Cover Songs: Miscellaneous Categories
Most Improved
Some songs just weren’t that good in the original version, but the covers are great. This basically leaves out all the Beatles covers; it’s hard to beat those (pun not really intended, but left in anyway). However, some artists just aren’t my type as singers, even when they’re great songwriters (yes, Bob Dylan, this means you).
A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall - Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (Bob Dylan) All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix (Bob Dylan) Always Something There To Remind Me - Naked Eyes (Sandie Shaw) Downtown Train - anyone (Tom Waits) Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet (The Troggs) Mahna Mahna - The Muppets (Piero Umiliani) Space Oddity - Natalie Merchant (David Bowie)
Lesser-Known Originals
Some songs often aren’t thought of as covers, because the original sank without a trace or otherwise fell into obscurity. Some examples:
Blinded By The Light - Manfred Mann (Bruce Springsteen) Family Man - Hall & Oates (Mike Oldfield) I Fought The Law - The Clash (The Crickets) Mahna Mahna - The Muppets (Piero Umiliani) Tainted Love - Soft Cell (Gloria Jones)
I’d also like to give a special award, “Most Varied Covers“, to one song:
Can’t Help Falling In Love Corey Hart / Erasure / UB40 (Elvis Presley)
Three versions of the same song, each one very clearly done by an artist in their own style. Corey Hart’s is a quieter, elegiac take on the song, reminiscent of “Never Surrender”; Erasure goes for the full-throttle synth-pop approach; UB40 brings their reggae sound to the fore. The song sounds different each time, but is still recognizably the same song as the original.
December 16th, 2004 at 07:04
Two comments:
All Along The Watchtower was covered both by Jimi Hendrix (with his incredible screaming guitar) but also by U2. The U2 version benefits from The Edge on guitar and Bono on vocals. Jimi’s vocals were not his strong point.
U2’s version also updates the lyrics slightly to the point of political correctness: “While horsemen came and went, barefoot servants too” instead of “While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too”. I guess horsemen are more acceptable than women.
Layla by Eric Clapton, is probably the most unusual in terms of a song that was covered by the original singer, and yet ended up sounding like a completely different song.
December 16th, 2004 at 14:15
Can’t Help Falling In Love by Lick The Tins (from the Some Kind Of Wonderful soundtrack) is the best cover I’ve heard of that song.
And you have to hear “Lime In The Coconut” by the Muppets. Fabulous.
December 16th, 2004 at 22:50
As a cantankerous old fard, I should like to register displeasure at the suggestion that The Crickets version of I Fought The Law was obscure. I knew that song by heart when The Clash were still in grade school.
MKK– harrumph, harrumph
December 17th, 2004 at 11:38
I have a copy of “I Fought the Law” by the Bobby Fuller Four (whoever they were). I thought that was the original…
Speaking of obscure covers, what about “Louie, Louie”? Everyone knows the Kingsmen’s version (largely because of imagined dirty lyrics, I suspect), but few remember Richard Berry & the Pharoahs.