Favorite Covers

[ClaireTalon]

I'm generally a fan of the minimalist covers. For example, the cover of the Dire Straits concert copy "On The Night". It just shows an illuminated satellite dish, upturned, and the title. Or the Steppenwolf "At your birthday party" cover, with the ink doodling, and the title. There's also a Tony Carey record titled "Tony Carey, which is a reddishly re-colored photography of him.

Others I found great are The Animals, "House of the rising sun"; CCR, "Bad Moon Rising"; Billy Joel, "Leningrad"; Kevin Johnson, "Rock&Roll, I gave you the best years of my life"

 

[Matthew]

Tim Curry's reggae remake of "I Will,"

That sounds like a trip - you haven't lived until you've heard Alison Krauss sing that - heaven on earth.

I just can't listen to much by her, though, because every phrase has to have the double and triple mordent, double and triple appogiatura, double and triple and quadruple escape tone, plus the Whitney-trademark "octave portamento."

LOL - it's like an ice-skating championship.

Guilty pleasures:
Mariah Carey - I Can't Live (If Living Is Without You)

My guiltiest pleasure of all time (yes it's a cover): Mariah and Luther singing Endless Love (Diana Ross/Lionel Richie). :07:

Luther had a knack of making you forget the song ever belonged to someone else.

There you go! Even Dionne said his A House is Not a Home was "the definitive version."

And of course I have to give it up for Aretha singing Elton John's Border Song.

 

[32349]

I like Big Brother and the Holding Companies cover of Summertime, Muse's version of Feeling Good, and pretty much anything by me first and the gimmee gimmees

 

[Wonderboy]

I Put A Spell On You

But, the numero uno:

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

 

[DC_DEEP]

I'm generally a fan of the minimalist covers. For example, the cover of the Dire Straits concert copy "On The Night". It just shows an illuminated satellite dish, upturned, and the title. Or the Steppenwolf "At your birthday party" cover, with the ink doodling, and the title. There's also a Tony Carey record titled "Tony Carey, which is a reddishly re-colored photography of him.

Others I found great are The Animals, "House of the rising sun"; CCR, "Bad Moon Rising"; Billy Joel, "Leningrad"; Kevin Johnson, "Rock&Roll, I gave you the best years of my life"

Claire, love, this is not the packaging we're talking about here... a "cover" is when one artist does music previously released by another artist. For instance, Barry Manilow singing "Smoke on the Water" is a cover.

 

[Wonderboy]

Yeah, I was gonna say John Fogherty wrote Bad Moon Rising and most other CCR songs himself...

 

[zaphod]

Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat, and entire album of Leonard Cohen covers. If you are a leonard Cohend fan, it is a must have CD.

 

[lellelind]

I'd like to add 'I drove all night', originally by Roy Orbison, covered by Cyndi Lauper. There is also a cover by Celine Dion. I can't choose between the three verions, I love them all.

 

[BarebackJack]

... and of course the Sex Pistols cover of My Way is a classic!

Ah, but have you heard Nina Hagen's "My Way"?

Also, the Tourists' cover of "I Only Want To Be With You" is pretty darned good. The Tourists was the band that Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were in before they became the Eurythmics.

re: "Smoke On The Water"... look for the Señor Coconut remake. It's tits! (Señor Coconut did some great latin-style remakes of "Smooth Operator", "Riders On the Storm", and a number of Kraftwerk pieces incl. Trans-Europe Express, Computer World, Tour de France, etc.)

re: Barry Manilow... howabout Abigail's remake of Donna Summer's remake of "Could It Be Magic?"

Christina's cover of "Drive My Car" is sexy, too.

 

[that_other_guy]

I'd like to add 'I drove all night', originally by Roy Orbison, covered by Cyndi Lauper. There is also a cover by Celine Dion. I can't choose between the three verions, I love them all.

I like Cyndi's version of that song personally ... but then again I love 80s Kitsch

 

[SurferGirlCA]

That sounds like a trip - you haven't lived until you've heard Alison Krauss sing that - heaven on earth.

Oooooh, good taste Matthew! Her cover of "Baby, Now That I've Found You" is also amazing.

I also just heard a cover of that old song "Walk Away Renee" by Linda Ronstadt and a female Cajun singer that really moved me.

