I think we’ve had a thread or two like this in the past but a lot of us are home bored and have some time so let’s do it again.
Looking for covers of songs that really do it for you. I love to find obscure but great cover songs. Here’s a few of my faves.
Here’s a really unique version of a couple of Beatle songs (medley).
Science Fiction Double Feature
Another Beatle song: Dig A Pony
And finally, this trio that I really like. Some Zep, baby! Lemon…
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Lady Willpower, by Morrissey
Gosh, I admire the guy just for covering a song that I thought was terminally uncool - and doing an exceptional job of it.
“Great” is so subjective, but I like this one of late. A bit of a change from the source material. Little Martha, by Holly Bowling
And if there’s anyone unfamiliar with the original, here’s the Allman Bros version.
Here’s Chuck Prophet playing You Make My Dreams Come True, on Live at Daryl’s House (Daryl Hall). Chuck’s fairly new to me, and I posted about him here. Really like his work, and it’s hard for me to find new (to me) artists I like these days.
And here’s the original Hall & Oates version, though I’d be surprised if it were actually needed.
Vonda Shepard, It’s In His Kiss, courtesy of the Ally McBeal show, apparently. (I didn’t watch it but I like the sound)
Tracey Ullman doing a decent(and rare) cover of Reunion’s “Life Is A Rock(But The Radio Rolled Me)”.
OK I too have never heard anyone try to cover that. Impressed.
Pretty sure that whole album is covers.
Some great R&B covers of non-R&B songs:
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s version of “You’ve Got A Friend”. Lost the cover race to James Taylor besides being a hundred times better.
You’d never expects Seals and Crofts in the same sentence as “sexy” and “hard-rocking”, but the Isley Brothers did.
And in the category of covers that totally change the meaning of the song, Candi Staton’s swaggering cover of “Stand By Your Man(!)”
More R&B covers of non-R&B songs.
Two by Al Green: “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” and “For the Good Times”.
And for something completely different: bluegrass meets hair metal. The Meat Purveyors cover Ratt’s “Round and Round”.
The most outstanding example for me personally is by Yes.
Yes’s rock-‘n’-roll cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America.”
During the introduction Chris Squire plays Leonard Bernstein’s “America” as counterpoint in the 6/8=3/4 tresillo rhythm for four bars. At least half of the track is a rockabilly jam between twin lead guitarists Steve Howe and Delaney Bramlett.
Wasn’t Whitney Houston’s cover of “I will always love you” not a cover of Dolly’s version but actually a cover of the version done by Linda Ronstadt?
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I could listen to this tune over and over:
[JD Souther - New Kid in Town](jd souther new kid in town)
mmm
Streetheart did a cover of “Under My Thumb” that was far superior to the Stones" original. Live version here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJpzB0DEFeY starts at 19:30.
Luther Wright and The Wrongs - Rebuild the Wall – a surprisingly great bluegrass version of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”. Used to be played at concerts over the loudspeaker before TAPFS or Brit Floyd came onstage. Various songs all over YouTube.
“Stay the blazes home” - Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova Scotia
This probably shouldn’t count, but Cheap Trick (and guests) did a killer live cover of the entire Sgt. Pepper album and released it as a video. The reason that it probably shouldn’t count is that it was an almost perfect, note-for-note performance…probably the next best thing to seeing the Fab Four perform it. But they get props for doing a “studio album” live and doing it so well.
Last time we had a thread like this I posted In My Life covered by Johnny Cash. And you know what? I’m going to do it again. As I said last time, put simply, he just makes the song his own.
I can’t remember if I also posted some of these: there is a long pop reggae tradition of covers, some of which are absolute gems. I give you Neil Diamond’s** Red Red Wine**, made a wonder of the art by Tony Tribe*; and David Gates’ Everything I Own rendered marvelous by Ken Boothe.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t bang on about John Cale last time, but I will now. He has an unusual style of covering songs - slowing them down to bring out a new intensity that you didn’t realise they had. I give you Heartbreak Hotel; and expecially Streets Of Laredo. Odd.
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While checking out some of the songs mentioned, I came across this performanceof The Weight, which features musicians participating from a dozen countries around the world. The singing and playing are very fine, and the mixing and production are even more impressive.
Robbie Robertson does play on the song, but he’s not leading things, so I’d call it a cover. Ringo is the other featured celebrity.