I’ll see you and raise you Max Raabe and the Palast-Orchester. Imagine Britney with the voice of an effeminate German nightclub comic backed by a 1920s dance band…ah hell, don’t bother imagining, just play it.
The Roxanne tango from the movie Moulin Rouge.
Far from the only one, I was going to nominate this.
I’ll go with Tom Waits’ cover of Heigh Ho. There’s a file player at the end of that article.
Yeah I like it too. I was introduced to it a couple of years ago in a different SDMB thread and thought it was both hilarious and pleasantly nifty. I’m a massive Pink Floyd fan, but I don’t find stuff like this to be sacrilegious the way some people do.
Surely Lyle Lovett’s “Stand By Your Man” has to qualify here.
I also enjoy John Mayer’s cover of “Free Fallin.'”
Alanis Morrisette’s overwrought, angsty, scenery-chewing ballad version of ‘Lady Humps’ made my appreciation for her sence of humor go through the roof.
I never did like Black Hole Sun, and I HATE it when I’m playing Rock Band. Too slow and if they say “won’t you coooooome” one more time I’ll go nuts.
Now speaking of Soundgarden covers, I like Johnny Cash’s cover of “Rusty Cage”.
I have mentioned this before: New Grass Revival’s bluegrass version of Marvin Gaye’s Ain’t That Peculiar. It really cooks.
It’s a great disc, but that one song (half of one song, actually) is amazing. A great cover can mix a song, musician, and style and add up to more than the sum of the parts. Taking the original, big-band-ish theme from Jonny Quest and redoing it as scorched-earth rockabilly guitar was fuckin’ brilliant.
And Liz Phair can sing “Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snork” and make it sound sexy.
Richard Cheese has been doing intersting cover versions of songs for years. For example, Baby Got Back".
There is also the Cardigans version of Iron Man
I had the Cardigans version on tape many years ago and have, of late, had a huge desire to hear it again. It didn’t even occur to me to check on YouTube. Thanks!
Too lazy to provide links:
The Austin Lounge Lizards have an awesome bluegrass version of “Dark Side of the Moon” (I know that’s not the actual name of the song, but it’s the song that includes that phrase).
Frank Zappa’s last touring band in 1984 did an awesome Beatles medley with lyrics rewritten to salute the sexual escapades of various televangelists who had been in the news at the time, and also an “I Am the Walrus” with the original lyrics. They also did an awesome “Stairway to Heaven”, with the horn section covering the original guitar solo note for note. I don’t think any of that is available on legal releases, sadly.
I’ll second both Nina Gordon and the Gourds.
I’ll add this – Petra Haden does an a capella version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” that I find immensely moving, for reasons that I can’t put my finger on.
I like Cake’s cover of “I Will Survive.”
Live version starts about 4:00 in.
That’s an interesting version, but I think I like Jonathan Coultan’s version a little better.
That is very cool. It also led me to this version
I love both versions of this song, but the original makes me cry.
My absolute favorite non-traditional cover is The Weight done by Tok Tok Tok.
The Weight by Tok Tok Tok.
It is about as far away from the original version by The Band as one could get.
That one made me laugh.