 

[kinkymanca]

"Ring of Fire" Johnny Cash/Social Distortion
"Fire" Jimi Hendrix/Concrete Blonde/Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Suspect Device" Stiff Little Fingers/Naked Raygun

That's all I can think of now. MZ, I also love FNM's "Easy" and "Let's Lynch the Landlord" (Dead Kennedys)

Mecurial, you have awesome taste in music, will you marry me?

OMG, I am in awe that anybody would mention SLF. yes, that is an awesome song.

and "Fire" , that was the soundtrack for the summer I turned 18. I had a crappy car, and no girl, but I did have RHCP on the stereo (OK, it was mono in my POS ride).



as for covers, there are actually two cover bands that I just love. one is Me First and the Gimme Gimmies. the members are a conglomerate of some other punk/power pop bands. each of the albums (CDs) is a theme: showtunes, 70s rock, 50s pop, etc. all done in a fun, punky way.
the other is Richard Cheese and Lounge against the machine. all fo thier stuff is just common, modern, popular music. but it is all done in lounge act fashion. not only is it done well, they put on a great live show.

-Kinkyman

 

[rawbone8]

some oldies:


Real Wild Child (Wild One) – Iggy Pop orig. Owens-Greenan-O’Keefe

Respect - Aretha Franklin orig. Otis Redding

Take Me To The River - Talking Heads orig. Al Green

Gloria - Patti Smith

Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies orig. Velvet Underground

One - Johnny Cash orig. U2

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley orig. Leonard Cohen

Amazing Grace - Blind Boys of Alabama – Traditional

Return Of The Grievous Angel - Lucinda Williams orig. Gram Parsons

The Weight - The Staples orig. The Band

Nothing Compares 2U - Sinead O'Connor orig. Prince

I Feel For You - Chaka Khan orig. Prince

Kiss - Tom Jones orig. Prince

 

[Rikter8]

Flannel covers, with a big cushy pillow that's supportive.

 

[Wonderboy]

I prefer to hear Prince sing Nothing Compares 2 U...Sinead's voice kinda goes through me. I <3 Prince and his lyrical expertise. And his voice...

Carry on hehe.

 

[B_Hickboy]

Ben Harper - Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye)

 

[madame_zora]

Flannel covers, with a big cushy pillow that's supportive.

Someone had to do it. :biggrin1:

 

[Andresito]

Every cover made by god of rock Marilyn Manson, from "Down in the park" (Gary Numan) to "Personal Jesus" (Depeche Mode)

And:

"The Man Who Sold the World" (David Bowie / Nirvana)

"The Phantom of the Opera" (Lacrimosa / Nightwish)

"Hurt" (NIN / J. Cash)

"Turn the page" (Bob Seger / Metallica)

If you want a funny cover:

"Oops... I did it again" (Britney Spears / Children of Bodom)

 

[faceking]

So many. . .
"Proud Mary" (Creedence Clearwater Revival/Ike and Tina Turner)
"Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and the Shondells/Joan Jett and the Blackhearts)
"Mony Mony" (Tommy James and the Shondells/Billy Idol)
"Hooked On A Feeling" (BJ Thomas/Blue Swede)
"Twist and Shout" (The Isley Brothers/The Beatles, The Mamas & The Papas)
"Blowing In The Wind" (Bob Dylan/Peter, Paul and Mary)
"Red Red Wine" (Neil Diamond/UB40)
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (The Arrows/Joan Jett and the Blackhearts)
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" (John Denver/Peter, Paul and Mary)
"Demolition Man" (The Police/Grace Jones)
"Daydream Believer" (The Monkees/Ann Murray)
"Walking In Memphis" (Marc Cohn/Cher)
"I Got You Babe" (Sonny and Cher/ Chrissy Hynde and UB40)
"I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" (Elvis Presley/Corey Hart)
"Over The Rainbow" (Judy Garland/Patti LaBelle)

. . .to name a few!

sorry.. half of those just were not good covers, for various reason, including (but not limited to) uninventiveness (see Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along...)

in fact, when someone does cover that is so riveting/groundbreaking/whatever... that the original performing artist changes THEIR OWN version to match that of the covering artist.... that' s DUE PROPS.


Hendrix re-tooling Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower
The Byrds " " " Mr Tambourine Man

Personally, covers I enjoy Chris Isaak doing Blood Sweat & Tears Spinning Wheel - Live at Caeser's Tahoe (boot). Elvis did it well too.
Jane's Addiction doing the Dead's Ripple
Zep doing Willie Dixon's You Shook Me (a whole nother thread on rock covering blues)
Alien Ant Farm covering MJ's Smooth Criminal.............. very addicting. very inventive.
Johnny Cash's cover album was mostly unamusing and unoriginal... but felt the lyrical style of Chris Cornell felt more genuine in his cover of ... Rusty Chain.

FRANK ZAPPA.... from You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (and there's a few Zappa covers I can pull out.... but...) doing Stairway to Heaven half-way silly half-way serious. What I enjoy is his horn arrangement on a Top 10 or Top 5 guitar solo (#1 in many minds).

George Benson doing Airplane's White Rabbit. Yum.

The greatest classical cover I've ever heard in my life is John Williams (JOHN WILLIAMS the Austrailian classical guitarist not the movie soundtrack guru from England) doing McCartney's (it's Paul's not the Paul & John's) Fool On The Hill.

Cairo Symphony (another boot) doing Led Zeppelin's Kashmir... (validation either the power of rock, or the validity of Page's songwriting ability).

Bowie covers... hmmmmm.... doing Bruce's Growin' Up was nice, but too uninventive for Bowie. Let's Spend the Night Together... energy, but again uninventive...

Bauhaus doing Bowie... uninventive, but such a perfect evoutionary compliment when they dig Ziggy.

Rod Stewart doing Danny Whitten's .... I Dont' Want to Talk About It.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and how can I forget... well near the end of his career, .... Miles Davis' covering Human Nature... so light, refreshing, to see Miles' get the song, and not go deep on it, but take the delicate beauty of how well that song was written.. and "Miles" it delicately (which is all Miles needed to do). Just to be clear, MJ didn't write that song, amazing that Steve Porcaro of Toto (Rosanna, Africa fame, ... and seminal LA session man) co-wrote that song with another session guru. George Howard's version is greeeeeeeeeat... then Miles laid it down. Tupac sampled, Teddy Riley (early 90s peeps hear me on that), it goes on... always refreshing to find someone who lauds that cover.

Radiohed doing Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better... Thom Yorke doing that ... I still shake me head, but he does it with so much..... Thom (again a boot, but highly circulated)

The Byrds (live at the Fillmore) doing Buck Owen's "Buckaroo"

and I'll turn that around and The Beatles doing Buck's Act Naturally.

And while I'm in Bakersfield, California from Dwight Yoakam's cover album... Dwight (who is refreshingly genuine, given the crap in country these days) doing The Clash's "Train In Vain".

Elvis doing CC Rider (insert live location ______ here)

Sly Stone doing Curtis Mayfield's Everyday People. Sly ... we miss you. Come back. Speaking of, some more "this and that"...

Speaking of... Sly & Robbie doing The Police's Walking on the Moon. It's the master doing a cover of the student's number that was learned from the master. From a god awful tribute album.

Van Halen with Diamond Dave doing Dancing in the Streets... a crime, though I'd of been interested to see them try that in '78 vs '82. Van Halen doing Ray Davies'/The Kinks You Really Got Me taking an already charged up song, and stratosphering it. Interesting such an original style of the early Van Halen, grew up as a cover band....

I always appreciated the Clown Prince of Rock .. Joe Walsh (who doesn't remember his faux presidential run in '80) taking a stab at the elegant Vince Guaraldi's Cast Your Fate to the Wind.

Perry Farrell and Ice-T doing a stand-off on Sly's "DON'T CALL ME NIGGER, WHITEY".

the Black Crowes doing Derek & the Dominoes "Got To Get Better In A Little While". you better goddamn well know what you are doing when you cover Clapton, especially D&tD-era Clapton

Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels doing Merle Haggard's "California Cottonfields"... a "rock country" outfit taking a honky tonk number and doing it Grand Ole Op'ry style.

Grace Jones ... Send In the Clowns... lordy. I've lost it.

No.. any Tom Jones pop cover ....sucks azzz....








As the resident music specialist (I will go on record in self-proclaiming I'm an expert music guru and expert ejaculator).

cover enthusiasts might enjoy the following: http://www.cover-vs-original.com/ , so-so coverage ... more fun vs thorough.

 

[that_other_guy]

Someone had to do it. :biggrin1:

... I did it first ... but whose counting

wow I like alot of covers (maybe I'm cold )

:biggrin1: