The Best and Worst Covers in Music. -

[PvtRichardCranium]

What are your favorites? What do you think absolutely destroyed the original song?

One of my favorite, mostly because it's so surprising that it's good:

Any time Sodom does a cover it's probably going to be good. It was either this or the recent Ace of Spades off of their newer album, and I think that this one breaks the mold.

Another good one:

I'm not really sure if this one counts because it's live but... fuck.

One of the worst:

You know, I was actually kind of excited about getting that video game (Homefront) because it looked so stupid it would be awesome. Then I heard this. Then I heard the shitty Black Sabbath cover. Then I heard the shitty CCR cover. I can't find the Slayer cover, and even though that one pisses me off the most, this one is arguably even worse. It's nothing but constant whining and bitching and bawwing. I can't fucking stand it. Every time I see someone wearing a Periphery T-shirt I just want to punch them in the dick. I don't even like Metallica that much either! THIS COVER IS JUST THAT SHITTY!

I understand that this music isn't heard very often in the game, but buying it would support these posers, and I just can't deal with that shit.

 

[CatParty]

best cover:

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

Tarja Turunen (the former lead singer of Nightwish) has an amazing vocal range, but unfortunately it did her little good when she made a god-awful cover of Alice Cooper's "Poison."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdSI6CR96o

 

[The Dude]

Best covers IMO come from the Ramones. Check out R.A.M.O.N.E.S (originally a Motorhead song) I Don't Want to Grow Up (originally Tom Waits) and Palisades Park.

 

[Picklepower]

For me the best would be,
Rammstein's cover of The Model by KraftWerk
Type O Negative's cover of Highway Star by Deep Purple
Megadeth's cover of No More Mister Nice Guy by Alice Cooper

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

For me the best would be,
Rammstein's cover of The Model by KraftWerk

Oh, man, I haven't listened to that one in years. I think I'm going to have to go YouTube that now. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[CatParty]

type o's cover of "cinnamon girl" is also superior to the original

 

[Fibonacci]

Whilst Pearl Jam's cover of Love, Reign O'er Me isn't superior to The Who's original, I think they stayed relatively true to the song and brought a lot of power to it without trying to fix something that wasn't broken, so I consider it a very good cover song:

By contrast, I found Limp Bizkit's cover of Behind Blue Eyes to be one of the absolute worst cover songs. It's one thing to bring your own style to a song, it's another to try to expand on the original as if to say "I MADE IT EVEN BETTER". If they hadn't added their own stupid lyrics, I would have more respect for it. But as it stands, I'm offended by this cover:

 

[Picklepower]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve2FjeuJ ... r_embedded LOL Miley Cyrus apparently covered Smells Like Teen Spirit.

 

[Very Honest Content]

I'm sorry genital dickhead, but any discussion of this topic that doesn't include this;

as an example of the best, is simply wrong.

As tempted as I am to make this CWC related with the worst nomination and go with a Brittany Spears cover that sucks even more than her normal output, I personally am offended enough to go with this;

instead. Fucking horrible. Just horrible. I even saw the movie it's off the soundtrack of in theaters with my least favorite sweetbolt ever, so extra points there.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

^ Anything Sheryl does sucks. She's typical boring white mid age women music.

I prefer Hole's cover of "Gold Dust Woman" to the Fleetwood Mac original.

 

[Picklepower]

type o's cover of "cinnamon girl" is also superior to the original

I didn't even know that was a cover. I'm not that huge of a Disturbed fan, but I really loved their cover of, Land of Confusion. I like Marilyn Manson's Personal Jesus cover a lot.

 

[The Hunter]

Best covers, I guess:

Can't think of any particular bad ones right now.

 

[Shadow Fox]

Whatever your feelings on the original, I think we can all agree that Madonna's cover of "American Pie" was terrible.

 

[hellbound]

Once in a while I'll hide my shame and listen to a Disturbed track or two. But frankly, their cover of Genesis' Land of Confusion is downright awful.

It doesn't add ANYTHING. There are no stylistic changes, just Dave Draiman's vagina-repellent nu-metal growl instead of Phil Collins' dulcet tones.

On the other hand I will absolutely agree with VHC's vote for Hendrix's version of Watchtower. Dylan's version wasn't terrible, just standard Dylan fare. Hendrix takes the song and lovingly turns it into one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

In another example of a Dylan song being made perfect by somebody else, he recorded a song called "Rock Me Mamma" as almost a throwaway sketch found on a bootleg recorded in 1973.

A Nashville band called Old Crow Medicine Show came along 30 years later and took the melody and chorus and transformed it into a partly-autobiographical song about a man hitchhiking down the coast to Raleigh, aching to see his beloved. When I was driving my girlfriend to Louisiana to drop her off for a year in a volunteer program, we listened to this a lot. Sometimes, when I miss her a lot, and I hear this song, it honestly makes me cry a bit. It's probably OCMS' signature song too.

But then in 2012, Darius Rucker (formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish) got a hold of it and turned it into a perfect heavily-produced Nashville country song. It doesn't have the raw emotionality, passion, and earnestness of OCMS' version to me, but it honestly technically sounds much better, as you might expect from a longtime big-name artist. I don't even usually like country, but it really is very good.

It's also been covered by a lot of others, including Mumford & Sons, but again, they don't really add anything, just take the song and ram it straight into their personal style, and it doesn't work as well.

 

[bradsternum]

I love this cover. It's a different take - angry rather than introspective/somber.

 

[Rio]

I would have liked to see Maynard do a version that's a little more different from the original, since originality in sound is one of the things that makes him so great, but for what it is, it is a wonderful cover.

Then there's

this one which definitely isn't for everyone, but I find it really good. In a lot of ways it feels like John Lennon's vision from a whole different perspective, namely that John Lennon's dreams that he describes in the song could never come true, while John Lennon's sound made it a happier more optimistic song. Without changing the lyrics at all, they've managed to completely shift the tone of the song into something rather sad but ultimately realistic.

 

[PvtRichardCranium]

Fuck. Amon Amarth had an entire slew of covers I'd never heard. And they're good... so good.
Prepare for the heaviest of metals:

Spoiler

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[youtube]Jy_6Z7tto2k[/youtube]

Behold, for I bring tidings of great PAIN and SUFFERING:
[youtube]XWNJJlW6rvE[/youtube]

 

[Strewth]

The Dillinger Escape Plan's cover of 'Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin has always been a fave of mine.

I also consider William Shatner's cover of Pulp's 'Common People' vastly superior to the original.

On the bad side, Machinehead's cover of 'Battery'. Didn't add anything to the original, so why bother?

 

[Picklepower]

Pretty cool cover of Amadeus. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXGJX21GAI