teen Spirit
[http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ABIGAIL-Smells-Like-Teen-Spirit-12-Klone-HiNRG-GAY\_W0QQitemZ270007268468QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64871QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem](http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ABIGAIL-Smells-Like-Teen-Spirit-12-Klone-HiNRG-GAY_W0QQitemZ270007268468QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64871QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Should never have been allowed
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### Author:  [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/17 "2006-07-21T20:07:00Z")
> [@mrklutz](#):
>
> Was that a cover or was that one of those heinous remixes that was done when the album was converted to digital? _Children of the Sun_ was “jazzed up” for its CD release, and they ruined it, IMO. I wouldn’t be suprised if that’s what happened with the Edgar Winter piece, too.
The guitar during the added part didn’t sound like it was from that era - it was a tight thin scooped out tone, sounded like metal lead guitar from the late 80s or later, ala Kirk Hammett or some Steve Vai.
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### Author:  [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/18 "2006-07-21T20:23:40Z")
I heard a cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall(part 2) last summer – I think it was by Limp Bizkit. Good God, but they desecrated that song.
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/19 "2006-07-21T20:45:47Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> The Atari’s cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer.” Almost no difference, aside from changing of “Dead Head sticker” to “Black Flag sticker.” The point of a cover is to add your own musical interpretation, not just do the exact same thing. If I want the same thing, I’ll listen to the original.
If you thought that was the same, check out India.Arie’s version of his “Heart of the Matter”. It’s just been cloned like a gremlin.
As for horrible, I’ve gotta throw out the Residents’ “The King & Eye” complete album of Elvis covers. Yikes, that was bad.
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### Author:  [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-an-awful-cover-version/365502/20 "2006-07-21T20:46:32Z")
> [@Mayo Speaks!](#):
>
> Obviously, none of you has been subjected to **Scissor Sisters** ’ cover of Comfortably Numb.
>
> I think I win the thread.
>
> Mayo
You crushed the opposition, I’m afraid, _and_ you beat me to it. You bastard.
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