I’m afraid I can’t understand the reaction to Smashmouth’s cover of I’m a Believer. The first time I heard it, I was hoping to hear Eddie Murphy finish it up. It’s a dumb pop song, but not criminally actionable compared to . . .
Johnny Cash’s version of One. Yes, I love JC, and I love U2, but like vinegar and gasoline, these two taste treats do not go together. I identify the song so much with Bono, that when I heard JC start in with all that heavy emphasis, (“Did I disappoint you? / Or leave a bad taste in your mouth”) I started laughing out loud.
JC has a beautiful voice, but it belongs singing a melody, not the broken phrases in “One.”
And I had forgotten the Sgt. Pepper Soundtrack Album and can even offer one that, while it can’t match it for sheer volume and nerve, meets it for weirdness. It was the soundtrack for All This and World War II, in which you get to hear the stars sing Beatle hits, while World War II newsreel footage plays up on the Silver Screen.
Some of them were pretty good. Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons covered Day in the Life, going into the falsetto during the dream sequence; Tina Turner was hot on Come Together; Elton’s here with Lucy in the Sky; and there were a host of Brit stars, now forgotten.
But the absolute pits was reached on When I’m 64 by Keith Moon, who croons like a racoon being slowly skinned.
Runner up:
Faith Hill’s cover of ** Piece of my heart** My dad said in an interview she claimed not to have ever heard Joplin’s version. I fully believe that.
Winner:
Tori Amos’ cover of ** Smells Like Teen Spirit.** I love her, but damn!
Is that the lounge-singer version of “Black Hole Sun”? If so, I agree that it was great. I also heard a lounge version of “American Woman” that I think it by the same act.
Are you serious? That song is awesome! ICP’s version is even better than the original, IMHO.
I just realized that both of my posts in this thread are pointless hijacks defending songs that I like. Oh well.
Here’s a kind of crappy cover: “Shout” by Disturbed. It’s that “Shout, shout, let it all out. These are the things I can do without. Come on, I’m talking to you…” Actually, they titled it “Shout 2000” which is what makes it crappy. Otherwise I kind of like it. That’s how I feel about all of Disturbed’s songs - they’re pretty crappy, but I like them anyway. Odd.
The Bloodhound Gang, my favorite band of all time, has a cover of “Tricky” on One Fierce Beer Coaster. It’s pretty bad.
MTV2 played a bunch of covers last night. Some crappy ones were “Sweet Dreams” by Manson and “Blue Monday” by Orgy. Ugh.
HORRIBLE… I would rather hear Michael Jackson singing this… Hell, Hanson, N`Sync, BSB, 98 Degrees covering this song would all seem better than the orginal when compared to Tori’s god-awful-ear-killing death song…
I was very distressed to hear Hanson perform one of my all-time favorite songs, the Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Loving” on a re-run of ‘Motown (yes Motown) Live’ the other night. Please please PLEASE someone tell me that Hanson has NOT actually recorded a cover of this song. I swear, if you tell me otherwise I will shoot the messenger!
It’s funny you would mention that one. I’ve heard from a number of sources that Jagger LOVED Devo’s version. He made some quote to the effect of “That’s how we should’ve done it in the first place”.
I third it. There is no way anyone could do a cover of the Rolling Stones and truly do justice to the song. Especially if you’re Britney Spears. I also don’t like “Lady Marmalade”. The orignal was ok, but the Mya/Lil Kim/Pink/ Christina Aguilera version really, really sucks.
I heard that wretched cover the other day, and i have to ask, “Does she even know who Janis Joplin is? Has she listened to any of Janis’s songs AT ALL?”
Haven’t read the whole thread, so forgive me if I’m redundant.
The Neville Brothers’ version of Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire is like being raped in the ear.
Michael Jackson’s cover of Come Together is really, really bad… …but it’s so bad I keep a copy of it around to perplex people with from time to time, so I guess it’s good, in an obscure sort of way.
I don’t know if it can be called a cover, exactly, but the Doors’ version of Kurt Weil’s Alabama Song from Threepenny Opera (“Show us the way to the next whiskey bar, etc…”) is the worst recording of it. One positive result of this abortion is that it might possibly supply a source of cheap energy: I propose wrapping ol’ Kurt’s coffin in copper wire, and putting magnets in the pockets of the suit he was buried in.
There seems to me to be a common theme here. I think it is something along these lines:
The idea of a cover song is for a sincere tribute from one band/artist to another. Covering a song of a band/artist that one would cite as an influence (esp. during live performance - the ideal time for a cover song) seems like a perfectly natural thing to do.
However, what all of the songs list seems to share (and I agree with every one listed exept the Foo Fighters doing Baker Street) is that they seem to be very calculated moves in order to further define the group/artist doing the cover. This is perhaps why they each fail so badly. If the cover isn’t an honest homage so to speak, then it will inevitably come off sounding like something a band manager put together.
Can’t you just see Ricky Martin’s label telling him that his image would really be bolstered by a Rick James cover song or something like that. In the case of Motley Crue, doesn’t a band that corporate just sound silly singing about Anarchy. What purpose would anarchy do them, I mean, most likely, what they really need is a good tax accountant.
I’ll start with the worst cover: When I was at UW-Madison, I heard a local ska bad (Little Blue Crunchy Things?) do a ska-ified version of “Freebird”.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to mention a few covers that were much better than I had any right to expect:
Ozzy Osborn covering “Staying Alive”
The Butthole Surfers doing “American Woman” (I felt that they did a much better job of putting forth the message in the original song, “I don’t need your war machines, I don’t need your war machines, I don’t need your WAR WAR WAR WAR Woman! I said ** STAY AWAY **!” Although the song itself is kinda grating.)
Nothing can outdo the Sgt. Pepper soundtrack for overall awfulness (ouch, the Bee Gee’s falsetto version of Oh! Darling just crept back into my brain!!). However, Fiona Apple’s droning Across the Universe comes real close.
My second place nomination for overall bad cover album… Duran Duran’s Thank You
A common interview question for Ray Davies is “so many bands have covered Kinks songs. Do you have a favorite?” He usually cites Van Halen’s version of You Really Got Me. This was his answer even when he was banging Chrissie Hynde and you’d expect Stop Your Sobbing to be his response.