On a related note, can anyone tell me who is doing the hideous recent cover version of Crowded House’s sublime “Don’t Dream it’s Over”? It is a woman singing it, and I can’t quite place the voice. Anyway, I hate the new version. Totally unneccessary, IMHO.
Laughing Lagamorph, that’s Sixpence None The Richer.
I don’t know if I am getting the big whoosh here or not, but you people do realize that several of the songs you’ve mentioned are remakes and not by the original artists, right?
It’s Sixpence None The Richer.
I love John Waite’s “Missing You”. I don’t know what Tina Turner was trying to do with it, but she failed miserably.
Thanks to LifeOnWry and bowler girl for eliminating my ignorance. Yes, I am familiar with the band, I just couldn’t quite place it.
couple of things…
has no one pointed out that ‘59th street bridge song(feeling groovy)’ is a simon and garfunkel song? even if it was made famous by harper’s bazaar… but i think we all agree that the new version is crap…
apos: the r&b singer who butchered ‘32 flavors’ is named alana davis, and she doth both suck and blow.
but i think the worst offender of butchering a song i love is natalie imbruglia. yeah, she was hot but little else. see, there was once this band called ednaswap, who very few people have ever heard of. so i saw them open for better than ezra in dc in like 1997. i liked them, and picked up their ep, which happened to have a really specatular, dark, sad, angry song on it called torn. two, three years later, i turned on vh1 or mtv or something and saw the aforementioned talentless hottie turn this wonderful wonderful song into another crap, shiny, pop song.
another bad one is “all by myself.” originally by eric carmen, later destroyed by celine “i’m french canadian, isn’t that weird?” dion
Hmph. I daresay it was a Simon and Garfunkel song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel. In my estimation, mind you.
i was born in 1980, and i’d never even heard of harper’s bazaar until this thread, so regardless of my undying love for simon and garfunkel or owning all of their albums, it still doesn’t change the fact that i wasn’t born when they were famous, so i don’t know who made their songs famous, i just know that they’re amazing…
and, let me take this moment to apologize to everyone on the list who i just made feel really old for that last post:)
This whole thread makes me feel old. Reminds me of when my younger sister asked, in all seriousness, “Was Julian Lennon’s dad someone famous?”
I left in your comment about Bruce Robison because perhaps ironically, hisbrother Charlie is married to Emily from… the Dixie Chicks. I’ve always thought that Bruce, Kelly, Charlie and Emily would be a helluva country version of the Mamas and the Papas. 
Anyway, the Dixie Chicks cover of Landslide has a few different mixes out there, depending on the target audience. There’s the country mix, the pop mix and the pop mix that was done by Sheryl Crow for the young pop MTV audience. In that order, they decline in quality both musically and vocally, especially vocally. Their live renditions of the song (like all of their songs) Is markedly better.
Celine Dion is the queen of crap covers, the first was her wretched destruction of Patti LaBelle’s “If You Ask Me To” which was, AFAIC, a capital crime for which the staunchest penalty should be applied.
Buffet does several other covers (usually in his live shows) - “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Mexico” come to mind – and he does a very good cover of “Southern Cross” – even though The Harmony isn’t there.
When The Sundays were (well, relatively anyway) huge in England, Harriet Wheeler joked that someone was going to try to come along and do a dance version of one of their songs. Obviously the “brains” behind Tin Tin Out were listening, and horribly butchered their great single “Here’s Where the Story Ends.” It’s as bad as any “serious” cover song on this list.
Rod the Prettyboy Stewart should never have been allowed to sing any of Bob Dylan’s songs. Rod the Prettyboy is exactly the opposite of Dylan. Dylan is about as real as it gets, Rod the Prettyboy is nothing but a plastic, superficial prettyboy.
Also, I think some lameass heavy metal band (Guns and Roses???) did a cover of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. Once again, there are some people who just should not be allowed to even think about covering a Bob Dylan song. Some people are JUST NOT WORTHY!!!
Thanks, kefka, I just ordered their CD. I’ve always thought that Torn could have been a great song, but I can’t stand N.I. I think I’ll enjoy their version.
To be fair, it wasn’t really Alice in Chains. It was AiC’s Layne Staley, RATM’s Tom Morello, Stephen Perkins, Martyn Le Noble and Matt Serletic, and it was on the soundtrack to the pile of crap that was “The Faculty.”
When did he? Which songs?
(IMHO, Rod the Prettyboy should not be allowed to sing, full stop.)
Quite a few people have covered Landslide. I like the Smashing Pumpkins’ version, but didn’t care for the Dixie Chicks’.
And seeing Johnny Cash’s version of Rusty Cage on MTV was just plain WEIRD.
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but when a band covers a song I love, I’m usually interested. Here are just a few songs that I love in the original incarnation and love covers of as well:
Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” and Johnny Winter’s cover of “Highway 61 Revisited.” (Bob Dylan)
Wilson Picket’s cover of “Hey Jude.” (Beatles)
The Animals’ cover of “River Deep Mountain High.” (Ike and Tina Turner)
Jeff Beck’s cover of “Superstition.” (Stevie Wonder)
“R.E.M.’s cover of “Love is All Around.” (The Troggs)
Steve Earle’s cover of “I’m Looking Through You” by the Beatles, and more recently, Earle and Sheryl Crow covering the Chambers Brothers classic “Time Has Come Today.”
Van Halen’s cover of “You Really Got Me.” (The Kinks)
Quicksilver Messenger Service’s covers of “Who Do You Love” and “Mona.” (Bo Diddly)
If I really put my mind to it, I could probably think of a dozen or so more.
i agree totally… there are some covers that are absolutely amazing, such as
agents of good roots’ cover of “sultans of swing” (dire straits)
the lemonheads’ cover of “mrs. robinson” (simon and garfunkel)
mike doughty’s(of soul coughing fame) cover of “real love” (mary j. blige(is there a ‘d’ in there somewhere?))
eddie vedder’s cover of “you’ve got to hide your love away” (the beatles)
but i guess the thread’s point is that there is no excuse for aaron carter singing “i want candy” :smack: